Need URGENT help please! Being charged way too much. BT won't help :(

Munkee2

I've called BG 7 times in the last 24 hours. 3 times I've been sut off (the line just goes silent), once the person didn't speak enough English to understand an English speaking person, once the guy I spoke to said he didn't understand how the charges work so couldn't help me, one gave me a load of figures and they don't add up and the last one I was getting nowhere with so I asked to speak to her supervisor and she said she was 'out and would call me back later'. Of those seven people, one said I have no debt on the meter (there isn't any as I've lived here 10 years) and the last person I spoke to said I am paying £14 a week to pay off debt. She didn't understand me when I said there WAS no debt to pay.

Also, they said I am using between 41 and 42 KWH of gas per week. People (here/friends & family) have been saying it's not possible to do that in a tiny 1 bed flat considering I have hardly had the heating on all winter because of the cost. They also say I shouldn't be on a standard tarriff yet ONE person at BG said there is a cheaper tarrif (I got cut off) then the next person I spoke to said there was NOT a cheaper tarriff. According to them I am paying £1.06 per KWH but if I'm using 41 units a week, that would cost £43.46. Where the hell do they get their figures from? Every time I phone them I get a different !!!!!!! story.

Having 'used' the £5 emergency credit yestersay which stretched to 20 mins heating and 2 inches of hot water in the bath before it ran cold), I topped up £20 today. It took the £5 back and said there was £14.61 remaining. Where has that 39p gone? There is no standing charge so it looks like I've been charged 39p for gas that was never there. The heating has been on now for 50 minutes and it's used £1.03. HOW?!

I'm in tears and have had enough of this madness. Where do I go from here?

sarahjayne1977

I say something is not right, I have a 3 bedroom semi 2 kids under 19 months so heating on a lot. Comes on at 7am till 10am then back on 1pm till 9pm and i pay 40 quid a month thoughout year and when i had last bill in nov i was in £170 credit.
I have new double glazing, cavity walls. Gas is used for cooker, fire and heating.

macman

You can't change tariff on a PPM-you pay the same rate as the supplier's Standard tariff. Your consumption is well below the average and the annual billing projection about right. Your peak winter usage may well be £88pm, but averaged out over the year it is about £52pm-or about £1.70 per day. That is not at all excessive.
Your figures are all over the place. 42kwh per week would cost about £1.68 at 4p per kWh. From your own figures, your average weekly use is 266kWh-about £10.64. I think you are confusing kWh with meter units, which are not fixed-they can be metric or imperial.
Have you cycled through the meter display to check that there is no debt on it? All the info you need is on there.
If you want a cheaper tariff, then you need to switch to a credit meter and then use the cheapest online discount tariff, typically this will be about 6% cheaper, so on your projected consumption that's only going to save you about £40pa.
It's not BG that is the problem unfortunately. Given your health issues, I would expect you to be using at least 50% more energy than quoted to keep warm in winter.

meg72

So sorry you are having this problem, I also experienced difficulty in phoning BG,same story cut off, fobbed off,given different storys. In the end I wrote to them and was pleasantly supprised how quickly they replied aqnd sorted out my problem.

SwanJon

Munkee2 wrote: »

Having 'used' the £5 emergency credit yestersay , I topped up £20 today. It took the £5 back and said there was £14.61 remaining. Where has that 39p gone? There is no standing charge so it looks like I've been charged 39p for gas that was never there.

When you use the emergency credit it charges at the cheaper (Tier 2) rate making it last longer, then when you top up again, it recalculates that gas back to Tier 1, which works out at 39p/day if you used more than 7.34kWh/day. (Yes, it is effectively the same as a standing charge).

Next time you speak to BG, ask about the Warm Home discount to see if you qualify (this is based on your electricity supplier, so if this is not BG they won't be able to register you)

As above, you can check details on your meter.
when the meter is showing you your credit, press and hold the red A button until the screen changes. depending on your model of meter the first screen will either have a 00 or 27 in the corner. (Newer models have the screens in a different order, but the numbers are the same).
By pressing the red button again, the screen will change again (and again, etc). With the older meters it will ask you to put the card in to get to the last few screens.

