British Gas Refunds

Smithy31

Whilst going through my father in laws past bills from British Gas I noticed something on a few of them that they stated as a 'Refund'. This refund was exactly the same amount as he was in credit on the previous bill so I thought they were just giving it back to him. Then I realised the amount was actually being added to the cost of the energy used and they were charging him again.
I'm in the process of talking (and when I say talking I mean using their 'chat' system cause they don't want to talk to me) to get this resolved.
Just wondering if anyone else has experienced the same thing?

dogshome

Refunds are usually made when an 'In Credit' statement is issued with a date that coincides with the Annual anniversary of the customers account being set-up with that company.

Obviously, if a first time customer's tariff meets this criteria, a Refund will be paid, but a long term customer who has gone from tariff with that supplier will get Refunds on dates that have nothing to do with Start & End Date of their present tariff.

Whilst you can bounce the Privacy Protection System with 'Chat', ( I do it all the time ) to properly deal with it you must send a letter signed by your FiL authorising you to manage his account

However you can WRITE a letter headed Complaint about the problem, and head the letter with the signed authorisation of your FiL

Nebulous2

Have you cross-referenced to his bank account?

When I was with BG they kept adjusting the monthly payment, which I didn’t really want. They would send the in credit balance to my bank account and then it would show as a debit on the bill. 

MWT

Smithy31 said:

Then I realised the amount was actually being added to the cost of the energy used and they were charging him again.

I suspect you may be misinterpreting what you are seeing...

The bill total for the month of the refund will be the energy used added to the refund and then that will be deducted from the balance, so it is not that they are charging it to him again, just that they have to deduct it from the balance as it has been refunded...