British Gas failings

stuey68

I switched dual fuel provider from british gas to avro energy in September this year. British Gas still owes me over £158 from the point of switching. although I have now chased them 3 times, and they have confirmed they owe me the money, I have still not received the refund!
And now they have sent me a statement saying I am in debit to the tune of £245 even though they do not supply my gas nor electric.
How to I complain to the Governing body for energy?

System

stuey68 wrote: »

I switched dual fuel provider from british gas to avro energy in September this year. British Gas still owes me over £158 from the point of switching. although I have now chased them 3 times, and they have confirmed they owe me the money, I have still not received the refund!
And now they have sent me a statement saying I am in debit to the tune of £245 even though they do not supply my gas nor electric.
How to I complain to the Governing body for energy?

Suppliers are required to use their reasonable efforts to issue a Final Bill within 6 weeks of a transfer of supply (not the date that you applied to switch).

You can refer BG to consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk for a potential breach of Standard Licence Conditions. You can also raise a formal complaint with BG and, once 8 weeks has elapsed, you can esclate the complaint to The Energy Ombudsman for resolution.

Raxiel

First you have to raise an official complaint with British Gas. Tell them you want an accurate final bill which has the same closing readings as your first Avro bill, and a refund of any credit remaining (be aware, its possible you do owe them £245 and the previous credit was for estimated readings that have since been corrected)

If BG don't resolve your complaint within 8 weeks (or they give you a deadlock letter) you can escalate your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman.

Suppliers have a requirement in their licence conditions to raise a final bill within 6 weeks of a switch, if they have to use estimates to do so they must issue a corrected bill as soon as possible, which it sounds like they've done? I've only had a quick skim but I'm not sure if there's a time limit for actually settling the money. But if you raise a complaint about it, it'll become an 8 week limit or they risk the Ombudsman adding compo to it.

https://epr.ofgem.gov.uk/Content/Documents/Electricity%20Supply%20Standard%20Licence%20Conditions%20Consolidated%20-%20Current%20Version.pdf (clause 27.17)

matelodave

You have to make a formal complaint to BG, ideally in writing marked COMPLAINT and they should acknowledge it as a complaint.

They they then have eight weeks to sort it out before you can go to the ombudsman.

If you dont follow the suppliers compaints process then the ombudsmand won't help yout until you do.

Hopefully you've got all your bills so you know whether you were actually in debt or credit when you changed suppliers and that any estimates etc had been cleared out of the system. Do your own sums to work it out

It sounds like you've now got a final bill based on your final reading - make sure that it's the same reading that the new supplier is using. I'm gussing that your "credit" was based on either an estimate or a previous bill and didn't actually take into account your final agreed reading.

House_Martin

Or do exactly what I have done after receiving a catch up of £130 from Robin Hood Energy today on my final electric bill when I departed from them last month.
Get your open read and closing read and get the calculator out and multiply the kwhs used in a year.
Multiply by your tariff, add 5% Vat and the years daily standing charge. Have a look in your bank statements to check the direct debits paid and multiply by 12 for a full years credited to BG to see how far out they are..
In my case Robin Hood Energy were spot on and I owe it because I had under payed on the monthly dd