British Gas owe me £3149.66. What are my legal rights?

mark22223

Hi,
I am trying to sort out a credit refund of £3149.00 (Yes £3149.00) for my elderly mother who signed up to British Gas approximately 2 years ago. British Gas are dragging their feet with regard to refunding money and I am getting different information and promises the further this drags on.

I only found out at the end of September that my elderly mother, who lives on her own, has been paying approximately £190 per month for her British Gas Electricity bill for approximately the past 2 years. No one from British Gas has read her meter in over 2 years and she has not provided any meter readings, all her bills have been estimated by British Gas. It was not until early September that a British Gas rep came and read her meter, then British Gas sent out an Electricity Statement mentioning that she was £3129.66 in Credit. My mother told me she was in credit by this amount and I immediately said that is ridiculous and you need to get it all refunded and monthly amount reduced correct with her usage. I phoned British Gas on the 28/9/2015, on behalf of my mother, and I was told that a full refund would be made and this would be in my mothers account within 3-5 days. I explained that I was disgusted that my mothers account was let get into a situation where she was £3000 in credit and British Gas informed me that by law they do not have to read a meter for 5 years and can make estimates during that time, but they were willing to give her the Maximum 'Good Will' gesture of £20.00.

Its now 9 days later and still no refund has occurred so I called British Gas last night (6 Oct 2015) and spoke to a different representative who informed me that 'That size of refund' has to go through a few channels of authorization and to be signed off? , well it was nice of them to let us know !!!!! their communication is absolutely terrible...........

I was informed on the same call yesterday that I would be getting a call at 9AM this morning to explain when the money will be refunded. Its 11AM now and I have not had any call, as you can imagine I am getting extremely frustrated with British Gas and have already told them I will be reporting the situation to the independent ombudsman, but before I do that can anyone on the Forum please tell me where I stand with compensation for my elderly Mother etc etc

Thanks in advance all....

Eric_Disley

Before you go to the ombudsman, you have to make a formal complaint to British Gas. If, after 8 weeks, it hasn't been resolved to your satisfaction, you can escalate it to the ombudsman.

I'm not an expert but I suspect that, although what British Gas have done is undoubtedly bad practice and fairly unethical, they won't have actually broken any rules. In which case the ombudsman wouldn't give you much joy - they're not in the business of "punishing" companies, only ensuring that things are put right, which in this case is returning the credit balance to your mother.

If you want cold hard cash I would threaten British Gas that you'll contact your MP and local press (and follow through with the threat if it doesn't work). Companies don't like facebook / twitter criticism either. I'm sure that £20 maximum goodwill gesture is untrue.

mark22223

Thanks for your reply,

Yes I did consider threatening local press, will mention this to BG when they finally get back in contact with me.

I would like to make sure that my mother is compensated with a fair amount, rather than the miniscule £20 they have currently offered.

Regs
Mark

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

mark22223 wrote: »

I would like to make sure that my mother is compensated with a fair amount, rather than the miniscule £20 they have currently offered.

Regs
Mark

What loss has she suffered?

mark22223

The ability gain any interest on over £3000 for a start.

Regs
Mark

System

Clearly things have got out of hand - and I can understand how angry you are. As an older person myself (retired for nearly 10 years), I have to ask: 'are you actually mad at British Gas or at yourself for not picking up on the problem sooner?'

Under its supplier's licence obligations, British Gas only has to take a meter reading once every five years. If a meter reading isn't provided, then it has no option but to use historical usage data and raise estimated bills unless the customer provides them with readings. I am therefore not sure what you are seeking compensation for as this level of overpayment could have been revealed earlier had one meter reading been provided. British Gas also offer free smart meters and again this could have solved the problem. I am sure that you will find that British Gas has done nothing wrong. They are not clairvoyant and they cannot be expected to know everything about every one of the millions of customers that they have on their books. What should British Gas have done that they failed to do?

Did you, or your Mother, think about putting her on British Gas' priority register:

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/content/dam/british-gas/about%20us/pdfs/ways_we_can_help_at_british_gas.pdf

Finally, FWiW, all energy companies have an escalating refund process: the greater the repayment - the higher the sign off level.I hope that she gets the refund soon.

4372

British Gas don't appear to owe you anything, if I understand your opening post correctly?

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

mark22223 wrote: »

The ability gain any interest on over £3000 for a start.

Regs
Mark

You haven't even registered a formal complaint, and you have a £20 good will gesture.


Once you have done so, I have no doubt that gesture will go up, probably to around £100 - incidentally this is similar to the interest she could have gained (the £3k has accrued over time, and was not a lump sum sat around from the start of this process).


You will not get "compensation" - as there is


a) nothing to compensate, as she has suffered no real loss (the ability to accrue interest is notional at best)
b) nothing BG have actually done wrong - they are obliged to read meters once every 5 years. If the customer is vastly overpaying, they bear responsibility.


As advised, your best course of action is to register a formal complaint (write, don't call). I wish you well.

[Deleted User]

OP, I dont know about you but my mother was hopeless reading her dial electric meter I made sure I read it correctly and made sure she was getting her bills paid properly. You bear some responsibility in looking after your elderly mothers account. I work for BG and we attempt to read meters every 13 weeks.It makes me think that she may not have been able to get to the door very quickly or answer the phone when BG phone up for meter readings. They have the legal right to go for 5 years without accessing but in practice we still try especially hard for "must reads " every two years. The 5 year rule is usually applied to smart meters. That said I agree BG are being very stingy as they offer £20 compo for every minor complaint. I would ve thought £50 to £100 was more appropriate.
Possibly BG are hoping to get another meter reader round to double check.We have a lot of virtually untrained agency meter readers coming in covering sickness etc and they will mess up a dial meter reading or even an awkwardly placed digital meter. With this large sum I would want another reading.

Nada666

mark22223 wrote: »

I would like to make sure that my mother is compensated with a fair amount, rather than the miniscule (sic) £20 they have currently offered.
Mark

mark22223 wrote: »

The ability gain any interest on over £3000 for a start.

So less than £16* in interest - you have already been offered four pounds more than that.

(* If your mother does not notice paying £131 more each month than necessary then she isn't going to bother to look around for more than 0.3 or 0.5% interest.)

poppellerant

I would check the bills and check the latest one is based on actual meter readings, not estimated. You may find that if the latest one is based on estimated readings, that credit may be reduced or even increased.