British Gas Business - Residential Help

luckyj_2

Hello, when we moved into our property a couple of months ago we discovered that we were on british gas business for our electricity, we tried to change over to residential and thought nothing else of it after having a chat with them, weve just recieved our latest bill (£200 two months) under the heading British Gas Business, is there anything we can do? we are happy to pay at residential rates but not business. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance, Josh.

insanegloss

You will need to speak to BGB who will transfer the call to Residential to go through the contract to perform the transfer. This is to ensure the accounts are marked as leaving to go to BGR, without any issues such as rejection due to outstanding debt (as BGR and BGB are effectively different companies in the eyes of the industry, and as such will be subject to the normal transfer timescales of around 6-8 weeks).

I hope that helps.

luckyj_2

Thanks, we thought we had been changed over last time, do you envisage that we will be able to pay residential rates? is it legal for them to have kept us on business?

insanegloss

Well, when you move in somewhere you are on a deemed contract with whoever the supplier might be, so from that perspective, yes it is legal. However, I would speak to them very nicely and explain your situation clearly and firmly state what you are after, they may very well adjust the bills for you (but be polite, agents on the whole do genuinely want to help and will go out of their way if you are honest and well mannered)

Joyful

The last time I dealt with this situation for a customer BG business had to send a form out for them to sign to show that the property was now residential rather than business. Once done the account was rebilled under the residential tariff by the residential side.

forestlands

Be vary careful with British Gas, follow up any phone calls with written confirmation as to what was said and agreed, keep a note of phone calls.

Beginning of July my son wanted to change electric supplier - from EDF. Comparison site was used to switch electric, gas was already already supplying so was a single transfer. Found gas and electric was still in my name, hadn't lived in the house for 14 years, contacted British Gas and explained the situation and requested transfer, was transfered to their home movers dept., sent covering email and my sons partner phoned with details and meter reading. Had to set up a DD for electric in my name, when using comparison web site to transfer, then contact British Gas and cancel DD. Simple transaction completed - I thought!

British Gas still opened new accounts in my name and set up DDs for gas and electric. Contacted British Gas and was told I had done a transfer of gas via a comparison web site, which I hadn't, that is why they set up an account. Must have taken the details from the electric and used that!

British Gas got debt collectors contacting me and sent emails, and a letter stating I had not been paying the DD and had money outstanding! Debt collectors were texting, phoning and emailing 4 -5 times a day. A letter from the debt collectors stated I owe £24.04 plus £5 to British Gas as they had to call in debt collectors to get their money. 3 times I phoned and emailed British Gas each time it seemed things had got sorted - it hadn't, so pleased I kept the emails supporting my phone calls.

Went through the complaints procedure, now on to the Ombudsman!
My sons partner phoned and confirmed she had been receiving bills in her name and paying them, since the change over, also sent in meter readings to.

Most annoying, British Gas would not believe what I said to them, they only had one email from me on their records and no phone calls - I had a long list of emails many supporting phone calls. Harrasment from debt collectors, for nearly 5 months, was horrid and stressful! Last person I spoke to was so accusing and unplessant, felt British Gas did not want to be seen to have made a right c!!k up and tried to pass the blame onto me!:mad: Every attempt was made to clarify the situation failed - it wasn't rocket science, just a matter of changing names of account holders. My son and his partner had been paying the bills for 14 years.

Please be careful and ensure every detail is put in writing and you get conformation from British Gas for everything. I had one nice gentleman from British Gas who was very kind, he looked into the account in September and confirmed to me transfer had been done, sent me a confirmation email. British Gas had no knowledge of this email - but I kept it!

I am aware that there is at least one person, on this thread, who works for British Gas. Hope you read what I wrote, may be nothing to do with you personally, some people at British Gas need organizing and bridging skills included in training.