Extortionate British Gas bill

Michacakes

Hello,
I have recently moved house. The gas supplier at my new house was British Gas. I phoned both BG and Eon immediately to inform both that I wanted to switch. The switch took 24 days and BG have sent me a £154 bill (for two adults and a small child using what they even said was below average) for those 24 days.
The bill is so high as they put me on their 'standard tariff'. I feel aggrieved as I never chose to go with BG as my supplier and at no point was I given an option of tariffs for my short visit.
After numerous phone calls and me offering to pay £60 for the period, they offered to accept £100 from me (which I declined, as I still think that's too high).
Any idea on what my rights might be?
Thanks for any advice.

Robin9

Take the £100

Do the readings tie in with the ones you provided on the day you moved in?

spiro

The rules state that when you are on a deemed contract you are placed on the suppliers standard tariff, it is for you to choose another tariff. Given the short period which tariff would you have selected?
Did you provide meter readings on the day you moved in?

Cardew

Michacakes wrote: »

Hello,
I have recently moved house. The gas supplier at my new house was British Gas. I phoned both BG and Eon immediately to inform both that I wanted to switch. The switch took 24 days and BG have sent me a £154 bill (for two adults and a small child using what they even said was below average) for those 24 days.
The bill is so high as they put me on their 'standard tariff'. I feel aggrieved as I never chose to go with BG as my supplier and at no point was I given an option of tariffs for my short visit.
After numerous phone calls and me offering to pay £60 for the period, they offered to accept £100 from me (which I declined, as I still think that's too high).
Any idea on what my rights might be?
Thanks for any advice.

When you move into a new house you are placed on a 'deemed contract' this happens with every move to a new property and the procedure is laid down by law in The Gas and Electricity Acts(of Parliament)


It is standard practice to place such customers on their Standard Tariff. Why would BG offer you a cheaper tariff when you have immediately told them you are leaving? In any case some of their cheaper tariffs have penalties for leaving early.


I am amazed that BG have offered to reduce their charge to £100 as they can legitimately charge you the full price of £154.


So you have absolutely no case at all and I would grab their £100 offer gratefully. Presumably they have only offered that reduction to save the hassle, not because you are in the right.


P.S. If the charge on a Standard tariff was £154 even on their cheapest tariff the charge would be more than £100 - check it out!


P.P.S. I don't know what sort of house you are in, but £154 for that period in mid-winter would be about average for most people.

macman

Nowhere do you mention the actual kWh amount of gas used in those 24 days. Armed with that info, it's very simple to calculate if the billing is correct and cross check that your own opening and closing reads match the bill. If it is, then how can it be 'extortionate'?

kijuki

Another extortionate British Gas bill, or,
does British Gas have 'a thing' about E-ON

Each year for the last 3 years around the 10th-11th payment of my British Gas tariff, the price is bumped up an extra £100 or so. I was told, over the phone, that it was company policy to encourage me to sign up for a new tariff. On all previous years the price was returned to the previous tariff of (dual fuel) £52 per month, but this year it wasn't, It remained at £152 per month. So I told British Gas I would be moving to a new supplier (which I did, to E-ON, to a tariff of £64 per month from the 16th of February).

British Gas then reduced their charge to £104. They didn't tell me until 1.4.2016 that they had mearly taken my years credit of £47 off the payment.
British Gas then sent me a bill for the 2-3 weeks between change over of £353.11. That's 6 months tariff payments to me.

I have a few days left to pay this or suffer the bailiffs or probably have a pre-payment meter fitted, even though I am no longer a customer of British Gas.
I have spoken to British Gas by phone several times but they just confuse me with numbers. Is this legal, it seems common. My previous supplier, WESLEC didn't hike the price during the change over so it's not throughout the industry.
Can anyone help? I feel I am being punished for changing my supplier.

CashStrapped

kijuki:-

Unfortunately you are making the mistake that many people make.

You are equating the monthly Direct Debit amount with how much energy in KWH you actually use.

The Direct Debit is nothing to do with what you actually use.

So if and when a company reduces or increases your direct debit it is usually a meaningless gesture that gives you the false impression that they have increased or decreased your bill.

What you always have to look at is what you pay in pence per KWH and the standing charge. It is the tariff (and how competitive it is) which is most important.

A Direct debit is just a estimate of what the company thinks you may use for the next year divided in to 12 monthly payments.

For example:

A company may assume/estimate based on your house size that your annual bill will be £1000 for the year. They then split this into 12 payments of £83 a month.

However, maybe it is a cold year, so you end up using more energy to heat your house. When you finally give a meter reading the company calculate (based on KWH) you have actually used more than they estimated and the yearly bill is actually £1200.

You have already paid them £1000 by direct debit, but you still owe them £200.

So.....

In your case, you left British Gas. To do this you must have given E.on a meter reading. British Gas use this meter reading to produce a final bill.

So you have used more than they estimated up to the point you gave the meter reading, hence you owe them that extra amount.

So you need to check that British Gas have calculated your final bill using the correct meter readings (the one you gave E.on to switch).

You also need to do is work out your yearly usage in KWH and use this in a comparison site. Ensure that the Eon tariff you are switching to is competitive.

Also, try to give meter readings once a month. This will ensure your Direct Debit is as accurate as possible and will reduce the risk of nasty catch up bills.

Hope my post clears things up for you. It can be hard to get your head round at first.