British Gas Complaint. Backbilling, 2 years no bill and then £2000! HELP

ackelly

Hello everyone,

I am desperately needing your help and advice and I apologise now if this lacks sense and is long winded (my blood is boiling!).

My story starts back in June 2010 when me and my husband and little boy moved into our first house. It was a new build which had been used as the show home so the day we got the keys we had to walk around with the builder and take water, gas and electricity readings then sign the papers to say it was being transferred into our names. The builder gave us a copy but advised that we would hear from our suppliers soon when everything was transferred over and we didn't have to do anything further.

Well a couple of months went by and we hadn't heard anything from the gas and electricity companies. I called the builder and they confirmed they had sent the papers off and it would probably just take a while. We got the water bill fine (which was on the same piece of paper) but still heard nothing about gas and electricity.

We had no clue who are suppliers were and had no customer reference number to try and call. By now the builders had moved elsewhere and I wasn't getting anywhere. I was advised by a friend that this had happened to their brother and not to worry about it as they would catch up with us in the end and then we would be protected as it wasn't our fault.

So May 2013 I get a letter from British Gas (in my name only) saying welcome to your new home, we shall be sending you a bill shortly. The bill came a few days later for a whopping £2,000 + dated from the day we moved in. This was all based on estimated readings.

I called them straight away to explain the situation and was advised by the nice man on the end of the phone not to worry and that we would be protected by back billing so would only have to pay for 12 months of the bill. He told me to ignore the bill for now and that someone would be in touch to discuss.

A few weeks went by and I didn't hear anything, I called them a few times and they promised me it was being looked into. I finally heard back from them at the end of May to say that I had been misinformed and back billing had been declined as they didn't think I had made enough effort to find out who my supplier was. I advised them regarding calls to the builder and also calls to the major energy companies once, but without a customer reference number I never got anywhere. They admitted that they wouldn't record a call where no customer reference number had been provided and said that there was no proof I had ever tried to call them.

As you can imagine I was slightly annoyed to be promised one thing to then be told I was misinformed. My case got referred the complaints department and I started discussing the issues with a man from there.

At first he seemed helpful and understanding and we came to an agreed sum of £820 for the gas and electricity to make it up to date, this included a £200 good will gesture for all the confusion about back billing. I agreed this sum but didn't want to pay it over the phone as wanted to speak to my husband about it and also have it in paper. He on the other hand wanted to set up a direct debit but again I declined as was wanting to possibly switch suppliers.

A bill was sent on the 10th June but the £820 said it was only up till June 2012. I called them straight away explaining the mistake and asked them to send it out again. I didn't hear anything.... this carried on for weeks, despite me calling 3-4 times a week to try and get it sorted. I was told an email would be sent to the man dealing with my complaint, when that failed they advised they would send a email to his manager and would hear back from them in 5 days.

On the 10th August I finally spoke to a lady in the complaints department who finally admitted that this man had been ignoring me because of a mistake. The £820 would not make the account up to date and it was for only 12 months.

I was absolutely baffled at how this could be the case, as I distinctively remember questioning him about it being up to date and asking him what I would have to do to transfer to another supplier. I obviously wouldn't have been able to do that with still 12 months and over £1200 being owed on the account! I also don't understand how they could have settled the account and complaint with me still owing for 12 months of gas and electricity.

She said that my complaint would be raised as a new complaint, so just to make it straight I had a complaint in about how my complaint was dealt with!! In the mean time I had been receiving threatening letters and getting phone calls chasing up payments, which is definitely not what you need when dealing with a complaint and it started to get on top of me.

About 10 days later I had a called from someone else from the complaints department. He stated he had listened to all the calls and that there was confusion between the two of us and at no time did he promise the bill would be 'up to date'. He could offer no explanation as why if it had just been a miscommunication that the first person didn't just call me back to discuss further, or why he proceeded to ignore all my calls and emails sent to him and just said that it would be looked into internally. He said that I understood the bill was up to date to the last meter reading, which I gave when all this first started in May/June 2013. He said the complaints man was basing it on a meter reading given in June 2012. I explained that if I had no clue who my supplier was how did I give a meter reading in June 2012 when the first I heard from them was over 12 months later, again this couldn't be explained.

By this point I am in tears on the phone out of frustration and the stress. After 90 minutes on the phone with him I ended the call stating I would be seeking legal advice and asking for him to send me the phone call log/recordings. He stated I would have them within 7 days. This was on the 23rd August and surprise surprise.... I still haven't heard anything!

I totally understand that I need to pay something and we knew this, but the complete lack of communication and customer service skills is shocking. I told them I would pay the £820 as promised to have the bill up to date and they refused. They also said that there was no point taking it to the Ombudsman as they wouldn't be interested in my case. I feel this is threatening and I am now at a loss of what to do next.

