British Gas Nightmare - Help me please!

lhughes

Hi Please can somebody help me?

I have a few issues with British Gas - I am a duel fuel customer having recently joined them after purchasing my first home 6 months ago. (2 bed terraced)

My bill for Dec, Jan, Feb was £307 for gas! Is this normal? It was an accurate reading both ends, I just cant understand why its that high for a small house? I work full time so radiators are on one hour in the morning and 3-4 hours at night, about 20degrees on the thermostat.

Secondly, I called them to ask to pay monthly as I cannot afford my bill in one go, they put me on DD £70 a month gas and £20 a month Elect while i was on the phone. They said the first payment would come out in March, I said they can take out a payment in Feb to clear it quicker. Next thing i know i get a letter from them saying the DDs totally £90 had failed as 'no instruction'. The bank advised me that they had not had the instruction to take money from me bank yet, so I went online to BG website and made £70 and £20 payments onto my gas and elec account by debit card to cover the failed payments for Feb.

Next thing I know, 7 days later they take another £90 out my account by DD! The £20 DD went through, but the £70 bounced (I only have enough money in my DD account to cover my DDs!) So i got bank charges for that bounce.
I called BG and after 65 mins, they told me that they had presumed that I had made the manual payments to 'clear my account quicker' and that they automatically call for unpaid DDs again within 14 days! I asked them why when I had paid though? They said as my accounts were in debit they would call for my DDs again! I was quite annoyed and they refused to re-imburse me the £20 extra I had paid, nor would they stop the DD for March as I had paid twice in Feb. They assured me that the £70 gas payment i had made manually was allocated to the DD though for Feb.
I have just logged online banking and they have collected the £70 and £20 DD for March payment, fair enough, but also another £70!!
This is now £90 extra over 2 months they have taken from me, which is a lot of money to me as my money is very tight!
I need to waste my credit ringing them again tomorrow buti bet they wont give me my £70 extra back they have taken this month!
As far as i am concerned, i owe them £90 a month for duel fuel, they have had £90 a month, and now have another £20 last month and another £70 this month!
Can anybody give me some advice? What with all this plus bank charges im very stressed and quite upset!

Please please help me x

jd87

Hi, some lessons for you to learn here:

1. Gas and Electricity is expensive, get used to it. £307 is perfectly reasonable for one of the coldest quarters on record.

2. If a company tries to take a direct debit and it fails for any reason, they will always try to take it again a few days later.

3. Always communicate with companies and follow their usual procedures if you want to avoid hassle. What made you think making an extra payment was a good idea?

gaz0987

i cant help but i know exactly how your feeling as i am in a very similar situation. it is very frustrating when you can never get answers.

SwanJon

The DD will always be separate from any extra payments you make - the system will see them separately until reassessment.

If any company takes a DD from you that they have not informed you about (amount/date) then you can tell your bank to reverse it under the DD guarantee. This will be quicker than approaching the company, but if they payment would remain due.

It's worth sticking with the DD if you can as the discount is worthwhile. Make sure you give them regular readings to ensure you are (only) paying for what you are using.

grahamc2003

I think the whole key to your problem has already been explained - the £90 dd payments are totally separate from anything else. They'll collect - or at least try to collect - £90 every month whatever. You have paid a voluntary £90 outside the dd mandate - that was your choice, and that's where the £90 'anomoly' comes from.

Best, if you can, to do nothing more - don't ring them, just let things pan out. They'll continue to take £90 by dd (make sure the money's in the account to pay it!) and no more. If you do ring them trying to explain your view on the 'extra' £90 paid, I feel you'll just cause even more confusion and probably lose out further. Don't cancel any DDs, or request a cancellation and repayment of a dd from your bank (which you have the right to do). I expect doing so would again cause more confusion and probably cost to yourself and the loss of your dd discount. They don't like it if you are in debt to them (which you are) and they keep getting failed DD requests from a dd you have agreed to (even if you have made ad hoc payments). You could end up with a pre payment meter and end up paying a high rate for your energy. I realise money's tight these days, and you'd prefer to have the extra £90 you paid in your own pocket, but I don't think that will happen (it could if you were in credit with them, but you're not!).

t0rt0ise

jd87 wrote: »

Always communicate with companies and follow their usual procedures if you want to avoid hassle. What made you think making an extra payment was a good idea?

The OP explained why he thought it was a good idea. Did you not read it or did you just think this was a good time to have an easy pop at someone?

Your whole post is unnecessarily nasty.