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System

BagginsatSea wrote: »

Just had an email from BG inviting renewal after MSE October 2017 Fix.

They clearly state current costs and Standard Tariff Cost in full pounds and pence and then give two figures of Direct Debit savings over Standard Tariff (That naturally I would not even contemplate using!) that I will get if I take their recommended tariff.

I can fathom NO good reason for this other than to deceive customers. Why can't the actual figures for the replacement tariff cost be in the same format ie. Either cost above current or below Standard tariff?

I am excellent a Math but I had to take to pencil & paper.

Deplorable tactics.

Hi - welcome to the forum. Direct your ire at Ofgem, not the supplier. It is a condition of their Licence that costs and savings are calculated in this way. Ofgem uses a 12 month forward cost projection. As suppliers are not allowed to roll you over into another fixed term tariff, the default assumption is that you will move to the standard variable tariff at the end of your contract. It follows that this can result in a ‘perceived’ saving when you transfer to another fixed tariff that actually costs you more.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/54da24ebed915d514400000b/The_Energy_Shop_Submission.pdf

Gemius

I switched to British Gas 12 months ago via the MSE Cheap Energy system. I've recently switched again and have received a large final bill from BG which amounts to over fifteen times my monthly payments.
Was I conned into switching to them with a low monthly payment?

I keep a record of my energy usage with a reading every month, and have done for years, and my consumption has not risen.

footyguy

Gemius wrote: »

I switched to British Gas 12 months ago via the MSE Cheap Energy system. I've recently switched again and have received a large final bill from BG which amounts to over fifteen times my monthly payments.
Was I conned into switching to them with a low monthly payment?

I keep a record of my energy usage with a reading every month, and have done for years, and my consumption has not risen.

:huh:

Do you agree with the final bill?
Was the anticipated annual consumption figure you used with MSE last year accurate?
What was the annual cost of the energy according to MSE last year? Were you paying 1/12th of that cost per month?
Did you supply BG with those readinmgs you took monthly?
Did BG produce you any statements based on the readings you provided? Was there a resultant balance shown as owing by you at any time before the final bill?
Why are you taking and recording meter readings every moneth if you are not also checking the cost of that consumption?

Sorry for so many questions, but I am struggling to understand how you got in this position.

caveat_emptor

Gemius wrote: »

I switched to British Gas 12 months ago via the MSE Cheap Energy system. I've recently switched again and have received a large final bill from BG which amounts to over fifteen times my monthly payments.
Was I conned into switching to them with a low monthly payment?

I keep a record of my energy usage with a reading every month, and have done for years, and my consumption has not risen.

I am surprised that BG allowed you to get into debit. As soon as i got a few quid in debit they upped my DD straight away.
The MSE collective was good but now BG is so expensive (another £400/year for me ). Who uses BG and why?

Pedro1877

I was with BG for dual fuel for the past two CEC collective switches and have had absolutely no problems. They fitted a new smart meter after the last switch to the CEC Oct 2017 collective fix. I loved having the remote meter readings and all the info. I also loved the website and app. Three times they tried to increase or lower my DD but desisted after a phone call when I told them that their algorythm did not know when I switched off the gas and switched on again - no argument, so I have had the same monthly DD of £61 for the whole period and ended up with a small credit as I had calculated and informed them. I switched on Sept 19th and smart meter now "dumb" - no way they can leave it switched on according to their CS guys on Twitter and in call centre. Awaiting final bill "up to 8 weeks" depending on when they receive readings off new supplier but usually shorter time. Told that all online account info will be readable again for 6 months as soon as final bill is issued. I would not have switched if their price was reasonable. Told them that and tried to negotiate but drew a blank! I am now paying £63pm with npower fixed until 2018 and got £52.50 cashback off TCB which almost brought the annual price to my BG annual fee. I have been with them before with no problems and switched for usual price reasons. Switch went faultlessly. Only problems I have ever had was with Scottish Power a few years ago when their CS dropped off a cliff after being brilliant. Had 12 months fighting them, Ombudsman was great and I had free gas for 13 months plus max payout for distress caused!

Be savvy folks! :beer: Listen to Hengus!

Gemius

Thanks for your comments. I am trying to check the amount from my statements and in the end I either owe it or I don't. Life's too short to spend too much time pouring over bills and if I'd realised I wasn't paying enough I would no doubt have kept my mouth shut.
I do think it's a very poor system when you look at all the angst it piles on it's customers.

Tegga

I have used the energy club for a good while now and the time had come to switch from British Gas to Ovo, all seemed well but then I got the final bill.
The problem arose by the fact British gas had 'part' fitted smart meters to my property but they didn't finish the job and i had refused to provide them with meter readings since Dec 16 the date they fitted the 'smart' meters. This left quite a few estimates by them of my usage but I didn't think it was going to bite me in the bum quite so hard as it did.
I switched to Ovo and provided them with my gas & electrical meter readings for the new supplier, i figured this would let BG know what the 'actual' readings were and they would send me the final bill.
I got my final bill for the gas which was £527 for 146 days use! Clearly wrong but what was confusing was the fact they had the old imperial meter reading despite me giving Ovo the metric digital readout.
I complained to BG and they said they could do nothing, i said the problem was there's due to not fitting the smart meters correctly and ignoring my final reading. Upon further investigation and conversation with Ovo they said they did receive the correct reading from me (wasn't sure if i had done a typo online) but this was rejected by the third party validators!!? Here is where i got really confused.... I had told them the meter reading but they ignore this and go by some random estimate by BG leaving me massively out of pocket and having to settle up with BG.
My main question was, has anyone else had this very strange occurrence? Who are these validators and why would they refute my meter reading and with some estimate that has no foundation.
Ovo said i needed to provide a reading today and then in two weeks provide another and they will calculate the difference and work out what the usage is... I argued why should i have to do this? I have a digital meter that was installed on 13/12/16 in that time to 3/10/17 it says 1134m3 gas has been used, this is accurate and what i should be working to, not some future calculation.
BG said it will take 5 days to put the dispute in and potentially reply, funnily enough that is when my DD bill is due to be taken... i said i will cancel the DD, they say this is not recommended and will complicate matters further...? Should i cancel the DD?

Atlanticboy

Been with BG for a year with no problems (through MSE). The only observations I can give is that their online account and billing information could be more user friendly and when I had virtually completed the leaving process from BG they called me with a better quote which I thought was a bit late in the day.

jelliot

My switch from British Gas to Bulb went smoothly, the switch date was 5th October and I got a final bill and my credit refunded within 2 weeks.

The IHD of my smart meters no longer displays any readings but hopefully Bulb will swap my BG smart meter to a Bulb smart meter.

trickytree1963

jelliot wrote: »

My switch from British Gas to Bulb went smoothly, the switch date was 5th October and I got a final bill and my credit refunded within 2 weeks.

The IHD of my smart meters no longer displays any readings but hopefully Bulb will swap my BG smart meter to a Bulb smart meter.

I don't think Bulb will install a Smart Meter until SMETS 2 is rolled out. Worth checking with them. Until then you will have to give manual readings