Swapped to British Gas on 16/6/2011 - Can I cancel now?

fannyvart

Awesome dude. I'd keep an eye on that final bill of yours just in case they try it anyway!

silvercar

My BG email states:

If you wish to end your gas and/or electricity supply contract before these changes apply to you, please contact us on 0800 316 5664 by 18 August 2011. Lines are open 8am-6pm Monday to Friday. You must arrange alternative supply and pay all outstanding balances.

Impartial information about changing your energy supply is available from Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06 or at https://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk.

If you have outstanding charges on your account we usually ask you to clear your bill before allowing you to move to another supplier. If this happens, your existing terms and conditions (and prices) will be applied for 30 working days from the date we told you that we will prevent the transfer. Once you pay the outstanding balance, your new supplier can re-apply to take over your supply.

So does the bolded bit mean, that deliberately being in arrears means that you can keep the old tarrif for an extra 30 days? If so, isn't it in everyone's interest to do just that?

backfoot

If you want to get rid of the troll's posts, Ian and Fannyvart could delete their posts which contain his abuse.

mirrorimage0

so have just come off the phone and went through all what im paying etc and im on the best tariff they can offer me for them, so will just wait and see what the other companies increase by but looking at the moment i will be no better off by moving.
however BG did say if i was still with them in a yrs time they will credit my account by £100 so thats something to take into consideration i suppose

will_bankfield

Was on BG Websaver 11, entered my details into USwitch and found EDF Fixed S@ver v2 Duel Fuel could save me £130 per year - switched through Quidco and got £20 cashback.

BG can try to get their £60 canx fee but I will argue this armed with the info from above posts plus a little 'insider tip'........

.......I used to work for Scot Power and we were told that as soon as anyone mentions Ofgem or Ombudsmen then do anything we can to appease cust because if cust asks either to investigate, this costs the company approx £250 - even if cust has nothing to investigate and just fancies a chat in the phone;)

Will let you know how I get on....

backfoot

Devils-Advocate wrote: »

Sorry but you are talking nonsense. They WILL enforce the cancellation charge.

Devils-Advocate wrote: »

They don't need to threaten you with exit fees. If it's a part of your contract (i.e in the t&c's), the exit fee will be automatically applied.

You may not want to pay the exit fees, but if YOU chose to sign up to that tariff, then quite rightly, YOU should be paying (and will be) those fees.

You can't just have your cake and eat it.

Devils-Advocate wrote: »

You can try and be as clever as you like. It WILL be applied. Realism

Sorry, but couldn't resist a minor gloat.

Luckily, our expert advisor sems to have moved along. Adieu.:rotfl:

will_bankfield

Hello - Just and update.

I have had it confirmed by British Gas that the canx fee will be waived in full and I will not be charged an exit fee.

After informing them via email that I had canx my DD they emailed me a templated reply back that was riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, obviously from overseas.

I replied to say that I was not happy with a template reply and do not want to be charged a canx fee as I felt it was an unfair addition as I had just tied myself to them.

Received another templated reply similar to the previous one offering me £150 if I was still a customer after 6 months.

Called up and spoke to a UK operator and explained that I have not had my queries resolved to my satisfaction, referenced the emails and the language barrier, complained that I had just tied myself to BG after a long period as a standard customer free to leave at anytime only to have my prices increased and I felt it was a material breach of our contract.

I asked for the advisor to consider my unhappiness and remove the cancellation free so I am free to leave with no financial penalty for a cheaper, fixed deal with another supplier.

Fair play to the advisor he took my concerns on board, apologised for the language barrier and assured me my comments would be fed back and removed the canx fee.

Jobs a Good Un'.

mbailey

mbailey wrote: »

Just off the phone with British Gas and they have confirmed I can leave and no mention of any charges!

I specifically asked would I be charged any fines or cancellation fees and was told No!

The operator just kept saying sorry the prices had to go up.

Just following up on this thread and I have now left British Gas and paid NO exit charge! They did try it on last month and added the exit charge to my bill, but a quick email to them and they confirmed that a note on my account from July had been added to confirm no exit charge would be applied, so they removed the charge from my account.