British Gas nightmare - any advice?

fightyfish

BG do have an offline discount tariff which offers the same discount as the online energy. discount energy it's called. It has a tie in until feb 2013 but if your not able to switch may be the best one for you. I think it's being withdrawn at the end of the month though.
E-mail or call them and ask about it specifically as it should have been mentioned when you phoned.

studentsaver166

SwanJon wrote: »

If the estimated reads go back 18 months it might be worth asking for all these bills to be recalculated (if they haven't already) - this will make sure that you are charged the price for when it was used (Price rises last summer).
It might also be worth approaching the British Gas Energy Trust to see if they can help get you back on level ground (they are independent of BG, run by Charis Grants I think).
You can sign up online without going DD - it'll let you see the readings they have, and let you put them in when convenient for you (at least making any future estimates more accurate). If they only have 2 readings 18 months apart (and especially if the latest bill has all the catch up) the monthly amount they suggest will be vague to say the least. The more readings they get the better this estimate will be too.
As above, you should get the same time to pay it back as it took to build up (may need to push for this), along with more readings should bring the monthly amount down.
If you have registered a complaint, then you need to follow the process and it ends up with you having the option to go the the Energy Ombudsman after 8 weeks. (Ask for a complaint process number)

Thank you very much for this SwanJon. I will look at what you've suggested. I was very honest about our financial situation and just wanted to come to an affordable agreement for repayment but they were very insistent about the monthly figure, despite not being able to tell me how that figure was apportioned to the debt and usage respectively. I will go back to them again and try to get clearer information and more reasonable terms.

studentsaver166

macman wrote: »

Why didn't the BG rep mention this tariff?

Good question. I guess it was because I'd said that we didn't want to pay by DD.

studentsaver166

Thank you FightyFish, I will ask about that one. He didn't mention it (unsurprisingly).

runaroundpauper

studentsaver166 wrote: »

Hello all -

This is just a little desperate plea for any sage advice as I'm in a bit of a pickle.

I've just come off the phone in tears after 40 minutes on the phone to British Gas because they've hit us with combined bills totalling over £500 and I just don't have the money to pay for it. At first I thought it must have been a mistake because we are just 2 people in a small 2 bed flat and we both work long hours so are hardly home. When I called them, however, they informed me that the bills are for back charges to May 2010 to compensate for under-estimation.
I understand that this is money that we do genuinely owe, but they have given us so few options of how best to sort it out and now I just feel totally stuck and helpless.
When I explained to them that we just physically cannot afford to pay the full amount at once, they said the minimum we could do was pay £115 per month for a year, to cover the debt and estimated consumption. This is just so much money and we don't have enough to cover it, so I asked if there was any other option and they said no.
I also asked if we could arrange a long-term, Direct-Debit payment plan to re-pay the debt, while we switch to a different supplier (I hate British Gas) and they said that if we tried to switch whilst owing them money, they would contact the other company and stop us from moving, even if we had agreed to a payment plan.
I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. Does anyone have any wise words? Or, failing that, a cup of tea and a few tissues?!

SS

It matters how you come to a payment to pay British gas from there point off view they will not let you go untill this is lowered a lot ,but we need to get fundamentals in place
1 how much do you actually owe
2 you have to get on there cheapest tarif
3 and be disciplined check the meter read once a month
We all moan about dd the right and the wrong the principle of it etc but this is the cheapest way to get it down
4 basic bank acc no overdraft keep it simple if having joint acc with housemate for dd

I was with bg for years and the last 3 where a nightmare every winter gas and electric was 4-500 pounds a year in debt I would get straight then come February back in debt switched to eon in September just had a bill and 137 in debt for both not perfect but a lot better


Good luck you will get there

studentsaver166

Many thanks to all who gave advice.
I called again to discuss the issue and this time got a very helpful member of staff who manually calculated the repayment figure after acknowledging that the system calculation looked too high and has given us a much more reasonable amount. He also recommended (unprompted) a cheaper tariff that doesn't require a DD and apologised for me not having been told about this before when I had asked. He was also very kind and understanding about the whole situation and even offered to call me back so that I didn't have to worry about my phone bill during the lengthy call.

All sorted.