British Gas dispute

pool-hustler

BG blocked our wish to use eon.
Why are they allowed to do that?
We were in the property on the Friday. Tried to get contact with eon on the Monday.
They should have billed is for the 3 days surely?

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

pool-hustler wrote: »

BG blocked our wish to use eon.
Why are they allowed to do that?
We were in the property on the Friday. Tried to get contact with eon on the Monday.
They should have billed is for the 3 days surely?

How do they know to only bill you for 3 days, if you've never registered with them?

lvf

pool-hustler wrote: »

BG blocked our wish to use eon.
Why are they allowed to do that?
We were in the property on the Friday. Tried to get contact with eon on the Monday.
They should have billed is for the 3 days surely?

They can block the switch for the reasons mentioned above, protecting both consumers (if the details don't match on both sides, this could be seen as a potential erroneous transfer), and protecting the business (not allowing accounts with large debts to move away).

No, regardless of who you choose to be with, you would be billed for more than 3 days anyway. When you switch, you enter into a mandatory 14 calendar day cooling off period (in case you change your mind about the switch and want to cancel), and a 3 working day registration period. Your interim supplier would still supply you while this is going on, so you would have still been with BG for at least 17 days while the transfer was happening anyway even if the correct procedure had been followed.

I know you are angry with BG but I'm still unsure as to two points:
1) What reason did they give you for not allowing you to switch to one of their fixed price tariffs?
2) Why did the Ombudsman give you £50, what was that for?

Don't mean to be intrusive, it's just I think everyone reading these posts needs to see what BG has actually done wrong (as it is still not clearly apparent), and if the Ombudsman sided with you (and I know you don't see it that way, but they have) then clearly BG are in the wrong.

moyogogo

I'm a bit confused, you state BG put you on their standard tariff yet you also quote that they put you on their most expensive tariff... which one was it?

I've just done a search on their website and the standard tariff is currently the cheapest they offer? Did you want them to make a customised cheaper tariff especially for you or is this a typo?

nightswimming

How could BG possibly bill you correctly when you did not tell them you had moved in or supply them with opening meter readings?

You are automatically on the standard tariff because that is how deemed contracts work. Although BG do not at present, many companies charge an exit fee to leave non-standard tariffs, which would cost you even more. They are not going to retroactively apply a cheaper tariff. If they have refused to move you to a cheaper tariff (from that point onwards) then that is worth a complaint.

Edit: Looking at the BG site, standard variable is joint cheapest for my region. Any differences in other regions are unlikely to make much of a difference to your bill anyway.

If you can prove to BG the date you moved in and give them opening reads (which you should have taken on the Friday) and current reads they will be able to supply you with an accurate bill and you will be free to apply to switch.

Cardew

Given that the OP has set up a DD with BG?('telling them to take £100 a month') and apparently taken a complaint about BG to the ombudsman, and got a recommendation of £50 compensation, I suspect that he moved in several months ago.


The only matter I can see where BG might be at fault is to take more than an agreed £100 DD.


Methinks we haven't got the full picture from the OP - at least as far as the timings.

giraffe69

I can't understand from this where the debt that OP was prepared to pay off at £100 per month comes from. Presumably it is the previous occupant in which case why would anyone agree to pay even 1p of it?
If OP bought this new place then the supplier would have been stated on the PIF. If it s rented then asking the agent or landlord might have been a way forward.
If you move in, don't take meter readings (good idea to photograph them also), don't find out who the supplier is then it is hard to see BG are to blame. If BG blocked the change after only a few days why did it them take so much longer to find out it was BG? I agree with others that facts are missing from the original account.

macman

pool-hustler wrote: »

BG blocked our wish to use eon.
Why are they allowed to do that?
We were in the property on the Friday. Tried to get contact with eon on the Monday.
They should have billed is for the 3 days surely?

Because you failed to register for an account with them-you cannot switch unless you first have an account to switch from. A switch from any supplier would have failed under these circumstances.
They should have billed you for the duration taken to switch, which is a minimum of 17 days, plus the number of days before you registered-so at least twenty days.
It's not BG's fault that you did this entirely the wrong way around.