B Gas insists on a standing charge

John_Gledhill

I have a second home with with very very low use, I have been with Br. Gas, dual fuel for 30 yrs, tariff was standard, ie. no standing charge, from Nov. last year they started charging standing charge, I never agreed to this and did not want this (I must admit I do tend to just pay the bills without reading all the small print), they never said they did not have an alternative tariff, I have complained, they gave me an ex-gratia payment but continued to apply standing charge. The bill payment chasers from far away have explained in tortuous detail their reasoning behind standing charges. I am changing to Ebico.
Have I any chance of disputing the paying of the standing charges with BG.

Nada666

No, as you have used some gas, just not very much. You only have (half) a case if you never started using the gas at all.

This was not British Gas' decision - this was forced on them by Ofgem. It is Ofgem you should be writing to about your lack of choice and the fact you are forced to damage the prospects for vulnerable users who choose Ebico because of their naivete rather than have the burden shared across all suppliers.

Atidi

John_Gledhill wrote: »

I have a second home with with very very low use, I have been with Br. Gas, dual fuel for 30 yrs, tariff was standard, ie. no standing charge, from Nov. last year they started charging standing charge, I never agreed to this and did not want this (I must admit I do tend to just pay the bills without reading all the small print), they never said they did not have an alternative tariff, I have complained, they gave me an ex-gratia payment but continued to apply standing charge. The bill payment chasers from far away have explained in tortuous detail their reasoning behind standing charges. I am changing to Ebico.
Have I any chance of disputing the paying of the standing charges with BG.

Some mistake surely?

I don't think Britsh Gas supplied electricity 30 years ago did they?

British Gas also applied standing charges prior to the turn of this century, about 15 years ago

And British Gas would have written to you (they wrote to me 17 October 2013) advising you of the change in tariff that would become effective 23 November 2013.

As the letter said, if you didn't accept the proposed changes, you were free to switch elsewhere, and if the new supplier contacted BG no later than 20 working days after 27 November 2013, you would not be affected by the proposed changes.

molerat

John_Gledhill wrote: »

I have a second home with with very very low use, I have been with Br. Gas, dual fuel for 30 yrs, tariff was standard, ie. no standing charge, from Nov. last year they started charging standing charge, I never agreed to this and did not want this (I must admit I do tend to just pay the bills without reading all the small print), they never said they did not have an alternative tariff, I have complained, they gave me an ex-gratia payment but continued to apply standing charge. The bill payment chasers from far away have explained in tortuous detail their reasoning behind standing charges. I am changing to Ebico.
Have I any chance of disputing the paying of the standing charges with BG.

A lesson learned then

John_Gledhill

Atidi wrote: »

Some mistake surely?

I don't think Britsh Gas supplied electricity 30 years ago did they?

British Gas also applied standing charges prior to the turn of this century, about 15 years ago

And British Gas would have written to you (they wrote to me 17 October 2013) advising you of the change in tariff that would become effective 23 November 2013.

As the letter said, if you didn't accept the proposed changes, you were free to switch elsewhere, and if the new supplier contacted BG no later than 20 working days after 27 November 2013, you would not be affected by the proposed changes.

I do not remember when BG started supplying the electric it was many many years ago, but until Nov. 2013 I did not pay any separate standing charge for either of the services. My fault, thanks for the replies.

John Gledhill

[Deleted User]

OP, No !, just switch to Ebico, theres no point in getting into a dispute you cannot win. All suppliers are subject to OFGEMSs new and fair rule to stop the average user subsidising the low and zero users gas supply. The standing charges payments go to National Grid. Another way to lower the costs may be to switch to someone like Eon via MSE Cheap Energy Club and get £30 cashback. Do that two or three times a year to different suppliers.
Possibly you are confusing the terminology "no standing charge tariff " which was a lie. The standing charges were paid via the 2 tier tariff rates in the first batch of kwhrs each billing quarter then the kwhr rate dropped to the normal tariff price. Everyone paid a standing charge except the very low, or zero users.

MegaMiniMouse

sacsquacco wrote: »

The standing charges payments go to National Grid

If only ....

Standing charges vary widely from tariff to tariff and bear no relationship at all to the actual fixed costs of supplying a fuel.

The energy suppliers use their freedom to set their standing charge at any figure they choose, and concentrate their efforts on maintaining a high level of misunderstanding amongst their customers.

[Deleted User]

Standing charges are fixed costs, paid to third parties such as the National Grid or the local distributors to transport energy through pipes and wires, some suppliers, like Ebico, choose to absorb these costs and increase the kwhr tariff rates
No one argues with their phone line standing charges, they are exactly the same as the energy suppliers. The old 2 tier tariff system confused with terms like "no standing charge tariff " At least the daily standing charge is upfront and honest. Ebico operate what is similar to the old two tier system collecting back standing charges with their higher tariffs. In my area they are over 5p/kwhr when less than 3.5 p/kwhr is available from several suppliers so anyone with Ebico is effectively paying a standing charge if they use any gas.

MegaMiniMouse

sacsquacco wrote: »

No one argues with their phone line standing charges, they are exactly the same as the energy suppliers

There are two crucial differences between the standing charges of the phone companies and those of the energy suppliers -

The first is that the different phone companies mostly offer similar standing charges to all the others, and do not continually roll out ever-changing price structures which create more confusion than clarity.

The second difference is that the phone companies express their standing charges as a monthly figure which gives a meaningful comparison between different offers. The energy companies express their standing charges in fractions of a penny per day which helps them to mask the significant differences between them all.

The phone companies also reliably generate accurate monthly bills which are much easier to deal with than the rather random billing habits of the energy companies.

Andy_WSM

sacsquacco wrote: »

No one argues with their phone line standing charges, they are exactly the same as the energy suppliers.

I've just come off the phone to BT having had that exact argument!

I don't use my phone line for a phone, there isn't even one plugged in to it. I have it, because I have to have it to get Broadband.

There is no cable service in this area, so it's phoneline or no broadband.

In the states you can have a data only connection which doesn't incur phoneline standing charges, but not so in the uk.

zaax

The £15+ standing charge is only £8 wholesale.