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BG Christmas Cheer?
(Also, posted in AVRO thread) ....
I thought I'd share a little Christmas cheer with you all, courtesy of my least favourite ex-energy supplier, British Gas ......
Two months after switching away from them, and several weeks after settling the final bills with them, a letter dropped through the letterbox today from BG. Briefly they said they have made a mistake with my payment plan and they are going to compensate me with £10 by cheque.
I was intrigued and rang them, after 20 minutes and much consulting with colleagues, they could not tell me what the mistake was they made, or why they were going to compensate me with £10. They do not think I owe any money or they owe me any money and they can't figure out what generated the letter. Absolute typical classic from BG!
Apart from a wry laugh at their expense, at least I should get £10 out of it ...... or will I? Maybe they made a mistake about making a mistake and that's the last I'll hear of it
Happy New Year!
I thought I'd share a little Christmas cheer with you all, courtesy of my least favourite ex-energy supplier, British Gas ......
Two months after switching away from them, and several weeks after settling the final bills with them, a letter dropped through the letterbox today from BG. Briefly they said they have made a mistake with my payment plan and they are going to compensate me with £10 by cheque.
I was intrigued and rang them, after 20 minutes and much consulting with colleagues, they could not tell me what the mistake was they made, or why they were going to compensate me with £10. They do not think I owe any money or they owe me any money and they can't figure out what generated the letter. Absolute typical classic from BG!
Apart from a wry laugh at their expense, at least I should get £10 out of it ...... or will I? Maybe they made a mistake about making a mistake and that's the last I'll hear of it
Happy New Year!
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Comments
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A plus point then from your "least favourite supplier " at least they were honest enough .(Also, posted in AVRO thread) ....
I thought I'd share a little Christmas cheer with you all, courtesy of my least favourite ex-energy supplier, British Gas ......
Two months after switching away from them, and several weeks after settling the final bills with them, a letter dropped through the letterbox today from BG. Briefly they said they have made a mistake with my payment plan and they are going to compensate me with £10 by cheque.
I was intrigued and rang them, after 20 minutes and much consulting with colleagues, they could not tell me what the mistake was they made, or why they were going to compensate me with £10. They do not think I owe any money or they owe me any money and they can't figure out what generated the letter. Absolute typical classic from BG!
Apart from a wry laugh at their expense, at least I should get £10 out of it ...... or will I? Maybe they made a mistake about making a mistake and that's the last I'll here of it
Happy New Year!
I hope your new supplier is nt First Utility, N.Power, Spark Energy, Irisa Energy , etc etc etc because you will be having a new contender for your "least favourite supplier " list0 -
House_Martin wrote: »A plus point then from your "least favourite supplier " at least they were honest enough .
I hope your new supplier is nt First Utility, N.Power, Spark Energy, Irisa Energy , etc etc etc because you will be having a new contender for your "least favourite supplier " list
A plus point? When they can't explain why they sent me a letter? Why they don't know why they are going to compensate me for something that they don't know what the reason is they are going to do it? Not my definition of "honest" .... I'm thinking more along the lines of a definition of "inept" ... maybe even" stupid"! Maybe that's just me, biased by 2 years experience of their poor billing service?
I thought you might have guessed from my initial post that my new supplier was AVRO ..... maybe I was too obscure?0 -
Your payment plan should be reviewed twice a year in line with your consumption. This means if your consumption has changed after six months; then British Gas may increase or decrease your payment amount to reflect your new level of consumption. From what I know, this didn't happen and payment amounts remained the same, based on the details initially provided at the annual review or tariff sign up.
As long as your usage hasn't changed significantly within those six months; you shouldn't have been significantly affected. Not all energy companies review direct debits after six months (one supplier I worked at every twelve months); so I guess this is a Christmas Cheer from the Gas.
Good Luck with Avro, do share your experiences if you ever have to face their customer service team with a complex enquiry Thank you all for helping me make my day by saving money!0 -
SammenForLivet2 wrote: »Your payment plan should be reviewed twice a year in line with your consumption. This means if your consumption has changed after six months; then British Gas may increase or decrease your payment amount to reflect your new level of consumption. From what I know, this didn't happen and payment amounts remained the same, based on the details initially provided at the annual review or tariff sign up.
As long as your usage hasn't changed significantly within those six months; you shouldn't have been significantly affected. Not all energy companies review direct debits after six months (one supplier I worked at every twelve months); so I guess this is a Christmas Cheer from the Gas.
Good Luck with Avro, do share your experiences if you ever have to face their customer service team with a complex enquiry
I'm not really sure how any of your post relates in any way to the issue I posted? I no longer have a payment plan with BG, I have not been a customer of BG since October so there is no "usage" or alteration of tariff involved. Even if there was an "adjustment" to make prior to me leaving BG, I'd have hoped that they would have done that correctly at my final bill stage.
To be clear, my main point is not that they sent me the letter offering £10 compensation, it's that, when queried, BG do not seem to know why they sent the letter or what the compensation is for! That is what I find utterly bizarre :doh: ..... don't you too?0 -
£10 - but how much did the call querying it cost, if it wasn't a FREEPHONE call, and how much is your time worth talking to them?
You should also keep the letter safe so that you can produce it if - probably when - they come back to you saying they made a mistake with your final bill and therefore want more money from you.0 -
I'm not really sure how any of your post relates in any way to the issue I posted? I no longer have a payment plan with BG, I have not been a customer of BG since October so there is no "usage" or alteration of tariff involved. Even if there was an "adjustment" to make prior to me leaving BG, I'd have hoped that they would have done that correctly at my final bill stage.
To be clear, my main point is not that they sent me the letter offing £10 compensation, it's that, when queried, BG do not seem to know why they sent the letter or what the compensation is for! That is what I find utterly bizarre :doh: ..... don't you too?
From what I know, British Gas IT only realized the mistake on accounts a few months ago; as it didn't affect everyone. They are sending the £10 cheque to apologize for their mistake of not reviewing your payment plan (Monthly Direct Debit Amount) (which didn't seem to affect you much) while you were with them. This hasn't affected the amount you paid; or were charged. Sounds like in this case, it would have been better for British Gas to stay quite Thank you all for helping me make my day by saving money!0 -
£10 - but how much did the call querying it cost, if it wasn't a FREEPHONE call, and how much is your time worth talking to them?
You should also keep the letter safe so that you can produce it if - probably when - they come back to you saying they made a mistake with your final bill and therefore want more money from you.
The amount wasn't important, to find out the reason why it was being paid was more important! The call cost me nothing, the letter is safely stored. My time was worth exactly the same rate as it is when I'm on here ...... probably the same for you too!0 -
SammenForLivet2 wrote: »From what I know, British Gas IT only realized the mistake on accounts a few months ago; as it didn't affect everyone. They are sending the £10 cheque to apologize for their mistake of not reviewing your payment plan (Monthly Direct Debit Amount) (which didn't seem to affect you much) while you were with them. This hasn't affected the amount you paid; or were charged. Sounds like in this case, it would have been better for British Gas to stay quite
I take your point .... so on the phone, BG are pretending that they don't know why they are sending me £10, even though they really do know, but they don't want to say! That would also explain why there is no clue in the letter as to why they want to give money away!
That sounds as good an explanation as I am going to get .... thanks :beer:0
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