British Gas charge

chick-chick

We had a letter from British Gas this morning, basically saying somebody was coming to disconnect our gas supply because we hadn't paid our bill. They also said there was a £15 charge for them sending the letter.

Well we paid our bill (in full) over a week ago....or so we thought. At the time of paying, the lady we spoke to didn't mention any 'charges' due to be added to the account.

We rang British Gas (absolute nightmare to get through to them, kept getting cut off) and asked them why we had been charged £15 for a letter, when we had paid our bill over a week ago, and why were they threatening to cut off our supply? They said the £15 was actually a late payment charge, yet the letter states the £15 is for them sending the letter (if that makes sense)!

They weren't at all helpful, and insisted the charge was because of a late payment. So we asked why we were not told about this charge a week ago, when we paid, and they didn't know why.

Can they really charge £15 for sending a letter? Even if it is a late payment charge, I really think they should have sent us a letter stating this, as opposed to one threatening to send somebody round to cut us off!

The man we spoke to said it is stated in the terms and conditions, and that the charges and perfectly legal, and nothing like bank charges.

Do we just have to pay the charge, or can we claim it back? They say it can not be claimed back. I really feel like changing supplier, their customer service is terrible.

tripled

I would expect the letter was issued before you made the payment. There is a thread about the time it takes for letters to arrive somewhere else on this page. As for why you weren't told about the charge, the agent doesn't need to look at the breakdown of the account to take a payment, so they may not even notice a charge is on there.

As for getting the charge back from BG, if you usually pay your bills bang on time, a letter of complaint may get it refunded. However if you are often late paying the bills, it's very unlikely they will refund it even if you threaten to leave.

As for legality, they have higher costs than the banks for this, so are more likely to be able to justify it (unlile a bank which charges you for being a day late, with BG you are only charged after 28 days late, two reminder letters have been issued, usually attempted outbound calls by agents, manual review of the account, booking an appointment for a rep, etc), however there are a couple on the consumer action group forums thinking about trying to get them back, if you wonder over there they may give you some advice.

beeniemac

This is a new British Gas Initiative called Active Charging.

If the payment was made before the charge was applied to the account, you should write and ask for this to be removed, if not I'm afraid its tough luck - as stated its all in the terms and conditions

Lucky it didn't get to the next stage which is a knock on your door from a BG rep - even if you're not in it costs £50!