British Gas Incompetence

mal1976

I have been having issues with BG for the past 5-6 years, it started when i moved into a new build 2 bedroom house and BG was the only supplier for the property, i signed up and gave readings and bank info for DD, they took payments for the first 3 months then billed me for an additional £1200 for no reason, this took 3 months to get sorted and i was told a new payment of £50 pm would cover the ongoing use and small arrears. 6 months later i received another large bill with no explanation from BG despite numerous calls and meter readings, i gave up and did complaints and ended up with the ombudsman who said i was free to leave and go elsewhere which i couldnt do as every company i spoke to told me BG owned the supply lines. I continued sending readings and had tradesmen read my meters yet was never billed, now british gas have told me they have never had any readings in 6 years and that all bills were sent via email to an account i dont have anymore.
Every time i have spoken to them via phone or webchat i have to tell them everything again as they never put notes on my account or update payment details, they keep apologising for bad customer service yet never seem to do anything to rectify. I have now in the past month had more contact from them than the past 5 yrs as they have tried to bill me for £5000+ put a debt company onto me the same day, so i called them again to be told it was a mistake and the bill was cancelled, the following week i had a letter threatening a court warrant to fit prepayment meters, i called, gave readings and was told i now owed £5400 that they would raise another complaint for me. I have since received a proper paper bill using the same readings i gave and the bill has gone up a further £500 which is ridiculous for 6 weeks gas and elec, everything is used in moderation in my house, everything is new i have even replaced all lighting with LED, i am now awaiting a deadlock letter

knightstyle

So you have meter readings from when you moved in?   Have you been sent regular bills?  Remember they cannot back bill more than 12 months.
It sounds like your bills have been sent to an old email, did you tell them to use your new email? Have you proof of this?

Reed_Richards

mal1976 said:

I have been having issues with BG for the past 5-6 years, it started when i moved into a new build 2 bedroom house and BG was the only supplier for the property ..... the ombudsman who said i was free to leave and go elsewhere which i couldnt do as every company i spoke to told me BG owned the supply lines. 

I'm afraid the ombudsman was right and you misunderstand the situation.  You can buy your energy from whichever provider you choose, it doesn't matter who owns the "supply lines".  For example Scottish Power Energy Networks operates the electricity supply in my area but I don't buy my electricity from Scottish Power and I have switched my electricity provider several times in the last few years.  But when someone tries to switch then their incumbent supplier can block the switch if the person owes money to the supplier.  That's the only reason I can think of why you have not been able to switch away from BG.

Given that your understanding of this aspect of your situation is so awry, I fear that much of your interaction with BG may have been at cross-purposes.  Can you seek independent advice, from the Citizens Advice Bureau, for example.      

Gerry1

mal1976 said:

i was told a new payment of £50 pm would cover the ongoing use and small arrears.

That's likely to have been too low to cover your usage, so it's quite likely that you do owe a significant amount.

Why didn't you ask for paper bills if you weren't getting emails?  Why didn't you set up an online account?

The simple answer now is to subtract the opening meter readings from today's readings, work out your usage, calculate what this would have cost (include the daily charges and 5% VAT) then compare that with the total of all the payments shown on your bank account.

It may have to be a bit rough and ready because the rates will have changed over the years, but it should give an indication of the situation.

It's always better to conduct such disputes in writing because then you have an audit trail.

mal1976

Every time i have had dealings with BG trying to set things up change details etc its all seemed to fall on deaf ears, i go away thinking something has been rectified only to find further down the line they have not, and even though BG have record of me contacting them nothing has ever been added on my account on what was said or done.

The £50 a month was set up halfway through my first year with BG just after they billed me £1200 which was wrong, my usage around that time was around £800 a year on gas and elec, i was then given another bill around £1300 at the end of the first year which was also wrong, i can see my payments should have been higher as there would have been a shortfall of a couple of hundred, but not £1300.

With regards to leaving BG the ombudsman set up so i was free to leave with no penalty and set up a payment plan to pay off any arrears, which was all agreed. When i asked other suppliers why i could not move the reason given was always to do with BG having a monopoly, not to do with any arrears.

I am going through CAB who are helping and still awaiting a deadlock letter so i can go back to the ombudsman.

[Deleted User]

British Gas does not have a monopoly. It doesn’t own the networks that supply gas and electricity to homes around the Country. As you are getting advice from the CAB, I would be guided by them.

MWT

mal1976 said:

I am going through CAB who are helping and still awaiting a deadlock letter so i can go back to the ombudsman.

I would suggest you continue to work with CAB to get all this sorted out.

Nobody here is going to be able to help you more than the CAB as they have all the details and can help clear up the misunderstandings that you have about the 'monopoly' (which simply doesn't exist) and sort out access to the bills that have been generated and sent to an email address you do not have any more.

Reed_Richards

Bills sent to a non-existent email address would be bounced back to the sender and should be detected as failed.  I suspect the OP means an email address they do not use any more.  

Carrot007

Reed_Richards said:

Bills sent to a non-existent email address would be bounced back to the sender and should be detected as failed.  I suspect the OP means an email address they do not use any more.  

Should <> does. It fact usually the opposite. Do you know how unable to act becuase they outsourced it out the average company is these days. And they get just what they ask for. They never think of problems during this, just everything going right. I would no expect an invalid email address to be nopticed. Are you aware of the number of companies (including very large ones) use facebook as t heir website because they have no access to update their actual website in any timely way?

Reed_Richards

The inability to detect if emails are bounced back as "address unknown" would certainly constitute British Gas Incompetence!

Carrot007

Reed_Richards said:

The inability to detect if emails are bounced back as "address unknown" would certainly constitute British Gas Incompetence!

I would 100% not expect any company to notice these days and say, well you chose the email and did not update it. But I am pragmatic. Whether it is incompetance or not is neither here nor there in getting a resolution.

(There is nothing in the supply terms that require them to notice this, so there is no requirement. Obviously they shoud, but they have nop reason to do so).