British Gas ignored my cooling off notification... Do I still have to pay exit fees

Gidans24

Hi All
I moved to British Gas from Scottish power, completing a form on Uswitch on 03/12/2020, I then decided against the move and sent British Gas' cooling off form filled out and signed to their dedicated cooling off email address on 15/12/2020, so well within the 14 days. I received no response and they went ahead and set up my account. I was then contacted by Scottish Power trying to tempt me back so I told the salesperson I wanted to move back and to go ahead with it. I have just received my final bills from British Gas and there is a £20 exit fee per fuel. I feel like, considering I sent my notice of cancellation within 14 days of signing the contract, my account should never have been set up and moved from Scottish Power in the first place, and I shouldn't be liable to pay the exit fees. Does anyone know if I have any right to demand cancellation of the exit fees. I feel like I've got a case logically but not much experience with these things?

I found a similar thread here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6003661/british-gas-charging-exit-fee-during-cooling-off-period, but was a slightly different situation so any additional info would be great.

Thanks
G

[Deleted User]

If you have evidence that a notification was sent to the BG within the 14 day cooling off period, then BG is required to cancel your contract without penalty even if they received the notification after the cooling off period has passed. Clearly, this provision applies more to snail mail than emails. The mistake that you have made is to initiate a transfer of supply back to your old supplier: by taking this action, BG can argue that you accepted the legitimacy of the switch.

Once formal/legitimate notification of a contract cancellation within the cooling off period has been given, the gaining supplier is required to either cancel the transfer if this is still possible or, if the switch has gone through, transfer your supply back to your old supplier without any charges being raised. You have rather jumped the gun.

MWT

I have to agree that I would have treated this as an incorrectly handled switch and raised a complaint on that basis, not initiated another switch before complaining about it.

Was any complaint raised with BG at all following the initial switch?

Can't hurt to try and argue the case now, but it is all rather unnecessarily complicated now.

Gidans24

Thanks for your responses. I'm afraid I didn't initiate any formal complaint with BG at the time , thanks though will try my hand and update the thread if I havr any luck. G