Left British Gas and now owe over £300!

BLK

Hi,

I'm a newbie to the forums and I'm hoping someone can give me some advice.

I've been using cheap energy club (CEC) for a couple of years for dual fuel deals and recently left British Gas (BG) as my fixed rate deal had ended.

I provided quarterly meter readings and was merrily paying a fixed amount each month to BG. Using CEC, I then found a new fixed rate deal and transferred to my new energy provider at the end of the fixed rate deal with BG.

About 3 weeks after moving to the new energy provider, I received a statement from BG advising that I owed nearly £220 which was shortly followed by another statement advising that I now owed over £300. I emailed BG asking if this was a mistake to which they replied by email advising that it wasn't and that the £220 had been carried forward to the final bill to make it over £300. I emailed BG back asking how had the energy account got into this amount of debt without any attempt by them to notify me of it or to suggest that the monthly direct debit needed to be increased. Whilst waiting for a reply, I received another statement from BG 2 days after the last one advising the amount owing was now £280.

Nearly a week later I received an email reply from BG accepting that they had set the fixed rate direct debit too low and had failed to review the energy account at least twice in a year and apologised for this with an offer of £20 off of the debt to lower it to £260 and that I could pay this in 3 monthly instalments. I emailed BG back declining the offer of £20 and outlined that I still disputed that the debt was owed as BG had accepted that: (1) the monthly payment was incorrectly set; (2) accepted that the energy account was not reviewed and should've been at least twice in a year; and, (3) that I had not received any notification or contact from BG by phone call or email to discuss or notify me that the energy account (a) was in debt, (b) a debt had begun to mount up or (c) to amend the payment amounts/make a one off payment to reduce the debt amount and therefore they should write the debt off as these errors were there's and not mine and to treat my email as a complaint.

BG replied offering to take off a further £10 (£30 in total) and that I could pay the debt off in 6 monthly instalments. They also advised that if I wasn't happy with this that further correspondence needed to be by phone and for me to provide a date and time so they could arrange a call back. I duly emailed BG back advising that the £30 off the debt was still unsatisfactory and requested they call me urgently and provided my mobile number.

Currently, I've been going back and forth by email to BG as I give them a date and time to call me on but they keep telling me in reply that they've tried calling my mobile but I've had no missed calls and my mobile number is correct. I've now threatened BG by email that I will go to Ofgem and BBC Watchdog as it's been two months since I contacted BG about this debt.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to reading your views on whether I should continue to fight BG and errors they've made to allow this debt or if I'm in the wrong in any way.

Regards,

SoletraderSteve

Whist I appreciate it should have been reviewed if yoir monthly Direct Debit level was not set at the corrext level, how did you not notce yourself if you were giving meter readings quarterly? I asssume you were being issued with a Direct Debit statement each time.

keith1950

You used the energy so owe the money. You should have been entering readings monthly and you should have been monitoring your usage. Why are you trying to pile all the responsibility onto the supplier and weasel out of paying what you owe.

macman

If the closing readings match your own, then the amount owed is presumably not in dispute, subject to the provisions of the back billing code, if it applies here. You have been offered a 10% goodwill discount and 6 months to pay, which is very generous on top of the interest free credit you have already enjoyed.
To expect them to write off the entire debt is just not realistic.

GingerBob_3

keith1950 wrote: »

You used the energy so owe the money. You should have been entering readings monthly and you should have been monitoring your usage. Why are you trying to pile all the responsibility onto the supplier and weasel out of paying what you owe.

I've entered this post into the competition for "MSE's most unhelpful post, 2015". I think it stands a good chance of coming in first.

Nada666

GingerBob wrote: »

I've entered this post into the competition for "MSE's most unhelpful post, 2015". I think it stands a good chance of coming in first.

It has tight competition from many of yours.

Nada666

OP, you have not provided information on what your consumption was. As such your complaint about "£300" is meaningless by itself - a £300 difference on an annual use of £300 is one thing, a £300 difference on a consumption of £1200 is another.

You cannot have all things all ways - if the algorithm is on a hair trigger customers will complain if instalments are changed every month or they will complain there is no settled fixed amount that allows them, the customer, to decide how (and when) to adapt and adjust or they will complain that 'yes, but that was before, this winter we've installed a magically efficient machine or are going away for eight weeks or will change our behaviour this time'.

You've been offered £30 for no good reason. Accept it with good grace and move on with the wisdom that you should bother to read the readings used by any statements. And then YOU decide when and how to prepare for a difference.

GingerBob_3

Nada666 wrote: »

It has tight competition from many of yours.

You have an example?

modsandmockers

BLK wrote: »

I provided quarterly meter readings and was merrily paying a fixed amount each month to BG. Using CEC, I then found a new fixed rate deal and transferred to my new energy provider at the end of the fixed rate deal with BG.

About 3 weeks after moving to the new energy provider, I received a statement from BG advising that I owed nearly £220 which was shortly followed by another statement advising that I now owed over £300. I emailed BG asking if this was a mistake to which they replied by email advising that it wasn't and that the £220 had been carried forward to the final bill to make it over £300. I emailed BG back asking how had the energy account got into this amount of debt without any attempt by them to notify me of it or to suggest that the monthly direct debit needed to be increased. Whilst waiting for a reply, I received another statement from BG 2 days after the last one advising the amount owing was now £280.

Nearly a week later I received an email reply from BG accepting that they had set the fixed rate direct debit too low and had failed to review the energy account at least twice in a year and apologised for this with an offer of £20 off of the debt to lower it to £260 and that I could pay this in 3 monthly instalments. I emailed BG back declining the offer of £20 and outlined that I still disputed that the debt was owed as BG had accepted that: (1) the monthly payment was incorrectly set; (2) accepted that the energy account was not reviewed and should've been at least twice in a year; and, (3) that I had not received any notification or contact from BG by phone call or email to discuss or notify me that the energy account (a) was in debt, (b) a debt had begun to mount up or (c) to amend the payment amounts/make a one off payment to reduce the debt amount and therefore they should write the debt off as these errors were there's and not mine and to treat my email as a complaint.

BG replied offering to take off a further £10 (£30 in total) and that I could pay the debt off in 6 monthly instalments. They also advised that if I wasn't happy with this that further correspondence needed to be by phone and for me to provide a date and time so they could arrange a call back. I duly emailed BG back advising that the £30 off the debt was still unsatisfactory and requested they call me urgently and provided my mobile number.

Currently, I've been going back and forth by email to BG as I give them a date and time to call me on but they keep telling me in reply that they've tried calling my mobile but I've had no missed calls and my mobile number is correct. I've now threatened BG by email that I will go to Ofgem and BBC Watchdog as it's been two months since I contacted BG about this debt

This is a very good example of what I was trying to say in a thread which I started recently on here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5308487 and it is good that you have challenged BG on their inadequate procedures. I wish more people would do the same. Unfortunately, BG and their like know that most people will not have a clue. They also know that they are under no pressure to avoid high levels of bad debt because, in a non-competitive market place, they can simply pass on the bad debts to their other customers bills.

keith1950 wrote: »

You used the energy so owe the money. You should have been entering readings monthly and you should have been monitoring your usage. Why are you trying to pile all the responsibility onto the supplier and weasel out of paying what you owe.

As others have said, this kind of response does not address the root cause of the problem.

keith1950

GingerBobQuote:
Originally Posted by keith1950
You used the energy so owe the money. You should have been entering readings monthly and you should have been monitoring your usage. Why are you trying to pile all the responsibility onto the supplier and weasel out of paying what you owe.


I've entered this post into the competition for "MSE's most unhelpful post, 2015". I think it stands a good chance of coming in first.


I try to help when people appear to have a genuine issue however this is yet another case of someone who doesnt help themselves until the !!!! hits the fan.
The whole tone of the post was to try and evade payment.....THAT IS NOT MONEYSAVING....they have been offered a generous payment and then continue to try and demand more.
All the points made suggested that it was up to the supplier to spoon feed the incompetent...and he seemed accept no responsibility.

BLK

Although I was disappointed with the negative replies to my original post, can I thank all those who were helpful with their advice. On Friday I received an email from BG apologising for the service provided and that the debt had been written off! Can I encourage anyone who switches to a new energy provider from BG and then has a dispute over charges not previously notified of by BG to complain and persevere with it. I may be just fortunate in this instance but I genuinely believed that BG were wrong and through their own negligence of not following the right procedures in managing and reviewing the energy account, the customer, for a change, was right.