British gas cancellation fees, £30 per utility charged even when they said no.

pothole50

I am also with BG my tarifff was coming to an end, told them I was thinking of changing suppliers, they gave me £50 paid into my gas account six months later, for staying with them.

backfoot

madelaine76 wrote: »

HI,

Two very lengthy telephone discussions with BG today who would not refund the money as they said They had not been notified by my new supplier within 15 days of my initial call therefore I had to pay.

However I saw this on the Ofgem site - called them back and quoted it, and they refunded me straight away.

Avoiding termination fees (Exit fees)
Domestic suppliers are only permitted to charge a termination fee during a fixed term period of a fixed term contract. However, domestic suppliers may be prohibited from charging a termination fee during a fixed term period if they decide to make relevant variations. For the prohibition to apply and therefore for the customer to avoid the termination fee the customer must have notified their current supplier (orally or in writing) on or before the date of the relevant variation taking effect of their intention to switch supplier. The customer does not have to actually switch supplier or switch within a particular timeframe to avoid the termination fees. These rules are provided for in SLC 23 and Standard Condition 24 of the supply licence ....

That is a very important piece of information, which has only recently been added on the Ofgem site. It further clarifies another situation where Suppliers were hiding behind their own vindictive interpretation of the SLC's.

Thank you for bringing it to our attention. :T

bengasman

NEVER call an energy company with a dispute or complaint, and certainly not BG.
BG are renown for blatantly lying to customers and have been exposed publicly for doing so more times than I can remember.

ALWAYS do everything in writing (even email is 100% better than calling) where money or safety is involved. They can not deny what you have written proof of, whereas they will simply lie and cheat about anything that is not of benefit to them during phonecalls.

Be sure to insist when you email them that they send their response by paper letter.

If you do get an email from them, make sure it doesn't contain the standard cop out along the lines of: "this message is the opinion of the sender and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the company".
BG often use that trick so you can not use the email contents in court or with the ombudsman.

cdlnet

When I switched by BG to another utility, I spoke to BG cust serv to ensure I wouldn't be charged a cancellation fee - I had not been notified about a price hike on my websaver tariff, so I was entitled to cancel without penalty. The agent eventually agreed, and I insisted that he made a note of this on my file - this is important.
When my final bill arrived, it included a £30 cancellation fee. So I rang cust serv again, asked them to remove the fee in accordance with the note on my file. He found the note and immediately refunded the fee. He also took my payment to settle the corrected account, and posted a confirmation of zero balance. I was happy with this customer service - even though I would have been even happy if the 'mistake' hadn't occured.

soothyerboots

daviek61 wrote: »

As with all other posts , moved when BG announced price hikes. Confirmed that I could move via telephone without exit charges. Final bill came through with £30. Phoned them immediately and spoke to a very knowlegable operator who assured me that I did have to pay charge. He was chiding me as to where I coukld possibly have got yhe idea that no cancellation charges were due. Luckily I'm very bolshi and told him exactly where and quoted to him the date I had telephoned them to confirm. After speaking to his supervisor he confirmed that it was indeed true and that he had "learnt something"...they are scumbags...proceed with caution and don't be fobbed off !!

Calling people scumbags doesn't portray you in a very good light either to be honest. Grow up.