British Gas - Worth a claim

CollB

I feel I have been badly treated by British Gas and I am wondering if I have a claim and if so what I should claim for/request as compensation.

First of all it's a business account, if that makes any difference.

My gas contract with British gas ended on 17/10/18 (remember this, there will be a quiz later). I hadn't gotten around to sorting out a new supplier so went on a variable plan with a standing charge of 89.447p per day and a unit charge of 7.029p. I knew this was very expensive but I use very little gas and as I was out of contract I, incorrectly it seems, believed I could sign a contract with someone else straight away. However I turned off the gas so I couldn't run up a stupidly high bill.

Soon after I attempted to sign up a new provider (I forget the name but they appealed because they said all their energy was from renewable sources). After about a month I found out they only do residential electricity, because somehow it's different from commercial stuff, bit like red diesel I suppose, they put some sort of dye into the electricity cables I imagine.

Anyway, I was sick of trying to sort it myself so got a company called switchmybusiness to handle it. I called them on 11/12/18 and they sent me some forms to fill in and forward to british gas to terminate my contract. I did this and sent them a copy to check everything was done properly. Sorry this is so long to read, but it's nothing compared to how long it took to go through.

Within a week I got letters from British Gas saying they were blocking the transfer, but no explanation why. I contacted switchmybusiness and gave them permission to investigate on my behalf.

It took until 11 january for them to find out it was blocked because 'they never received a termination notice'. I filled in another one and Opus energy finally took over on 20 february. I turned the gas back on on the 21st happy that I hadn't cost myself any more than necessary.

A few days ago I received a final bill from British Gas for £748.40 which they have now removed from my bank account. This seemed very high, I expected a couple of hundred due to the daily charge but no more than that. However it claimed i had used 790 units whilst the gas was turned off, this was for a reading and not an estimate. I checked the meter and today (5 weeks after the reading) the meter reads about 400 units less than the reading they used for my final bill.

I phoned British gas and they said they were given the reading by Opus energy so I phoned Opus energy and they are investigating for me. The thing is, the only person who reads the meters works for British Gas. It seems very fishy to me because the reading was 11241 and the reading today is 10942, the lowest that reading could be would be 10,451. This means that it couldn't be just one incorrect figure and due to the way British Gas have operated during this, my guess would be they intentionally have cooked the figures and delayed the switch over in order to get as much money out of me as possible. The meter is easy to read but unfortunately I don't keep track of people have come into the shop to take a reading. I also didn't take a picture of the meter myself until today so can only prove their figure is incorrect and not the actual reading when the switch completed.

I was on the phone to British gas for over 30 minutes and they were no help at all,so I want to know the following before I call again.

1) How can they delay me switching to another provider when I am 'out of contract' and keep me on such an unreasonable rate? If I had signed up for British Gas again they would have offered me two months backdated tariff I believe, instead they delayed me for over two months, so in order to change I had to accept paying four months at these unreasonable rates. I would have thought that out of contract meant you'd be free to sign up straight away.

2) What records do they need to keep of meter readings? Surely their meter reading guy has photographs of the meters they read. I would love to be able to prove that British Gas intentionally overcharged me, is this possible?

3) switchmybusiness told me that British Gas said they never received the original termination notice and I got letters from British Gas saying they were blocking the switch, however when I talked to them on the phone today they said they had got the original letter and that I was free to switch from the 11 of January (presumably because that was two months after the termination notification?), but Opus didn't request the switch until February 20th. Now, someone at switchmybusiness had contacted me on the 11 January to tell me that the reason the switch hadn't taken place was because British Gas denied receiving the original termination notice and got me to send off another that day. How do I find out what the truth is?

I can't imagine anyone bothering to read all this, it is so confused and I am struggling to make sense of it myself. I hate the way big companies seem to be able to treat everyone so badly and we accept 'it's just the way things are' so I am prepared to do some work to get things sorted out, but if I am wasting my time then it'd be better for me to spend my time working.

The worst thing is I can imagine that a lot of people (especially the elderly or vulnerable) have been put on these variable rates and will remain on them or be forced to go with British gas again simply because they are so out of pocket to do otherwise. I turned off my gas and was very cold under a duvet most of the winter because although it's a business account it also feeds my flat that's above the shop so I had no central heating until this was sorted. This was by choice, but also because financially I would have been compromised by using the gas that I was charged for anyway. I did this because I was determined not to give British Gas any more of my money out of principle. It didn't work because they have made hundreds out of me.

Oh, and at the same time I tried to change the gas, I also tried to change the electricity, however that seems to have been ignored completely because I am currently still with British Gas paying 30.148 p per unit and 43.194p per day. No explanation why that hasn't gone through, but as that is 'only' £160 a month I have concentrated on sorting the gas up till now.

Oh and in case you think that any of this is due to 'arrears' I am and have always been on direct debit so they have taken whatever they wanted whenever they wanted so there are and have never been any arrears.

I think I could do with a drink, :beer:
Ben C

JJ_Egan

Business to business not consumer .
Plus you have a third party involved now .
You took regular meter readings ??



< I would have thought that out of contract meant you'd be free to sign up straight away.>
Depends upon the terms and conditions .



You should hand your complaint to your soliciter if you are looking for compo.Far to much guesswork involded in your complaint .

spiro

When you switch energy supplier (gas/elec/dom/non-dom) it is the new supplier who sorts out the meter reading and sends it to your old supplier so they can send you final bill.

You need to raise a Disputed Read with your new supplier using the fact that 5 weeks after the switch the meter hadn't even reached that reading. Hopefully you have a photo.

I think when you are out of a business contract you go on some sort of rolling 30 day contract as you still need to cancel, effectively you are on a default contract (price etc).

Robin9

spiro wrote: »

I think when you are out of a business contract you go on some sort of rolling 30 day contract as you still need to cancel, effectively you are on a default contract (price etc).

Business Utilities and changing suppliers is very different to the Domestic arrangements - the presumption being that when you are in business you know how to manage things.

Yes you do take out a contract with the new supplier but you MUST formally terminate the existing contract. BG will have written to you to give you notice of the end of the contract.

I've always changed within that period and had no problems

Hasbeen

your contract did not end on 17/12/19 it ends when you switch.

Meter readers do not just work for BG they work for a multitude of providers, probably Opus as well.

Just because you where paying by direct debit does not mean you do not owe money.

Meter readers come into your shop but you do not notice them taking readings.

Have you actually provided BG with your actual readings now.


What is your complaint with BG about? A few sentences will do.