British Gas Reviews: Give your feedback

wendyhouse1968

Hello

I've just been fitted with a smart meter. What I can't understand is when I look at the meter first thing on a morning it says I've used 60p in gas and electric overnight which might not seem a lot but, if you try and keep to £3 a day for an average bill of £90 a month, it's a fifth of your daily spend. It works out at approx 30p gas and 30p electric. The electric I can figure may be things on charge and kids watching tv late at night but not the gas. The central heating went off at 9 and didn't go on until 8 in the morning and no hot water has been run. Has anyone else had this? Many thanks Wendy

Cardew

wendyhouse1968 wrote: »

Hello

I've just been fitted with a smart meter. What I can't understand is when I look at the meter first thing on a morning it says I've used 60p in gas and electric overnight which might not seem a lot but, if you try and keep to £3 a day for an average bill of £90 a month, it's a fifth of your daily spend. It works out at approx 30p gas and 30p electric. The electric I can figure may be things on charge and kids watching tv late at night but not the gas. The central heating went off at 9 and didn't go on until 8 in the morning and no hot water has been run. Has anyone else had this? Many thanks Wendy

Presumably that is the daily standing charge(DSC)?

victor2

Cardew wrote: »

Presumably that is the daily standing charge(DSC)?

Plus your biggest user of electricity overnight is likely to be a fridge/freezer.
If you have an older style gas boiler with a pilot light, that will use something. Shouldn't be anything like 30p a day, but it will register.

tadpole

i've switched through The energy club to British Gas Collective Fix Oct 2017.with duel fuel at £109 a month ! ..my old collective fix tariff with BG was £105 a month and was due to finish in March 2017 .. But to give me peace of mind I thought it good to pay the extra £4 a month and go for the new tariff and have no worries till October 2017 ... But what a shock !!!!! when the email came in on sat ...telling me they needed to up my DD to £172 a month from £105 .... They waited till it was to late for me to cancel the tariff before telling me of the increase ... They worked out what I would be paying at the start and it was £109 not £172 !!! my account is not in debit it is in credit with £67 ! How are they allowed to do this ?

CashStrapped

tadpole wrote: »

They worked out what I would be paying at the start and it was £109 not £172 !!! my account is not in debit it is in credit with £67 ! How are they allowed to do this ?....

OK, first of all, you need to ignore the DD. That has nothing to do with what you are actually using in terms of energy.

If they have had to increase your DD by so much, that means that they are predicting you are due to use a lot more energy than you indicated when you switched to them

So

1) When did you last supply a meter reading? How often do you supply one?

2) What have your most recent meter readings been? Ignore any estimated ones. Go back at least a year and note them down. Write down the dates the readings were taken too.

3) Work out your annual KWH use.

Do not forget, the DD is not your bill! They can only charge you for what you use. But the fact they have increased the DD suggests you are using a lot of energy.

If you are unsure how to calculate your annual use in KWH, write down all the meter readings and dates here and we will help.

Also see this recent post (today) where someone else had the same issue. I explained how the DD system works.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5545184

---

Edit: I would also point out that your circumstance relates to one of the points I made in my posit in the link.

You have switched to British Gas just before winter!

The DD quoted is an indication of what you would pay spread over the year.

However, you have not been with them for a year, you have just joined them.

Winter is the most expensive time of the year and you have not been able to build up a credit in summer via Direct Debit. So, they are probably having to increase the DD to compensate for this fact.

Anyway, read the long post I made it that link...I explain it better there.

Toxteth_OGrady

I would have thought one of the most, if not the most, fundamental requirements for a utility company's website would be to allow a customer to provide meter readings online.

British Gas is an epic fail in this regard.

I am switching via the MSE collective switch. I have already given my opening readings online and I have screenshots to show they were accepted.

Since giving my opening readings I have been getting daily emails still asking me to provide them!

Last night, 3 days after giving my readings, I got an email from BG stating:

We're having some technical problems with our website. We would be grateful if you could try to resubmit your reading in 24 hours

Farcical. :wall: :wall: :wall:

Anyway I have emailed talktous@britishgas.co.uk with the screenshots of the website showing my opening readings, so I'll wait to see how long it takes to get resolved. A poor start - at this rate I suspect I'm going to end up being hit with a double Direct Debit whammy on the 1st November, when both BG and my losing supplier take a payment.

I initiated my switch on 2nd October and 3 weeks later BG haven't even sorted out my meter readings. :mad:

Whatever happened to 'Faster Switching?'

:cool:

TOG

robin_banks

Applying to a payment made to an account seems to be beyond them.

victor2

Getting concerned about my switch to BG after seeing all these comments on here and my new online account with them says starting readings are required, but they have confirmed by phone that they already have them. They've even told me what my DD amount will be with them, and the online account is only 50p different.
I can see I'm going to have to monitor my own usage, work out what my DD should be to cover the year (which I do anyway), and make sure I pay or put aside enough to cover the usage if actually setting up the DD is also beyond them. At least the amount(s) they've told me pretty much agree with my predicted costs.
Not a good start, but maybe it will improve...

st999

My switch seems to be going well and they are giving me a hive hub and a couple of LED lights for free.

Now I just need a Hive thermostat. (hint)

distalbans

So - I moved to British Gas on the Collective Fix 2017 back in February 2016 and everything was fine.....until I made the stupid decision to ask for a Smart Meter (being heavily plugged by British Gas and the Government apparently) to be installed. All seemed fine, until I was looking at my online account and noticed that it said I was on the Standard Tariff, not the Collective Fix 2017. Unbeknownst to me when the Smart Meter was installed, it was set to Stndard tariff, and even though I've been writing to British Gas since mid July (a week after the Meter was installed), they have been "unable" to correct the error. I have just received a bill for the summer quarter which is of course way over what it should be. I AM FUMING! Have disconnected the Smart Meter and told them to ask for meter readings in future - though maybe this wont work - maybe they get their readings direct from the actual meters? I don't know who to talk to - how do you get to a decision maker at British Gas? Am tempted to leave them now, but I want to get this error corrected before I do - then it's off to someone else for me - never to darken their doors again.:mad::mad::mad::mad: