British Gas Complaint

Garret80

I need some advice as I’m at a fork in the road with a complaint I’ve made with British Gas and need to make a decision on what to do next. We fell £350 into arrears with BG over 2019 by trying to pay a balanced monthly figure to cover our yearly costs and stop the payments yoyoing between summer and winter as they were all over the place previously. We believe we’ve been misled about the state of our account, meaning we didn't switch at various points when we should have, which has in effect caused the scale of the arrears as costs ended up being 32% higher than 2018 whilst our usage reduced slightly.

I’ll admit upfront that the initial failure in this was ours because we overlooked the email they sent to us (7 weeks) before they automatically switched us to a temporary tariff, once the 2018 MSE all online deal ended in Jan 2019. I’d argue that it was sent too early to be a reminder (the one for the 15 month "temporary" tariff ending that we moved onto arrived 4 weeks before in comparison) but I’m not sure how effective it would be? It seems that we went from the best deal to the worst without realising but believe we’ve been given misleading information about our account, as follows, so were oblivious that we should be looking to switch. 

• Conflicting information on the Jan 2019 bill 10 days before the tariff ended. In their "Could you pay less?" section it says we’re on the cheapest similar and overall tariff, without stating it was coming to an end in 10 days.

• No letter informing us that the price cap was increasing in April and we’d be affected by it. They claim it was sent in February but nothing was received.

• Their website doesn’t sync tariff and payment details correctly. Whilst calculating a change to the payment amount there is a period where the previous amount is still shown, but with it is an indication of whether you’re plan is on target and that is based on the new calculation. We’ve got screenshots of the same thing happening from this year where we're in arrears and the payments show the same amount we set them at through 2019 but the plan says we're on track.

• One bill informing us of a payment increase states we’ve used more energy than expected to justify the increase when our usage was nearly identical from the previous year and doesn’t mention cost increases due to the change in tariff.

• Having reduce our payments twice in 2019 due to the above making us think we were paying too much, we don't understand why we weren’t challenged by the BG “advisors” that we’d spoken to. Given that we were on a temporary tariff there was no mention that it might be worth checking our account, switching tariff or checking the cost of our usage before doing this as it would leave us in arrears. In fact both agreed with our assessment of stopping the yoyoing payments and were happy to reduce them.

When I complained BG did actually offer to back date a change in tariff to remove the temporary tariff but couldn’t tell me what it would save us until it was processed. It never happened though (possibly because of the lockdown) and I’ve since found out would have only saved us £23. After investigating to understand things better and some back and forth with a BG complaints handler a new tariff was suggested saving £58, but they won’t budge any further because these were the only tariffs available directly from them at the time of the MSE deal coming to an end.
 
Am I being naïve to think that the misleading information may get us anything more than is already on offer? I’m not looking for the whole amount to be cleared just a little more to acknowledge that we could have saved more by switching to something better, even with them through MSE. Given that it is our responsibility to manage our account are we quite lucky to even be offered that in the first place or is there something in what I’ve said that the ombudsman would pick up on? My worry from reading others experiences of the ombudsman is that they may not pay our situation much attention if it isn’t necessarily a black and white billing case and would side with BG given the initial error on our part.

We're certainly far better informed now having gone through this as to how the tariff determines the rates for your usage and where to find all of the relevant information within BG systems so this certainly won't ever happen again but it seems bizarre that someone has to go through this to understand it. We were also surprised to learn that the payment plan which determines your monthly payments is unrelated to your tariff for how long they run for, which has boggled the mind to some degree when trying to do a comparison with other services to understand the process, i.e. phone contracts. Really if I could enforce it upon them I'd like them to fix their systems and the misleading information that meant we missed further chances to switch but I suspect that may be beyond anyone's reach. Any and all advice welcome.

Talldave

I would take the £58 and switch to a cheaper supplier.
The information on the bill wasn't conflicting it was correct at that time.
Why should a supplier do anything about a customer who does nothing about the end of a fix? Suppliers love customers like that, more profit...
Most suppliers have crap websites but you can still read the bills and stay on the ball.

I know it's probably not what you want to hear but you're wiser now and won't get your fingers burnt again. 

MWT

The 7 week notice is timed to match the earliest point that you could switch out without paying any exit fees so you won't get anywhere claiming it is too early.

Similarly the notice stating you were on the cheapest tariff was accurate at the point it was sent to you, as far as I recall that message isn't required to be forward looking.

The rest mostly seems to be confusion about the timing of change in payments against the online account showing a projection based on the change, but not yet having processed a payment at the new rate. It isn't wrong, it just won't show the new payment until it is made. BG are not alone in this as several suppliers have a gap between payments being made and charges being applied so you have to be careful to note where you are in the cycle before adjusting payments downwards.

Personally I'd take the offer to backdate the tariff change if you can still get it. 

Gerry1

You'd be better off switching to a company that offers Variable Direct Debit.

matelodave

You really can't blame BG for your lack of control over your energy bills.

90% or more of the complaints on this forum are from people who dont read their meters frequently enough, dont check their bills and statements, dont read the notices and messages that are contained in them and don't even know what tariff they are on. They are the ones who wake up one day and find that they've accumulated large arrears or that they've been paying over the odds for ages and then want to blame someone else for their own shortcomings.

 As said above, the seven week notice is the statutory notice (between 42 and 49 days) before your tariff ends to give you warning that it's time to look for a better tariff - either with your existing supplier or another one. It really isn't BG's fault that you didn't quite get around to it. 

I would agree that they should take some responsibility for bouncing DD's up and down during the year, however it's not really hard for you to keep an eye on your bills and payments and challenge any changes to ensure that they remain in line to pay for your consumption over the whole contract period. 

Garret80

Thanks for the input, the problem I've had is that all of the listed grumbles have a knock on effect. So the reminder arrives 10 days before Xmas. Gets over looked and the January bill leads us to think we're in an ok position. No letter received to confirm increases due to the price cap means we don't double check the account and spot the initial mistake. When the April bill comes in the website shows us our current payment and a statement that we're on track. We pay the first increase in June that is from the recalculation that wasn't showing and reduce payments back without being challenged. October bill includes another increase stating we'd used more than anticipated which doesn't add up against kWh used year on year, so we reduce it back again, also in part because they insist on yoyoing payments which we were trying to stop. I think I checked the usage in Feb this year after the Jan bill but it wasn't until they tell us the temporary tariff is due to end in March and we might want to consider switching that we have that light bulb moment.

If anything is done differently in their information/systems for any of the above then I'd guarantee we spot this and switch, saving far more than is currently on offer. It just seems that if you aren't fully aware of the exact piece of information that you need to be reviewing at the right time that they can get away with complicating everything to the point of it being misleading. They really need a log all account interactions where the bills, tariff changes, price increases and anything else get posted so you can reviewing everything in one place, rather than posting it all within the bills themselves so you have a visible timeline. 

If I thought there was any chance the ombudsman would see that and demand changes I'd be tempted to chance everything. Potentially losing the £58 against making them do the right thing. The next problem is the lockdown has dragged the issue on longer than anticipated so we'll be getting a bill shortly that will likely increase our arrears further.

And the variable direct debit is what we're trying to avoid - we want one monthly payment amount to cover the year. Anything outstanding we'd clear in say April and adjust the payments again for the next year if required. I'd find that far easier to manage financially due to the small variability I have in my pay that allows me to accrue some money to clear debts periodically.

matelodave

But you have 24 hours a day access to your on-line account and you could, like a lot of people do, download your bills and statements yourself and save them.

It really does only take 5-10minutes once a month to read your meters, send in the readings and download a bill so you can check it (even more important if you've got a smart meter). I dont know what the BG billing system is like but most suppliers that I've been with produce their bills on roughly the same day every month. If you give them a reading a day or so before the billing date then the readings usually get used so it's pretty well up to date (SSE were different). However if you don't send in readings or don't check that bills are using an estimate that's close your your readings and get them corrected then you can't really complain if they are wrong.

Likewise it doesn't really take everso long to have a quick trawl of the comparison sites to see what deals there might be around - BG are nowhere near being the cheapest and TBH the lockdown is a bit of a red herring. Thousands of people have been able to manage their bills or even swap suppliers. It might have slowed things down a bit but the world didn't actually stop turning and many people have taken the opportunity to sort out a lot of outstanding stuff.

I'd guess that if you go to the ombudsman BG might (probably will) retract their offer and you could end up losing it as they haven't actually done anything wrong. But as in all things it's up to you.

Garret80

To be fair I was under no illusion about the sorts of responses I was likely going to get having read through the forums already. But I will say until you've walked a mile in another persons shoes you won't understand their situation, so easy for one person might be a nightmare for another. Part of the point though is that since we've had smart meters fitted (around 2017) that we had been checking the account via their app and the website. Obviously just not the right bits in this instance, so once you miss that notification how do you spot it if you're not looking at the GCSE maths paper that is their bill intently and I was wondering if there was anything that I was missing before I had to bite the bullet.

Given your previous comment I also suspect there are so many people that do not understand what I'm now enlightened about or what they necessarily need to be checking just to ensure that they aren't going to get screwed in any way. In our case being oblivious to the fact that the tariff changed meant checking our consumption was pointless as the rates had changed as I had done by pulling data off their website but still didn't pick up on the change. The MSE tariff moved all of our bills online, which are quarterly as well which may not help, so it is easy to miss one bill without them being regular or appearing in the post for a monthly check.

Part of the argument I had with BG was how would anyone know the tariff had changed if that initial notice was missed? Got the standard response from BG that it is on your bill, which just created a chicken and egg argument of but if you didn't know something was happening why would you be checking it? I got stone walled when I requested an email confirmation for any automatic system changes to my account at the point at which they happen. My conclusion therefore is the only thing to do is read the bill, not their own summaries, not their website or app, just the bill, which I find remarkable. The information should be simple and unambiguous no matter where you look for it if they are providing functions beyond a simple bill.

MWT

Garret80 said:

...My conclusion therefore is the only thing to do is read the bill, not their own summaries, not their website or app, just the bill, which I find remarkable. The information should be simple and unambiguous no matter where you look for it if they are providing functions beyond a simple bill.

I'm sure it must feel like everyone else commenting is just ignoring your valid justifications for how you got where you are today...

.. the problems all began when you developed the feeling that you didn't have to 'read the bill'.

It really does begin and end right there.

There are lots of clues in all sorts of other places but as an absolute minimum why would anyone be paying a bill that they aren't reading and checking for themselves?

That is why this feels like a tough, critical audience sometimes, because once you've decided that it isn't necessary to pay attention to the bill you are heading down the path that leads to outraged and indignant posts on this group, whereas reading the bill and understanding your tariff, its costs and its time limits is what puts you in control of your energy costs and leaves you able to help those starting the threads on here.

... and yes, your post was very low on the indignation factor, and you've learned a lot from what you've said so I doubt you'll get caught again, which is a good thing. Energy is no different to leaving your money in a savings account where the bank cut the interest rate to nothing years ago, you have to stay active and vigilant on these things and not depend on companies and organisations to take care of your interests, nobody but you can be responsible for that...

matelodave

Garret80 said:

To be fair I was under no illusion about the sorts of responses I was likely going to get having read through the forums already. But I will say until you've walked a mile in another persons shoes you won't understand their situation, so easy for one person might be a nightmare for another. Part of the point though is that since we've had smart meters fitted (around 2017) that we had been checking the account via their app and the website. Obviously just not the right bits in this instance, so once you miss that notification how do you spot it if you're not looking at the GCSE maths paper that is their bill intently and I was wondering if there was anything that I was missing before I had to bite the bullet.

Given your previous comment I also suspect there are so many people that do not understand what I'm now enlightened about or what they necessarily need to be checking just to ensure that they aren't going to get screwed in any way. In our case being oblivious to the fact that the tariff changed meant checking our consumption was pointless as the rates had changed as I had done by pulling data off their website but still didn't pick up on the change. The MSE tariff moved all of our bills online, which are quarterly as well which may not help, so it is easy to miss one bill without them being regular or appearing in the post for a monthly check.

Part of the argument I had with BG was how would anyone know the tariff had changed if that initial notice was missed? Got the standard response from BG that it is on your bill, which just created a chicken and egg argument of but if you didn't know something was happening why would you be checking it? I got stone walled when I requested an email confirmation for any automatic system changes to my account at the point at which they happen. My conclusion therefore is the only thing to do is read the bill, not their own summaries, not their website or app, just the bill, which I find remarkable. The information should be simple and unambiguous no matter where you look for it if they are providing functions beyond a simple bill.

But it's actually the bill that you are having to pay,- it has your tariff details on it, your meter readings, billing date,  whether they are Actual, estimated, customer etc , how much it costs and how much you have in credit or debit. It's also the document that usually has a the info that you require and any notifications. On-line accounts are designed to be managed on line - if you want a paper bill then you've frequently got to pay extra for them.

A summary is what it says, a summary which is an abbreviated precis of the bill and possibly a list of all the bills that have been issued, not the bill itself, the same with the online app - it's not the bill just an overview of the state of your account.

Petriix

I would never expect my supplier to contact me to inform me about the end of my fixed tariff and I don't recall that ever happening. I would also never let a fixed tariff simply roll on to a variable tariff.

It takes a couple of seconds to create a reminder (or write one on the calendar etc. ) for seven weeks before your fix will end. Then it takes about five minutes to find the cheapest supplier and initiate a switch at that time.

It's not quite the same as insurance renewals because they are more heavily regulated so insurers are obliged to inform you of the renewal rate and how it differs from the previous year. However, you should treat it in exactly the same way.

Presumably you don't just let your car insurance automatically renew at whatever inflated rate your current provider sets?

There is an argument that energy suppliers should have to provide similar clear information but it's obviously more complicated because energy costs vary depending on usage. But, that's not how it works now. For the time being the more aware among us are able to shop around for the cheapest prices (only available to those who switch) while energy companies profit from those less savvy or diligent customers who pay the expensive variable rate.