Can anyone please help? Has anyone been in a similar situation? I have been looking on the internet and can see that British Gas customer service overall is dismal but haven't found circumstances similar to ours. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance! x

HappyMJ

The £820 would be for the energy used up to May 2013. You still have to pay for energy used since then.

It looks like a fair offer to me. I'd accept it...pay it and then pay for the energy used since May and then switch suppliers. It wouldn't suprise me if it's now £1,200 outstanding.

ackelly

HappyMJ wrote: »

The £820 would be for the energy used up to May 2013. You still have to pay for energy used since then.

It looks like a fair offer to me. I'd accept it...pay it and then pay for the energy used since May and then switch suppliers. It wouldn't suprise me if it's now £1,200 outstanding.

I know I would happily pay the £820 for the two years but they are now backtracking and saying that is only for one year and I still owe in excess of £2000 and rising daily! So basically I have to pay the £2000+......

HappyMJ

ackelly wrote: »

I know I would happily pay the £820 for the two years but they are now backtracking and saying that is only for one year and I still owe in excess of £2000 and rising daily! So basically I have to pay the £2000+......

What effort did you put into finding out who your supplier was for the past 3 years?

It's now September...have any payments been made on the account at all?

If you can't afford £2,000 or whatever they are asking you can make double payments over the period the debt accrued over. As they made contact with you in May 2013 and have agreed to write off the debt from before June 2011 when they have agreed you should have attempted to make contact with them then that's 27 months at £75 a month as well as ongoing usage it'll be £150 a month. During this time though you cannot switch....that may just cost you a lot more than it's worth.

spiro

Sorry to say its not the outgoing tenant, landlord or builders obligation to contact energy suppliers, it is the customer which in this case is you. Because you have failed to do that the back bill rule does not apply and they can legally chase you for the full amount.

Andy_WSM

From your original post I agree that it does seem you didn't make enough effort to contact the suppliers - where is your post from a year ago asking for advice on how to find the current supplier & contact them for example?

It never ceases to amaze me when people say they can't afford a bill in situations like this. You knew electricity & gas have to be paid for, weren't you putting the money aside each month?! Anyone on here would have told you to budget £100 a month for both and that wouldn't have left you far short of having enough to clear the bill entirely.

By asking for the back billing rules to apply (when I and others feel they shouldn't) everyone else gets to pay a tiny bit of your debt - one thing we all know is that the utility companies like to show increased profits each year, so the money doesn't come out of their profits it gets added to the annual price increases!

bob_bank_spanker

Hmm, a litany of disasters here, from the builders, the OP and BG.

Back billing almost always favours the consumer, it's now been 3 years 3 months of usage and no payments made, £2000 is a steal.

Set up a payment plan with them (they will normally allow you to pay off the debt in the same time frame the debt was accrued), get it all paid off and move on

Okydoky25

It's taken me 2 seconds to google "Who is my Gas Supplier" to come up with this. http://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/guides/who-supplies-my-electricity-and-gas/

Which would have been able to advise you 3 years ago....

ackelly

Thanks for all the help. I did check that website and research on here and other websites and never got anywhere as I didn't have a customer reference number. It appears the account was under the plot number and not the address.

I was putting money away each month but this is our first house and I obviously wasn't putting away enough as only had £1000 saved. Unfortunately my husband lost his job and so we weren't able to save as much as we were at the beginning.

In all of your opinions is the £2000 about right for dual usage over that time frame? I am sorry if this is a stupid question but I have no clue about these type of things.

To be honest my problem isn't the amount it's the absolute rubbish service we have received. And the fact we were promised back billing, then promised a discounted amount to make the account up to date. To then that all being mistakes told by different people from British Gas!

Cardew

£2000 is about a half of the average UK consumption cost for over three years.

The back billing provision does not apply as the code makes specific reference to your situation.

dogshome

It's all very well slapping the OP for not chaseing down the supplier as a matter of urgency, but it's a first house and there are no classes or crib notes as to the in's and out's finding/dealing with Utility suppliers



There a three Big Questions in my mind
1) Why is that if BG became the first supplier to a new build sometime in early 2010, why did they not produced a single bill until well over 2 years later, and even then still have not read the meters ?

2) If they had not been notified of the Bill responsiblity change from Builder to first householder, why have they not been billng the builder for these 2+years

3) How is it when BG are claiming no one bothered to contact them, that the first bill is not a addressed to the "Occupier", but to the householder by name?

Most certainly the OP was ill advised to let the builder do the legwork and listen to advice from the friend of a friend, but there is a distinct smell of old fish around BG's actions - A couple of years ago I dealt with almost the same scenario where BG haveing had all the right notices, went into total silence for 15 months, and then put up a fight not to award back-billing

I think the OP should write a letter headed Complaint, listing the contradictory information she has had, and specifically asking the 3 questions above