British Gas cancelled my direct debit and says it's my fault!

Robin9

Houbara - but this isn't a meter reading issue is it? It's about BG's billing problems - which are nothing to do with the consumer - and its failure to communicate and when then do they expect the consumer to jump.

RelievedSheff

It is also a failure on the customers part for not keeping an eye on their account and noticing a debt building up.

It does also sound as though this debt has built up over a longer term that the 8 months specified.

The OP has used the energy so needs to pay for it and should really have noticed that the bill was not being paid.

Mister_G

OP - Do you have a working Smart Meter? If not, I hope that you have been submitting regular (monthly) meter readings to BG.

Is the £800 debt based on actual or estimated readings?

You need to know that your DD is covering your actual use.

[Deleted User]

Robin9 wrote: »

Houbara - but this isn't a meter reading issue is it? It's about BG's billing problems - which are nothing to do with the consumer - and its failure to communicate and when then do they expect the consumer to jump.

By the sound of the OPs comments it is a meter reading issue in that they have just relied on an unsound yearly direct debit they have "set up " themselves either by mistake or deliberately with an incorrect yearly annual usage in either kwhs or money.
We can all "set up " a nice low direct debit if we want and get a direct debit of £40 a month.
It is not the job of any supplier to micro manage every customers account.
If suppliers do not obtain a genuine verified independent meter reading at least four times a year every direct debit is suspect and the only way they can do that is by smart meters or meter readers .
Yet the Tories still allow people to pick and choose which type of meter ,( which they do not own ), is installed in their properties.
Until smart meters are installed in 100 % of the properties, like Italy for instance , here on the Energy board at MSE it will keep us all who offer advice on here interested for decades with constant messed up billing .
You can t have correct billing without 100% correct meter reads which are properly verified

dogshome

The OP was happily paying out by D/Debit for a year, but in January BG stopped claiming the D/D's from the bank and took a full 9 months to advise the customer.


The question is:
If the entire account had a problem from it's beginning, how on earth were BG producing bills, and did they produce any bills at all?


We need the OP's billing history, or confirmation that there were none to judge if this case meets the criteria for 'Back-Billing' debt relief


I find BGs ' Solution ' to this problem very odd - A Cash/Cheque payment on a bill receipt tariff, usually costs more than a Direct Debit tariff - Is it a smokescreen to hide the OP's right to Back-Billing relief ?

Ectophile

Houbara wrote: »

By the sound of the OPs comments it is a meter reading issue in that they have just relied on an unsound yearly direct debit they have "set up " themselves either by mistake or deliberately with an incorrect yearly annual usage in either kwhs or money.
We can all "set up " a nice low direct debit if we want and get a direct debit of £40 a month.
It is not the job of any supplier to micro manage every customers account.

I think you have completely misunderstood how Direct Debit works. It is not a standing order. The customer does not get to pick the amount.


The supplier decides how much they want, notifies the customer, and then if the customer doesn't object, then they just take the money.

Ectophile

matelodave wrote: »

As said above, if it's not been taken out then it should all be there waiting

I really don't understand how £50 a month is easily missed.

I wouldn't notice.


Evert time I get a bank statement, I look through it to see if there are any unexpected charges. If there are, I look at them very carefully (and they usually turn out to be a retailer whose company name doesn't match the trading name).


But I wouldn't notice a debit that wasn't there.

Ectophile

FraserR wrote: »

Is there really nothing i can do about this? I cant believe they have admitted fault but refuse to help.

You can complain, and ask them to be more reasonable - perhaps by allowing you to pay it off as an extra on your monthly bill.


But unfortunately, if they spotted it within one year, then they can claim the money from you.


The Limitations Act sets the limit to 6 years in most of the UK (not Scotland), but OFGEM rules reduce that to 1 year for errors by the supplier.

[Deleted User]

Ectophile wrote: »

I think you have completely misunderstood how Direct Debit works. It is not a standing order. The customer does not get to pick the amount.


The supplier decides how much they want, notifies the customer, and then if the customer doesn't object, then they just take the money.

I think you have completely misunderstood just how little contact many occupiers will have with any suppliers once a direct debit is "set up " by using a yearly kwh /spending when they start a new supplier. A good proportion of occupants think that a direct debit is their monthly payment and once its established make no further contact for what could be years on end and never submit a meter reading, and if a meter reader happens to call, a rare sight nowadays, they refuse access..
Two friends of mine who I try to advise are just like that and do not submit readings at all for years and just rely on their monthly DD.
We see examples of this virtually every day on here when their low DD suddenly is exposed by possibly a meter reader, like me , calling on a 2 year to 5 year (smart meter ) safety inspection reading to enlighten an equally negligent supplier the exact usage.
Until active working smart meters are a mandatory requirement, like say in Italy, France, Belgium Portugal, ROI etc,etc then the UK energy market will just blunder on and on .

FraserR

To clarify...
British Gas set up the direct debit when I joined them and set the amount.

It ran smoothly for a year

British Gas cancelled my direct debit in error, but did not tell me - I now know this happened when they tried to increase the DD amount after my fixed tariff ran out, but they didn’t tell me my tariff had increased either.

Hence the higher bill of £800.