Problem with gas bill

maderedundant

Hi all,
I have a problem with my electricity bill. The bill is paid by direct debit to British Gas every month.
The new bill from 24 Aug to 27 Nov has just arrived and on looking at the payments I noticed that only 1 payment, being the 1 for November has been taken out.
I have rung British Gas and they tell me that the payments haven't been made. On looking at my online statement the payments were made in September and October as normal.
I have also rung the bank and they confirm that the payments have been made to British Gas. I also pay my gas bill to them by direct debit but no problem with that.
What, in your experience, would be the most effective way to proceed?
Regards Paul

olly300

You can either use the Direct Debit guarantee via your bank to get the money back. -You have to write to your bank giving them the payee, amounts and dates. It takes 3 to 7 working days. - Then contact BG and ask to pay the money to them using a debit card or cheque. The bank will get the money back from BG but that is not your concern. Just a word of warning some banks will try and debit the money from your account again if BG tries to debit the amounts again so keep an eye on your bank balance for 3 months.

Or you can write to British Gas telling them the amounts and dates the money went out and ask them to sort it out in 28 days before taking further action. If they fob you off then you can go to energywatch. This is more hassle due to BG administrative problems.

I wouldn't telephone British Gas as you may get transferred between different Call Centres and there advisors don't seem to know what is going on.

Cardew

Can you work out from the previous bills if your 2 'missing' payments have been credited to your account?(despite what BG say - as olly300 says they are often not 'in the picture.')

I had this problem recently with BG and although, exactly like you, 2 payments were not shown on the bill, the money had been credited to my account.

If they haven't been credited WRITE a letter to BG, don't phone!

Terrylw1

I think you should ask BGas where these have gone. They may be in a holding account due to some reason.

Or maybe the person you spoke to was very experienced and just thought they had not ben taken.

If you go for the indemnity, you still have to pay BGas anyway so that doesn't seem worth it if someone can easily trace the missing payments in BGas's systems first for you.

Can you give BGas a reference for the payment off your bank to help them trace them?

A very real possibility is that they created a bill but then replaced it. In some Suppliers systems, a member of staff then has to add the payments back on. So, they could forget and not do it, see that before.