SOS Help with B GAS - Urgent HELP needed!

elm11

I stupidly agreed to switch back to Bgas in June 2005 for both gas and electricity.

I received my first electricity bill in October. After not receiving a gas bill I promply phoned British Gas to ask where it was.

They told me that there was a problem with my account and the start reading even though I had given this to them when I first swapped. This meant that they had not attempted to even set up my gas account and therefore there could be no bill.

I have chased this matter each month since October. Each time British Gas has lied to me and informed me they were investigating.

I wrote to Energy Watch in January and they soon discovered that British gas had not even launched and enquirey.

Since this BG have set up a site inspection - i took the day off of work and no-one bothered to turn up. BG even tried to say that they would not have booked an inspecion yet the customer service rep had done this whilst on the phone to me!

I wrote another letter of complaint to both BG, Energy watch and The energy ombudsman about this but, Bg did not respond, Enery watch are chasing the matter and The energy ombudsman cannot intervene until I have allowed BG months to respond.

Energy watch are still currently investigating and they believe that BG has still not started an enquiry into my complaint.

BG phoned about 3 weeks ago to get feedback on how the site inspection went!!! - cheek!:mad:

After a lengthy conversation and some strong language this rep said she would investigate the matter.

I have not heard anything since.

I am unable to sleep at night with the prospect of nearly a years worth of Gas bill coming my way. I dont know where I go from here. It seems that i'm getting nowhere.

I cannot even swap my gas supplier as BG will not agree on a final meter reading so swapping my supply will almost certainly mean that I will continue to have problems but with two rather than just the one company.

I am at a total loss. I really need some sound advice from someone who knows what they are doing.

Please help

tripled

Put some money aside every month and hope they don't sort it out until after the summer, as new regulations coming into force mean they will only be able to charge you for 12 months gas, even if it has been longer than that since you switched to them.

As for not changing suppliers, I know of some cases where the account was never set up properly, people have switched away and never received a bill for the time they were with BG. No guarantees of that though.

newcook

tripled wrote: »

Put some money aside every month and hope they don't sort it out until after the summer, as new regulations coming into force mean they will only be able to charge you for 12 months gas, even if it has been longer than that since you switched to them.

As for not changing suppliers, I know of some cases where the account was never set up properly, people have switched away and never received a bill for the time they were with BG. No guarantees of that though.

thats really handy to know as BG have not sent me a bill for gas or electric since we signed with them in August! (they keep saying they cannot find our address for the gas but can find us for the electric but wont send a bill for the electric as we signed for a duel fuel bill!) am I right in thinking that if they have not settled this dispute by August then the bill is 'reset' so to speak????

is there a website I can get more info on this?

tripled

The bill isn't reset, however after August they can't back bill for more than 12 months if they are at fault, ie if you signed up August 06 and they finally get round to billing you Decemember 07 they can only bill you from December 06 not August.

elm11

After all this time I finally have a bill. I wonder if anyone can advise me as to whether or not this is a discounted figure or not - there is no indication on the bill of a discounted rate.

I am quite annoyed with BG, they have not sent a covering letter or even an apology with this bill even though they have taken 11 months to set up my account.

They have not included any reduction or the incentive payment they offered for joining them again which i believe was credit of £40 for the first quarter, no money back for the day I had to take off of work when they did not turn up for a site inspection which cost me £126 and no goodwill reduction.



I have been billed 320.74 for using 812 units from june 06 to april 07.

I know ppl will say don't moan thats good, but there is only one person living in our house for 5 days a week! so I know that we don't use huge amounts of gas.

British Gas's bill are asking for the full amount NOW and being just an average person I cannot afford that much in one go, so even now I will still need to have some kind of payment plan - does this affect someones credit rating if you do this??

I would like to know if anyone having similar problems have any ideas of what I should do next?
I have asked my representative from Energy watch to call me back on fri but in the mean time any advice would be much appreciated.

tripled

If you have a copy of the t&c letter confirming your credit, if you send it in to them it should be credited to your account. Failing thet, make a complaint and they may be able to listen to the original sales call and then credit it manually.

Usually if a meter reader doesn't turn up you are entitled to compensation. It's not much, I think it's about £20.

You can spread your payments over 12 months including ongoing usage, this would not affect your credit rating. BG wouldn't allow you to switch to another provider until the arrears are paid off as they are allowed to object if a balance has been outstanding for 28 days.