Direct DEBITS Credits and other myths

BritishGasWorker

SuiDreams wrote: »

I've had £20 from them before for them not turning up and for them turning up with wrong equipment to do the job. e.g. They needed to go in the loft and didn't bring a ladder.

That is somthing which you would rarley get......no energy company is under obligation to give money for somthing like that....you are a lucky person .....it seems these days that Britain has fallen badly on the " i want compensation " I had someone once demanding we compensated him for his 3 min phone call to us..i gladly gave him the 17p...

space_rider

Britishgas man, you`re brave. That is one company I would not admit to working for. As soon as the market opened to competition, the first thing I did was change my gas suppier.

BritishGasWorker

space_rider wrote: »

Britishgas man, you`re brave. That is one company I would not admit to working for. As soon as the market opened to competition, the first thing I did was change my gas suppier.

I am proud and enjoy working for such an upstanding company like British Gas, you only see people moaning on here, you never see them saying thank you..or sayin how well someone has done..

An old quote comes to mind...

a complainer will tell 8 to 10 people about there woes..
A grateful customer will only tell 2 or 3 people how good service they get..

What concernes me personnally these days is everyone that moans and groans wants compensation these days...I have have noticed a massive increase in this over the last year..... perhaps if every stopped demanding it the prices might drop again

Remember folks..British Gas have been around since day 1....

Companys like Npower, powergen etc are Europeon owned and have been making a huge profite over the gas prices,, since there owner company in germany, france etc have been the ones charging them extra...so they make double profits out of you..

British Gas is British and is owned by a British company Centrica.

iceicebaby

Hmmmm Centrica. I used to work for them, (not British Gas though) wouldnt have wiped my b** with anything they sent me. So glad I dont work for them anymore.

In this case british does not necessarily mean better!

bunking_off

BritishGasWorker wrote: »

Myth 1

If you have a credit with ANY energy company...they are NOT permitted NOR will they earn ANY interest on your credit...Under OFGEM rules and regs it is not permitted...So please dont ask for loss of interest.....They dont have too and energywatch cant make them pay it either..

Hmm....not saying you're wrong, but can you point to any published Ofgem documentation for that?

It's a fundamental tenet of business that a company will always try to manage cashflow such that they take longer to pay bills than you give customers to pay their's. Ask any financial analyst and they'll tell you one of the key financial indicators of company performance is the amount owed to creditors versus accrued from debtors (when compared to overall costs/revenues it gives a metric of average time to pay bills versus have your customers pay their's). Few companies ever go to the wall through lack of profitability, it's generally through adverse cashflow (paying your suppliers before you're paid)...hence the importance. For retailers like Tesco that work on low margin/high throughput, this can actually be a material part of their profitability...as a shopper you pay for your bread when you buy it, but undoubtedly they'll pay the baker on 30 or even 60 day terms...QED they get 2 months' interest on the money and every little helps.

I find it hard to believe that any company billing via fixed direct debit doesn't use the interest they get from accounts in credit to offset those which are in debt. If they didn't, then that would imply they gain no interest when your account's in credit, but it is costing them when your account's in debt. Effectively, they'd either be giving interest free credit, or a (significant) proportion of their pricing would be to cover the cost of free credit.

What is more likely is that Ofgem has guidance about the level of net balance suppliers are able to hold (across the whole customer base), plus potentially rules saying the funds have to be escrowed. But I may be wrong...show me the document.

space_rider

Remember folks..British Gas have been around since day 1....

Is that why BG are so complacent and don`t care about keeping customers.

portsmouthali

olly300 wrote: »

Customer services people read from scripts and do not have the power to do anything without the permission of managers. The managers that deal with your particular issue will not come on the phone as they are normally based in a different office location. (I've worked in call centres and so havhttp://img.moneysavingexpert.com/smilies/rolleyes.gif
:rolleyes:e many of my friends')

There's nothing like generalising is there?! I've worked as a customer service advisor for 7 years and have never read from a script!! There are certain questions we have to ask (IE data protection) but we're actively encouraged not to sound "robotic", and we're allowed to use our initiative to make the customer happy - we don't have to ask permission for everything. Of course, if someone asks for a ridiculous amount of compensation I refer them to my manager (who sits 3 desks away from me BTW, not in another location :rolleyes: )

I've had terrible trouble with call centres before (*cough* NTL *cough*) but we're not all the same.

BTW I work for SSE and agree with most of what British Gas Worker said :beer: and I'm proud to work for a British company too.

tripled

Might also be worth pointing out... some people sit in a queue long after a callcentre is closed. Yes maybe the company should have better systems to cut people off (ideally with an explanation) when the business closes, but think logically... do you really think anyone is sitting there thinking "I'm going to sit here unpaid and take some extra calls?"

fortheadingley

BritishGasWorker wrote: »

I am proud and enjoy working for such an upstanding company like British Gas,

:rotfl: By God thats funny, I nearly fell off my chair

BritishGasWorker wrote: »

you only see people moaning on here, you never see them saying thank you..or sayin how well someone has done..
.

Hmmmmm......Now why is that I wonder?????

gasboardonboard

I am also a British Gas worker and very proud to say so! we are on the up again and on a customer service mission, we have the products and values right and are striving to get them all in place!