British Gas Incompetence

mal1976

I have just had a call from BG customer service regarding my complaint to tell me they will not be issuing a deadlock letter, so complete turn around from the previous call telling me it was in the post, reason being is they cant agree a repayment plan, i told her well if i had a payment plan in place you wouldnt give me a deadlock letter either which she agreed, so i am now being stopped taking the matter further. CAB are still involved so hopefully they can sort, but the lady did tell me the installation and pipework here was owed by BG as per developer instruction but it shouldnt have stopped me moving supplies.

mal1976

I did fail to mention in previous i have 3 children 6yrs and under, and life threatening health conditions are involved which i told BG if a prepayment meter was installed and we had to pay a large amount weekly with repayments ( which i believe can be high) we might not be able to keep the meter topped up which could be fatal, and they are fully aware of this.
I was also told the warrant for prepayment was done back in January!!! so why didnt they inform me until 16th june?? I have said i have no issues setting up and paying what is owed but i have no trust with anything BG tell me, and i do believe the back billing would be feasible and they should not be looking at prepayment meters under the circumstances

niktheguru

I think you need to go through CAB and get a resolution to this.
There are so many unknowns in your story that no one here can help without all the facts. 
Regarding your circumstances and health conditions, make sure you are on the "priority register" and if you want to stop them putting a prepayment meter in, set up a payment plan which you can afford immediately, and then continue with your complaint.
Threats of prepayment meters usually come when people are using far too much compared to what they pay, or if they decided to stop their direct debit and let their debit pile up.

You haven't told us how much you actually owe. what are your actual meter readings and how much does it come to, have you been under or overpaying and by how much? (forget about the supposed erroneous bills) Have you actually calculated what you use?

Have you been paying by direct debit regularly? Did you ever cancel that direct debit?

Still far too many unknowns here.

welshmoneylover

Did you never query why over the timeframe you never actually received a bill? Not informed British Gas that you had a new email address? 

Unfortunately the back billing rule will not apply as they have billed you; sadly you were not proactive in managing your account correctly. 

This is customer responsibility irrespective of how many children you have.

mal1976

that has been the main issues over the years, i have been proactive trying to sort the account yet BG are refusing any communications ive had, yes i should have done better with paper trails, yes i tried to change payment and communication details, but i was not in a fit state of health mentally and physically at the time, and then started working long nightshifts and not able to spends hours during the day to sort. As i have told the numerous idiots at BG ive spoken to over the past couple of months, i pay my water rates, i pay my council tax, they bill me correctly i pay DD no issues, no huge bills, no stupid estimates and i have no issues paying any other of my bills, and would have no issues paying my usage for gas and electric if they could just do the simple thing and take my details, bill for the use, im no spring chicken, ive paid my bills and taxes all my life, im not trying to get something for free or get out of paying but they have really taken the !!!!!! and im sick of dealing with them. The way i see the actions they are trying now is ludicrous, the calls ive had are all "we are trying to help you", "we have done everything we can to resolve this sooner" bull**** they have done nothing, ive tried to deal with them, ive tried to set up something that works so i can pay like my other bills they change things quicker than the wind blows

niktheguru

Have you noted your meter readings over these 5 years. How can they bill you for 1000s if you've been supplying meter readings.
Do you have an active direct debit set up or did you cancel it.

I'm sorry for your health issues, but that's not really a reason for getting it sorted over 5 years or moving suppliers.

As I said before there are far too many holes and unknowns in your story for anyone to help at the moment.