The screens you are looking for are
9 & 10 - your prices in p/kWh
27 - if there is a bill on the meter
25 & 26 - how much the bill is being recovered at (if there is a bill)

From here you can see how much is being charged.

Good luck

Munkee2

SwanJon wrote: »

Next time you speak to BG, ask about the Warm Home discount to see if you qualify (this is based on your electricity supplier, so if this is not BG they won't be able to register you)

The screens you are looking for are
9 & 10 - your prices in p/kWh
27 - if there is a bill on the meter
25 & 26 - how much the bill is being recovered at (if there is a bill)

Thank you for all replies since my last post - I'm still digesting the information you've all provided.

I have my electricity with BG as well and I've never had any complaints about that. It only costs about £5-7 per week. I'll ask about the Warm Home scheme too but will read up on t'internet first. Thanks for that.

I've already got the info from those screens you mentioned.

Screen 9. Tarriff cost 4 - 8.748
Screen 10. Tarriff cost 5 - 4.029
Screen 27. GB Remaining - £0.00

I have no idea what these figures mean though!

macman

Munkee2 wrote: »

Thank you for all replies since my last post - I'm still digesting the information you've all provided.

I have my electricity with BG as well and I've never had any complaints about that. It only costs about £5-7 per week. I'll ask about the Warm Home scheme too but will read up on t'internet first. Thanks for that.

I've already got the info from those screens you mentioned.

Screen 9. Tarriff cost 4 - 8.748
Screen 10. Tarriff cost 5 - 4.029
Screen 27. GB Remaining - £0.00

I have no idea what these figures mean though!

As stated above, 9 is the first tier rate 8.74pp per kWh, 10 is second tier rate 4.029p per kWh. 27, no bill on the meter.

Munkee2

macman wrote: »

As stated above, 9 is the first tier rate 8.74pp per kWh, 10 is second tier rate 4.029p per kWh. 27, no bill on the meter.

Sorry for the long time gap...

Yeah, I realised what each of them meant but does it sound right to you?

useless_git_requires_wife

Munkee2 wrote: »

the last person I spoke to said I am paying £14 a week to pay off debt. She didn't understand me when I said there WAS no debt to pay.

This may be the problem.

Keep pressing the button on your meter till you get to a screen that says 'debt' on it....or follow these instructions:

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/HelpAndAdvice/LookUp/?SXI=2,CASE=826

If it doesn't read 0.00 then you have been paying off the previous resident's debt (assuming you have none of your own). Energy companies are APPALLING at this kind of thing. If you have been paying for someone else's debt (as I suspect), you will be due it all back (you may have to provide details of when you moved in, such as tenancy or mortgage agreement). You can choose to have the repayment by cheque or credit on your meter.....I suggest cheque, because if you decide to move house with all that credit on the meter, you then have to get it back off them. They will send out a new key that will reset the debt at zero or they can give you a code that allows you to re-programme the key at a paypoint...this will reset the meter.

I hope I'm right.

This is their complaints number: 0800 072 8632

I have helped two people with exactly this problem (both times with British Gas) and phoning the above number had the matter resolved within hours. Both received a cheque for what they were owed within about 10 days. One of them had to email a scanned copy of their housing association tenancy agreement.

Munkee2

I've already been through that and posted the results earlier in this thread. There is no debt on the meter and I've been here 10 years so previous resident theory not relevent.

I've put £100 on the meter now since just before Xmas. They say my boiler is fine and the meter is fine. I have NOT used that much gas, I don't give a monkeys what they say. My flat never gets above 11 degrees because I have the thermostat set that that because I can't have it blasting out all the time. The heating has been on 2-3 hours a day over the last week and it's eaten over £25. I just don't get it.