BRITISH GAS FINAL BILL

itsintheblood

I received a final bill for my duel fuel via email from British Gas on 10/05/21 it directed me to a link where I inserted my post code, I owed £69.65 I paid it that day. Received an email acknowledging payment. Today 20/05/2021 I received a threatening email from British Gas with ANOTHER final bill stating I owed them £103. The BG representatives( who were awful) denied the original email stating it wasn’t them that sent it despite me forwarding the them the original email and the receipt AND they could see the £69.65 payment on my account. WHAT CAN I DO, they will not take responsibility. 

QrizB

Afre your final bills due to switching suppliers or due to moving house?

Was your first final bill based on actual readings or estimated ones?

Is your latest final bill based on actual readings or estimated ones?

Neil_Jones

What link did the first email send you to?  I suspect you might have been phished.

Never click on links on emails.  For future reference if you get an email from British Gas or Marks and Spencer or Argos and you're in any doubt, don't click on links in the email.  Open the British Gas/M&S/Argos site and log in from there.  If the email was genuine the same information would be in your online account.

Gerry1

Neil_Jones said:

What link did the first email send you to?  I suspect you might have been phished.

Never click on links on emails.  For future reference if you get an email from British Gas or Marks and Spencer or Argos and you're in any doubt, don't click on links in the email.  Open the British Gas/M&S/Argos site and log in from there.  If the email was genuine the same information would be in your online account.

Could well be a sophisticated scam.  I know for a fact that personal data leaks because I used a unique disposable email address for BT when I was a customer, and it was spammed.  Having obtained your personal and banking details, they could have paid BG so that you wouldn't suspect you'd been scammed.  You may now find that in due course you are contacted by the scammers claiming to be the bank, warning that your account has been compromised and that you should move your funds to a 'safe' account they have opened for you.  They may convince you that they really are the bank by spoofing the bank's phone number, quoting your account details and / or saying that the original email was a scam.  That trick has been widely reported (the Royal Mail 'We couldn't deliver your parcel, pay £2.99 for redelivery or it will be returned to sender' scam).

If you paid BG by direct debit, why would they not collect the final payment that way?  Even if you'd unwisely already cancelled the DD I would expect them to ask you to log in to your online account (which wouldn't need a postcode, only the scammers would ask that).

I'd cancel the card with which you paid, and keep a very close eye on all my accounts, and check the main credit rating agencies as well; better safe than sorry.  Also change your passwords.

olgadapolga

Confused - the OP said that BG could see the £69.65 payment on his account:

itsintheblood said:

I received a final bill for my duel fuel via email from British Gas on 10/05/21 it directed me to a link where I inserted my post code, I owed £69.65 I paid it that day. Received an email acknowledging payment. Today 20/05/2021 I received a threatening email from British Gas with ANOTHER final bill stating I owed them £103. The BG representatives( who were awful) denied the original email stating it wasn’t them that sent it despite me forwarding the them the original email and the receipt AND they could see the £69.65 payment on my account. WHAT CAN I DO, they will not take responsibility. 

OP, I think that you will just have to keep on at BG. Do the final bills make sense? Have they used the correct meter readings? It may be that they recalculated your final bill, for whatever reason but didn't take off the £69 payment as they didn't process it in time.

Just had a similar situation with the water board, my DD went up on one bill and then trebled on the next, a few days later. Once I'd looked at the bills, they both ran from the same reading but the second one was correct, the first one was wrong.

victor2

It doesn't sound like a scam if BG can see the original payment on your account, more like a revised final bill, possibly after estimated readings were used for the first "final" bill.

Either way, BG should explain it. Start a formal complaint with them either in writing or by email, so that you have a record of communications. Their website tells you how to complain.

Reed_Richards

You'll find a lot of threads here from people complaining that they paid their "final" bill only to receive another one later.  I'm afraid this is perfectly legitimate although my personal opinion is that it exploits a loophole in the regulations.  Typically the first "final" bill is based on an estimate of meter readings and the second one is derived from actual meter readings.  If so, there is nothing much you can do (unless the second bill covers electricity used over a year ago).