British Gas - Website problems???

ciderboy2009

Just over a week ago I had a phone call from my sister - apparently British Gas were going to increase her Direct Debit to over £4000 per month as they estimated that she was going to use over £45,000 worth of gas in the next 12 months.:rotfl:

I've logged on to my account today and, according to British Gas, I used more than £8500 worth of gas in January alone (thankfully I wasn't charged that).:rotfl:

Are BG having problems with everyone or is it just my family?

PS: neither of us live in mansions - just normal 3 bed houses.

Terrylw1

Sounds more like their new SAP billing system has gone haywire.

Its a sloppy practice issue as well since massive bills like that to pensioners have in the past landed some suppliers in the media.

So, they should be capturing high bills and double checking them which is practice that's been around for many years in the utility sector since a miskeyed customer reading alone could do this.

I hope you have both raised a complaint?

ciderboy2009

My sister's raised a complaint. I've not yet - I'm just waiting a couple of days for the result of a phone call I made on the weekend (which could be leading towards another complaint).

penrhyn

Mine went bananas last month, phoned them and they fixed it by resubmitting the relevant meter readings.

martinyid66

Had my direct debit increased to £119 from £91 even though i had over paid by £125,when i looked into it on my british gas account page it told me i would overpay by £770 and should actually be paying £85.
When my partner phoned to query this we were asked "what do you want to pay"we settled on £80.
Checking my account later it appears i will still overpay £330,i think something stinks,(no pun intended.)

ciderboy2009

I can't believe how long this is taking British Gas to sort out bearing in mind that it's a fairly obvious error.

Mind you, I've just had an email from them telling me that their system is anticipating that I'll use 25% more gas this year than last!

Based on the fact that my usage has actually fallen in each of the last 3 years the cynical side of me is starting to think that it's just BG's way of getting more money into its coffers!

Terrylw1

Its bound to be something simple as well to cause such an enormous amount like a reading that shows your meter advancing round the clock. They probably just need a reading off you to bill up to after removing the other dodgy one.

If you've had a meter change recently or just switched to them it can require me detailed investigation and lengthy processes to correct data between several parties. Is that the case for you?

ciderboy2009

Terrylw1 wrote: »

If you've had a meter change recently or just switched to them it can require me detailed investigation and lengthy processes to correct data between several parties. Is that the case for you?

Unfortunately it isn't anything as obvious as that. Personally I just think it's linked to their recent web site changes.

Terrylw1

What's the issue? Posters on here might be able to offer advise allowing you more ways to complain.

ciderboy2009

I just thought I'd update this as, more than 2 months after initially reporting the issue to them, it still hasn't been fixed - in fact, it's got worse!

Basically, I'm now in a position whereby I haven't got a clue what the current state of my account as, amongst other problems, I can no longer access any pdf bills. It doesn't help that there are now also problems with the electricity side (no bill created for June).

British Gas seem to be doing nothing apart from emailing me every couple of weeks to tell me that they haven't got any more news for me.

About the only useful thing they've done is sent me a letter about the ombudsman service (as my initial complaint is now over 8 weeks old) so I am just about to escalate my complaint to them.

I've got a horrible feeling that this is going to take forever to sort out!

penrhyn

BG have had a problem with pdf's over the last few days. Mine were corrupted, I spoke to the on line team yesterday who explained what had happened.
All is well again today.
FYI I've always found their cs very good.