mal1976

i know that there is no easy solution, i didnt expect any either, just after several years of trying to sort the issue and banging my head against a wall i thought i would post and see if anyone else had been let down to this degree.
Meters readings i used to send via txt msg so i should still have details on my older phone, as for payments i knew i was underpaying on what i was told at £50 which i tried to rectify with BG, they did not increase my payments, did not send an up to date bill until last week, my payments stopped at some stage i have no idea why as was on DD and im still listening to BG spout lies to me everytime i have contact.
Im pretty much done with them, my last bill i had which is the first in 4-5 yrs is £5818 , if they had tried to give me any kind of customer service in the past few years this wouldnt be an issue, but due to covid i have just lost my employment so pulling that kind of money from thin air is impossible, and they have no care on how they have let me down during the whole time, just oh sorry about that.
Its not good enough.
My estimated use at the moment is a £3900 a year bill.... How??? easy, they make it up as they go along, and just blame the usage or old appliances, well neither apply to me. I have friends locally on BG on same tariff in a 4/5 bed house with 10 people that pay £80 a month. Im 2 bed 2 adults, 3 kids, washing machine 2-3 times a week, no dishwasher, no cannabis farm.
Its a frustrating thing causing a lot of worry and stress that we dont need as a family, i just wish someone at BG would actually do as they say so i could maybe move someway forward with this instead of stuck in limbo keep repeating the same stuff everytime i have any contact.... Its still with CAB like i said so fingers crossed i can get some kind of resolution

niktheguru

mal1976 said:

i know that there is no easy solution, i didnt expect any either, just after several years of trying to sort the issue and banging my head against a wall i thought i would post and see if anyone else had been let down to this degree.
Meters readings i used to send via txt msg so i should still have details on my older phone, as for payments i knew i was underpaying on what i was told at £50 which i tried to rectify with BG, they did not increase my payments, did not send an up to date bill until last week, my payments stopped at some stage i have no idea why as was on DD and im still listening to BG spout lies to me everytime i have contact.
Im pretty much done with them, my last bill i had which is the first in 4-5 yrs is £5818 , if they had tried to give me any kind of customer service in the past few years this wouldnt be an issue, but due to covid i have just lost my employment so pulling that kind of money from thin air is impossible, and they have no care on how they have let me down during the whole time, just oh sorry about that.
Its not good enough.
My estimated use at the moment is a £3900 a year bill.... How??? easy, they make it up as they go along, and just blame the usage or old appliances, well neither apply to me. I have friends locally on BG on same tariff in a 4/5 bed house with 10 people that pay £80 a month. Im 2 bed 2 adults, 3 kids, washing machine 2-3 times a week, no dishwasher, no cannabis farm.
Its a frustrating thing causing a lot of worry and stress that we dont need as a family, i just wish someone at BG would actually do as they say so i could maybe move someway forward with this instead of stuck in limbo keep repeating the same stuff everytime i have any contact.... Its still with CAB like i said so fingers crossed i can get some kind of resolution

With every post you’re adding more variables. Did you ever register for an online account. The British Gas online account is amongst the better ones. You can set up a direct debit on it, change payments, check your bills, submit meter readings etc etc. It should have all the info you need.

your issues are very complex, it’s definitely not going to be solved without a lot more factual information.
you’ve now said you’ve only had one bill in 5 years of 5818, then an estimated annual use of 3900, then your direct debit has suddenly stopped so you weren’t making payments “at some stage” but don’t know how long.

you need to stop and start from the beginning.
you need to work out what your unit rate and standing charges have been since you started with British Gas. You need the opening reading from 4 hrs ago and today’s reading. You then need to calculate exactly how much you’ve used.
you then need to look at your bank statements and see exactly what you have paid during the time.
the difference will be what you owe.
comparing how much friends and family pay per month is not helpful as each house has different usages and appliances etc.

it’s obvious here that you have not been paying for what you’ve been using, BG have been confusing you with erratic bills, your meter reads have either been infrequent or not being registered and there are probably crossed wires between both parties.

once the facts have been established you can work out a payment plan with BG and then have to be organised about things going forward.

if you haven’t got an online account log in with BG, get one ASAP.

Reed_Richards

@mal1976 on a forum like this you get a range of different people trying to offer helpful advice  but they won't all agree and I fear this may add even more confusion to an already confused situation.  My opinion is that you need one-to-one advice from someone who can see your bills and the details of the payments you have made and the Citizens Advice Bureau is your best bet for that one-to-one advice.  

Ectophile

If enough time has passed since your initial complaint, you can go to the Energy ombudsman with or without a deadlock letter.

But you do need to be absolutely clear what you think they have done wrong, and what you think they should do to fix it.