british gas verbal contract

diddyd_2

Last year i agreed a contract with british gas for both electricity and gas. I thought the contract was for one year only, however they are telling me that i verbally agreed to a two year contract- i do not have any paperwork confirming the contract. I have requested that they play back the audio tapes but surprise surprise they are not forthcoming.

Does anyone have any advice on how to cancel this contract?
If i can't cancel is there a way of having the charges reduced to match other suppliers offers?
Where do I stand legally?

Please help!!

SwanJon

Depends if this is for domestic or business

Domestic - the contract can be cancelled at any time with 28 days notice (usually done by your new supplier for you). You may have signed up for a fixed price whcih would have a termination fee, but I think they've waived most of them.
When you signed up they would have sent you out a pack with all the terms & conditions in it, so if you can find it that would tell you.
Worst case scenario, write in under DPA and ask for the recordings.
If you are looking to change, make sure any bils are paid off, check all the meter point numbers from both suppliers, and take a reading on the day and give it to both suppliers. Better safe than sorry.
If you choose to stay or go, sing up for the online package - usually much cheaper.


Business - don't know as much, but based on other threads you may have signed up for a longer ter, or you have a longer notice period. You could ask them to renegotiate?

wowsavings

For business, if they have a verbal recording, that is enough to form a binding contract and you are unable to get out of it until the end of your term.

As you have no choice but to stay with them then chances are that they will not be too keen on negotiating the charges with you.

If you don't remember agreeing to the contract, insist on having a copy of the recording.

diddyd_2

Thanks for the advice :mad: - Unfortunately it is for businesses but they are not forthcoming with the recording, 5 days ago they said it would take 3 days. Should I write to them today giving them 7 working days to comply with my request. If they are correct i will just have to live with it, but i'm looking for any chink of light to release my form dealing with this awful company.

wowsavings

I would suggest that it is good to put the request in writing so that you have a record. You should also state the dates that you have previously requested the recording that that they have not been forthcoming. Give them a deadline and state that if they do not respond to you within this time, that you will refer the matter to energywatch, the watchdog.

That should certainly make them sit up and take action! If they fail to respond, then do contact energywatch. (http://www.energywatch.org.uk)

Terrylw1

Diddyd,

They just won't have recordings going back that far and recordings are for training purposes. Verbal contacts are valid in the electricity market, largely to save you time. They should just be honest with you.

On the other hand, they will just claim that you have been happy for a year and that you did not leave during your cooling off period. Since you are a business it may be worth running it past your solicitor who will be far more aware of the law than a call centre agent.

Go Energywatch otherwise as I would find it hard to believe they had tapes that far back. As the recordings say, "training purposes only", they are not used to keep for acceptance of a contract since they would have sent out welcome packs if you had not discussed taking on their service.

To be honest, it sounds a bit strange since lock in deals like that tend to be more carefully accepted on paper as opposed to the easy sign ups.