£60 cancellation charges with British Gas

Crazydaisy_3

iIwonder if you could help shed some light on a prolem my mum is having with British Gas. She decided to cancel both her gas and electric with British gas only after a month as she was informed she could get cheaper gas from a different supplier. Everything seemed to be going ok until this morning when she recieved a final bill from British gas for her gas supply. They have charged her thirty pounds to cancel her gas supply with them, they say it is something to do with a price promise they gave her when she joined. This was not stated to her from the representative who called at her door, when he was canvassing. She has also been told that she will be charged another fifteen pounds cancellation charge for cancelling her electric. My mum is a full time carer for my dad and they live off benefits. She called British Gas this morning who basically have told her they they are in the right to charge her these charges on top of her final bill and that they sent the details out to her about the charges in the post. My mum does not recall ever seeing a letter with this stated, she told them that and explained that she lives on benefits and can not afford to pay the extreme charges. They basically turned around and told her that they had the right to do it and she has to pay.
I am extremely concerened about this, it is making mum ill and she cant afford to pay it. Is there any advice you can give me to help her out?:money:

roger56

Hello and congratulations on your first post.

Firstly, collect together everything your Mum has about her British Gas contract, especially any confirmation letters / forms the canvassing representative left.

Can you tell us exactly which gas/elec product your Mum signed up to?
If it was fix and fall then there are no cancellation charges and no tie ins, see here:
http://www.house.co.uk/cgi-bin/house//house/general/editorial.jsp?BV_SessionID=HHHH0533026036.1163235403HHHH&BV_EngineID=cccdaddjgekdddgcefecfngdfhidfmh.0&channelId=-1610622277&_txtName=detail_fixandfall_page&_txtBack=true&intCCNumber=00&strBubbleHelpKey=null&strSelName=1073775812


Also does your Mum have a copy of the full terms and conditions for the gas/elec product she signed up to, perhaps with the letter? Read these carefully and see if there is a clause stating minimum contract term, any ties ins, any penalties with associated early cancellation. If there is then it's probably best to remain with British Gas for the minimum term.
You may (I stress may) have a case for mis-selling, but that needs a lot more information and can take time and effort.

Lastly, checkout Ebico for gas/elec supply, either for transfer now or perhaps at the end of any minimum contract term if applicable. They are a fair trade not for profit gas/elec supplier and are consistently one of the cheapest and have just one tarrif for gas and one for electricity - so easy. I will only use them and always recommend them to friends. They also get good recommendations on this site - try a search on "Ebico"
Ebico can be found here:

http://www.ebico.co.uk/en/open/pages/indexen.php

kickingkay

lol, im in exactly the same posistion, i agreed to consider them to get rid of the pushy door sales rep, i heard nothing from them for ages then al of a sudden they set a DD with my bank, for twice the amount of my previous supplier, now bearing in mind the stated to save me money on my original bills, by actually being cheaper then my previous (and now curreny) supplier so i cancelled immediatly i rang them repeatdly to find out where tehy got this figure form because apparently they are not aloud to do that out in such a high DD it needs to be agreed before hand it was never discussed, and because i couldnt stop it in time i had to cancell instead so i reang them they said fine no probs i get another letter a monthe later stating thankyou for joing us with another start date, when i rang them to say you will not be suppling my gas they stated you signed a contract oh yes we are!!!!
well my husband gave them a few sharp words about trying to threaten us yatter yatter, and this morning i get a bill for £72.00
£30 is charges for cancelling! and the rest is for usage well they have added 10 units to my usage my opening reading was 3000 my closing reading was 3010! they say i owe them for 41 units used open 3000 closing 3041! are they taking the mick or what i have tried ringing but they are closed!!!!
so im going to write to them my feeling s and annoyance by their service and i will enclose a cheque made payable to them for the units used plus vat only

im just wondering is that legal are can they still pursue me for cancellation charges??????, let me know how you get on and i will you good luck to your mum
many thanksklare

roger56

Can you post a link to the BG product you signed up to

BG website is here
http://www.house.co.uk/cgi-bin/house/house/products/listing.jsp?BV_SessionID=HHHH1896907774.1163236767HHHH&BV_EngineID=ccchaddjgejlfhgcefecfngdfhidfmn.0&channelId=-1610622277&sTopLevelChannel=&_strCatPathName=/products+and+services/gas,+electricity+and+more&thirdParty=tr&_strCatPathName=/products+and+services/gas,+electricity+and+more&thirdParty=tr

Once we know the actual product, hopefully a set of T+C's can be found on their web site.

