british gas

vicki_b

anyones advice about BG would be fab as ive never really dealt with them before...i have been paying 7 pound per week on the gas and the same for the leccy since august and i am in credit...60pounds for the gas and 50pounds for the electric...i have been submitting meter readings every month so it should be correct...it seems crazy that they have over a hundred pounds of my money when ive got 3 kids and about 2quid in my purse until friday!!?? where do you think i stand on getting a refund??

kingstongold

set of w*nkers i tell ya. Impossible to get through to them by phone, exorbitant prices, and likely high price rises come the new years. Also, once you do get thru their staff have the kinda, can't be bothered attitude where they don't wanna help you. Scottish power all the way kidda...

SwanJon

Well, as long as we're not making sweeping generalisations, kingstongold.

Vicki, I take it you do not have a prepayment meter (nothing is actually put in the meter)?

If so, you can get them to check if you are paying the right amount through email or phone. If you moved in in August, they may have set a standard amount, but with 4 months reads they may get a better picture.
You would expect to be a bit in credit now (especially for gas) to offset the larger winter bills.
Could you go to monthly payments? You get a discount for paying by Standing order and a bigger one for direct debit (same discount for electricity for SO & DD).
If you have all your readings, you could try to guess how much you'll use over a year and look at the comparison sites. Remember that you'd have to account for higher winter consumption.

Cardew

As SwanJon said above you cannot compare your consumption in summer with the winter consumption to come.

If you are looking at your credit balances on line, the important thing to remember with BG is that they credit all monthly payments immediately and that shows on your balance; then every 3 months when a bill is produced it is debited. e.g. I could be £150 in credit today and tomorrow a £200 bill will be debited and I am £50 in debit.

If you get some money back now(even if BG agree) you will probably finish the winter well in debt.

kingstongold's point about BG's 'exorbitant prices' is as constructive as the rest of his post. In fact BG's Click4 tariff is certainly one of the cheapest - if not the cheapest - for most people, as many have posted on this forum - and the comparison websites confirm.

Terrylw1

I would agree with all of the above (except Kingston, obviously a customer who had problems with them - it's not the same for everyone and all these companies have the same complaints if you ask Energywatch!)

The DD idea is a good idea for you. If you set up a payment plan by DD, they will incorporate your current credits into any such plan anyway. So, you effectively get a refund anyway.

As Cardew pointed out, it's best to wait on Winter quarters because you could put yourself on debt. It's easier to consider refunds in the summer ones when you know your heating bill will be less.

vicki_b

thanks everyone!i finally got through to them and they said i couldnt have a refund as the credit is there for the winter months.hello?isnt it winter now?i wont be using the heating anymore than i am doing now as i get very hot easily and we are always wearing an extra layer. nevermind better than in their pocket than mine lol

Willsnarf1983

i agree wtith the OP, someone said that in 5 pages two people asking for help were missed, imagine if u were one of those two people. How would you have felt not getting any answers? What would u have done, probably carried on spending and getting in deeper trouble!

There needs to be something done to distinguish between the 'chat' threads and the 'Help' threads, even if this meant having a tick box so the first word of each thread would have in it so the HELP ones just stood out more because they can get shrunk by the chat threads

Will

midflight

In fact BG's Click4 tariff is certainly one of the cheapest - if not the cheapest - for most people, as many have posted on this forum - and the comparison websites confirm.

Sadly, the "comparison websites" you mention (of which there are very few useful ones) don't take into account all the stress, hassle & associated costs involved in being with BG.

e.g. they never keep appointments. I recently had to take 2 whole days off work, and waited in ALL day (8am-8pm) for them to arrive. They didn't turn up. For the second appoinment, I rung up the day before to confirm it was still going ahead. "Definitely", I was told. No sign of them in the morning, so I rung up at lunchtime to double check. "Still going ahead". I rung at 7pm to ask where they were, and was told "we can't do anything yet, try ringing back at 8pm." I rung back at 8pm only to be told "we're closed now".

Can you put a price on that level of frustration?

When you complain, they may offer you £20 in compensation. £20 !?!? Do they honestly believe that a whole wasted day of my time is worth only £20? It's an insult. Being self-employed, a day's work can mean anything up to £500 to me.

So, who cares if their "Click69" tariff is pennies cheaper than someone else. I'm already £480 down!!!

Another example = telephone costs. I've lost count of how much time & money I've wasted phoning BG this year, trying to get endless problems resolved. In one week I made 15 calls. One of those lasted 80+ minutes, of which most of that time I was hold, listening to the same bit of music being looped every few seconds (you know the one...)

Shame the comparison sites don't take things like this into account?

The moral = buy the cheapest, expect the worst. So, by definition, if BG's tariff's really are the lowest, then they are destined to be rubbish. Same with anything - who wants to drive around in the cheapest possible car, or watch the cheapest TV, or eat the cheapest, nastiest food? Sometimes, you just gotta pay a little more.

MoneySavingExpert isn't about saving money AT ALL COSTS. It's about finding GOOD VALUE at reasonable prices. I honestly don't believe British Gas fit this criteria, so it annoys me to see people promoting them as "the cheapest". Maybe so, but at what cost!?!? Wasted days, endless telephone calls, wrong bills, website that's almost always broken, rubbish call centre staff, hassle, disappointment, anger, frustration, despair... sign up now!

lisyloo

Shame the comparison sites don't take things like this into account?

I can't remember which site I use but it does have a "service rating" and you can search by service rating rather than price.

If you are self-employed and will lose £480 a day by waiting in all day then I would suggest getting a non-working friend/reletive/student or an unemployed person to sit in your house all day.
I find it hard to believe that you don't anyone who is less well paid than you that could sit in your house.
If you don't know anyone then try the local OAP home and offer them a few free lunches.

midflight

I can't remember which site I use but it does have a "service rating" and you can search by service rating rather than price.

Good point, and I would heartily recommend everyone does this!

If you are self-employed and will lose £480 a day by waiting in all day then I would suggest getting a non-working friend/reletive/student or an unemployed person to sit in your house all day.

I think even they would find the whole experience to be boring & frustrating, and would want paying more than the paltry £20 which BG offer you to stay in your home all day, waiting for nothing...

If you don't know anyone then try the local OAP home and offer them a few free lunches

Ha, bribe some OAPs, I like it! I'll try that next time. Maybe BG will turn up after all, and the OAPs can batter them with their handbags & chase them away with their walking sticks... :rotfl:

lisyloo

I think even they would find the whole experience to be boring & frustrating, and would want paying more than the paltry £20 which BG offer you to stay in your home all day, waiting for nothing...

Gosh you have mean parents/grandparents :-)

Mostly family members do things as a favour and don't expect to be paid a wage.
I know it is restricitve but a lot of elderly people don't get out that much anyway so if they are just staying in reading/watching TV/knitting etc. then it's not that much of a hardship really.

Some peoples time is less financially valuable than other so if yours is very valuable I'm sure you can find someone to assist.
My family wouldn't expect to be paid for doing a favour but it works both ways of course.

Similarly could a neighbour at home let them in for you? or could you leave a key somewhere?

Paying someone to do it was a suggestion of last resort if you have no friends, family, colleagues or neighbours who could help but it could still be worthwhile.
There's quite a big gap between £20 and £480 and sometimes it's worth paying people to do things for you.

I pay people to do my gardening, cleaning, ironing and I can justify it on the basis that my hourly wage is much higher.

Obviously this doesn't justify bad service in any way.
I've had no problems at with British Gas (except their website which I find terrible).