British Gas Reviews: Give your feedback

PatFinn

British Gas may have a title that affects to be the major energy supplier in the UK, but the reality is the company is the most incompetent you could hope to avoid.
When Uswitch advised me to change suppliers in March because my fixed deal with British Gas was running out, I followed the advice, and switched to Octopus Energy. A few minor hiccups with that company, but Octopus do ask for regular meter readings, and respond promptly to email queries from the customer.
Not so with British Gas. Lazily, they only bill once a year, and anything that happens before that grand annual event means they are unable to properly handle the ending of a contract. In my case, they have grudgingly produced a final statement, which shows that because of their failure to ask for meter readings, they now owe me £548. But they did say on the statement "I have nothing to pay". Thanks!
Nowhere on the statement is there any hint of an intention to refund the money.
I have emailed British Gas to request an explanation. All I got was an autoresponse promising a reply within 10 working days. That was two weeks ago. What days do British Gas actually work then?
So, if you want to be ripped off, and enjoy not getting a reply from your energy supplier, British Gas has to be the only choice.

johnnyrico

Did anyone take the offer please? Thanks. 

johnnyrico

BG is denying the offer. I took it but they say they need proof of the email I received. Unfortunately I deleted it a long time ago. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. 

QrizB

johnnyrico said:

Did anyone take the offer please? Thanks. 

and

johnnyrico said:

BG is denying the offer. I took it but they say they need proof of the email I received. Unfortunately I deleted it a long time ago. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. 

@johnnyrico did you mean to reply to your thread here on "free energy days"?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6355333/british-gas-free-energy-days

Stevelex

British Gas New Account System

British Gas have just changed over to a new account system - 31/10/2022.This means that you now have a new accont number and all your Direct Debits change to the new system. You should not have to do anything.
In my case this not NOT happen. The Direct Debit (DD) got cancelled with the bank and was not reinstated with the new system. Hence Novembers DD was not paid from the bank nor was the Government Support money credited to my account. British Gas did not contact me about this. I just happened to notice the DD had not been taken.
When contacting them all they said was OK we'll setup a new DD which wouldn't start until January. So two months of payments missed. 
I would urge anyone with British Gas to check and make sure their payments have gone through. I would hate for people to spend the money at Christmas not realising their energy company had not been paid and end up in debt.

Gizasmum

@Stevelex
I manage both my own and my Mum's accounts with British Gas (dual fuels and Home Care for each of us). I’ve checked our accounts and our account numbers have definitely NOT changed and our DD's have been taken as expected. We were both on fixes (her until 31/7/22, me until 31/10/22) and we’re both now on standard variable tariffs. Maybe you’re on something different?

peterf83

British Gas are a disgrace of a company to deal with. I switched to them from Avro prior to Avro going bust thinking I would have access to modern systems that allow me to monitor my usage, I wanted a smart meter with online monitoring. Avro couldn't offer this, thankfully I moved before Avro went under.

I was supposed to be billed on 23rd November for my quarterly usage. No bill up to now. I've tried calling, no luck getting through. I've tried their online chat, it just says no one is available. 

My last quarterly usage was under £500 (ending 23/11/21), it's hard to give a KwH usage for those three months as their online usage calculator doesn't let you select your last quarter, it just shows spend to date. 

I would like to go on a direct debit, but BG seem to think my annual usage is far higher than I'm using. Up until last November, I was Crypto mining Ethereum on two gaming PC's. This ended November 2021 as it coincided with the end of my cheap fix (0.14p E / 0.029p G). My electric usage dropped by over 60% from December 2021, my gas dropped also due to coming off the fix and realising we had to change our habits. I've had bills in Feb 22, May 22, August 22 all showing substantial drops in usage compared to last year (over 70% elec & 40% gas), I was hoping that my Nov 22 would show a whole years worth of hugely reduced usage so that I could go on a realistic DD. BG still want my potential DD to be over double what I have forecasted us to use, trying to reason with them is almost impossible as it's impossible to speak to someone. As a consequence, I'm still being ripped off by paying quarterly on 'cash terms' rather than DD.

I've had multiple issues with their Home Care service also. As soon as things normalise, I will leave this awful company and never look back.

Help98765

Emergency.  I am going to start a thread on this.

Help98765

Help98765 said:

My thread is:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6416966/emergency-bg-dont-want-me-to-pay-them-for-electric/p1?new=1

But will I get a better response here?

(I normally shy away from 43-page threads on forums)

As there isn't any way to input information, requests and money to BG, it's of no use from any forum member to tell me to sit back, as there won't be a means to pay the funds - which I do and shall have - later either.

Is instructing a solicitor a sensible way of forcing BG to accept payment?

Gerry1

I've just replied on your other thread.

You could always post them a cheque made payable to British Gas (Account No. xxxxxxxxx).