kickingkay

hi i have registered online but i cannot access my bill however i know it was the joint saving for both utilities but my elec never went through due to still owing but i thought this would happen the rep told me not to worry tehn and that it prob wouldnt go through
i have just emailed their complaints dept


i have recently cancelled my agreement for your to supply my gas, when i agreed i was informed that you would be cheaper and offer me huge savings on my current supplier the first DD payment youset up was for double the amount i was previously paying to my previous supplier i tried to ring you on many occasions but i was always unsuccessful in getting through, so i cancelled this DD and notified you also of this cancellation, i supplied a closing reading and an explanation as to why this at the time was fine now you have sent me a bill stating a usage of 41 units the readings given where taht of open 3000
closing 3010 not 41 units if my maths serves me correct but 30, now on opening this account i did tell your rep/ canvessor i didnt think i would be able to commence with your selves due to having outstanding bills and i was only happy to have the joint saving on both supplies he stated not to worry and it probably wouldnt go through, well my electricity didnt so therefore the joint supply agreement was null n void, so i dont owe you any cancellation fee i will pay the usage when you have amended it correctly but i will not be paying any cancellation fee, if this is the tatics you use in to trying to keep sutomers by trapping them with cancellation fees i shall be notifying the OFT and BBC watchdog, i would have thought you had alreeady had enough bad publicity as it was it appears you are still acting underhand in your methods
your sincerly
jo blogs


http://www.house.co.uk/cgi-bin/house/house/products/productDetail.jsp?BV_SessionID=HHHH1896907774.1163236767HHHH&BV_EngineID=ccchaddjgejlfhgcefecfngdfhidfmn.0&_txtProdID=gas_electricity

Blondierowe

Tell your mum to contact energywatch and lodge a complaint. None of the energy companies like to get a complaint in this way and have to follow it through very thoroughly. My husband works for a different energy company and one of his colleagues had a complaint registered against him for mis-selling through energywatch. The company had to investigate and he was sacked and his energywatch badge took off him so he can't work in the industry again. I know cold calling is not looked on favourably on this site but not all the sales reps mis-sell in this way although it is a serious problem in the industry. Even if your mum did sign up for this price freeze product it should have been explained to her properly, she should have received a telephone call a few weeks later to check that everything is ok and she should have received paperwork in the post explaining what she had signed up to. My husband advises people to sign up to Ebico if they are having problems with the company he represents when he is cold calling and there is no reward for him doing this. Ebico is who we are with, we changed over to them about 15 months ago and we have had no problems at all.
Hope this helps.

tripled

The cancellation fee will be in the terms and conditions they sent your mum in the post and she would have been given a cancellation period as well, so if she didn't read them unfortunately it will be hard to contest unless she asked the sales rep and he specifically said there wasn't a cancellation fee.

The 'Price Promise' will be a fixed price offer, ie from when she signed her prices wouldn't go up for x many years, so if she was on price protection 2007 or 2010 she will probably be worse off having switched supplier.

All British Gas price fixed contracts have cancellation fees except their current one, fix and fall.

tripled

Edit: @kickingkay you probably won't be able to access your accounts until Moday - their callcentres are closed to 'carry out essential work on their billing systems', so house will be offline to.

Crazydaisy_3

Mum is on the price promise til 2010. Mum had a rep call to her door and he said they would be much cheaper but when the first bill came she realised they are not. They have billled her £97.00 for 39 days worth of electricity, she has never had a bill so high. Aparrently there is something written in the small print about cancellation charges. How vcan they get away with this? Mum has contacted energywatch who have basically told her that british gas have a right to do this.
BRITISH GAS . . . .YOU STINK!
Never ever ever will i recommend thnis company. their policies and procesures are off hand and are made to bully people into staying with them. Unfortunatley mum will not stay with them as she is too upset. So British Gas you can have your cancellation charges and stick it where the sun doesn't shine!

roger56

Do check the meter readings used to create the bill are sensible. Because
your mum has only just joined BG, their estimate may be on the high side, this may explain the higher bill.

If your Mum still wants to leave BG, then as I said in an earlier post, do look at Ebico (see link and other comments in my earlier post).


PS You are not alone:
http://www.energywatch.org.uk/media/news/show_release.asp?article_id=993

Cardew

Crazydaisy wrote:

Mum is on the price promise til 2010. Mum had a rep call to her door and he said they would be much cheaper but when the first bill came she realised they are not. They have billled her £97.00 for 39 days worth of electricity, she has never had a bill so high. Aparrently there is something written in the small print about cancellation charges. How vcan they get away with this? Mum has contacted energywatch who have basically told her that british gas have a right to do this.
BRITISH GAS . . . .YOU STINK!
Never ever ever will i recommend thnis company. their policies and procesures are off hand and are made to bully people into staying with them. Unfortunatley mum will not stay with them as she is too upset. So British Gas you can have your cancellation charges and stick it where the sun doesn't shine!

Why are you and your Mother upset with BG? They have done absolutely nothing wrong.

If your Mother was on BG fixed price to 2010 she would be 'crazy' to move from that tariff as nothing, but nothing, available now would be cheaper. So she has been conned by this 'rep' to leaving BG!

The conditions for the BG 2010 offer quite clearly stated that there would be a penalty for leaving early.

So you seem to be aiming your anger at the wrong firm. BG had your mother on the best tariff she could be possibly get. You should direct your anger at the person who persuaded her to move

Frankly this is yet another BG bashing thread that is a complete nonsense.

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