British Gas offering £200 to retain my custom

Lola888

I had a phone call from BG offering me £140 credit for gas and £60 to pay First Utility as I'd have to pay a cancellation fee.

I had decided to switch to First Utility to fix gas and electricity until 2014. I'm struggling to work out if it would be better to stay or to go, any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Man_Overboard_2

Lola888 wrote: »

I had a phone call from BG offering me £140 credit for gas and £60 to pay First Utility as I'd have to pay a cancellation fee.

I had decided to switch to First Utility to fix gas and electricity until 2014. I'm struggling to work out if it would be better to stay or to go, any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I had a similar conversation recently with British Gas, but when I challenged the guy to spell out the terms and conditions, he suddenly had nothing to say.

MK55

Lola888 wrote: »

I had a phone call from BG offering me £140 credit for gas and £60 to pay First Utility as I'd have to pay a cancellation fee.

I had decided to switch to First Utility to fix gas and electricity until 2014. I'm struggling to work out if it would be better to stay or to go, any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Check on comparison site total cost with FU then minus the credit offered to you... See which works out best?

macman

Did you ask when you wil get the £200 credit-was it only after 12m?

Airmike23

What BG should say with this tactic is "We want to keep you as our customer, you will pay far more in the coming 12 months on your energy bill with BG Clear and Simple than your proposed change of bill provider, but if you meet the criteria you will get a credit of £200 to the bill". You will probably find that the difference, depending on usage, and tariff and company opted to switch to you will save almost £200 in the coming 12 months, rather than having to overpay to BG to maybe get the money back. I know which I would rather do.

backfoot

I doubt the complete details are revealed in the original post.

I suspect offering random credit amounts as an inducement to retention would be caught by misselling rules.

Could the BG Rep or any other Rep clarify the legaliity of such practices.

If it were allowed then the system would quickly be abused.

macman

BG are nothing if not tenacious. I left BG as my gas supplier more than 2 years ago, but I still get regular sales calls offering me a 'special' incentive to come back.

backfoot

macman wrote: »

BG are nothing if not tenacious. I left BG as my gas supplier more than 2 years ago, but I still get regular sales calls offering me a 'special' incentive to come back.

Do they spell out what it is?

The whole principle of 'so called competition' is open and clear display of tariff options.

Backhanders shouldn't be involved and would be discriminatory which is prohibited as I understand it.

We need one of the Supplier Reps to explain the rules.

macman

As I'm currently on an advantageous EDF fix, I've never continued the conversation...but I will the next time they call.