I think im being ripped off by British Gas

wigannwuk

To cut a long story short i have recently swapped from British Gas to a competitor....at the time a meter reader came round...My online Electricity bill upto that point wasnt significant..though i hadnt had it read since May10..( and to be honest i hadnt checked it over the summer) anyway i recieved my final bill for £269 which came as a shock.....also strangely my bill had been recalcualted over the 2 years ive been with them when the gas bill (which was what i thought it would be) is calculated over 3 months.
Ive rang them up and asked what i owed when they last took a reading (May 10) - £25.26 debit...i then asked how much have i spent on Electricity since then -£250 ( of which i paid £201 in direct debit) so by rights my bill should be £74.26.
I asked for the bill from the last reading in May and was told i cant have it as its deleted...
Ive put a complaint in but what happens if they still insist i owe them - Also in the last 2 years the meter was changed...how can i defend myself as i cant quantify it and even if i still had every bill they are basically gonna say they dont count as they have recalculated the bill....

Also any advice if and when i pay whatever amount can you pay it over any period or will they tell me??

Premier_2

(a) I don't believe they have destroyed billing records from just a couple of years ago

(b) As you suggest you still have the bills they sent - send them a copy of the appropriate one.

(c) they have to prove you owe the money. If they can't produce the appropraite records, they will find that most difficult, especially if you have copies of the records.

(d) If they've recalculated the bill, then they must have some records to do that. Usually they do this to ensure you are billed at the appropriate rate as to when you most likely used the supply.

(e) When they change a meter, they usually supply you with a card detailing the two meter readings on that date (replaced one and new one)
Anyway, as that was two years ago, your copies of your bills will reflect that too.

dogshome

Hi wigganwuk - So when you switched away from BG, they came up with a Final Bill that doesn't make sense ?

Whilst it's possible that earlier bills were issued on an 'estimated' basis, the Start reading you gave to the new supplier when they asked for it, should be the same as the End reading of BG's Final bill and in fact auto adjusts the BG account for any earlier Over or Under Estimated readings.

The statement from BG's Customer Service Desk that the records of a bill issued to you in May 10 have been destroyed, is utter CR*P - As apart from anything else the Inland Revenue reqiure them to kept for 7 years !

Don't bother with the phone or Emails - WRITE a letter headed Complaint