people's energy to British gas, first bill is absolutely massive

bsreedy2022

Hi all,
New here.
Looking for some advise. 
I was paying around £125 a month for gas and electric with people's energy until they went bust (ended up just under £300 in credit)
Been given a British gas account and told everything will be done including sorting out what I was in credit.
British gas also recommended I set up a direct debit, when I went to do so originally before my first bill It was saying my monthly bill was going to be £600 odd a month. 
So I left it
Just had first bill for 1st 2 months in and its come in at £927, with over 600 of that for gas, which is surely wrong as they said they would match old tariff from old supplier.
I know its been winter but we have hardly had heating on, and other than that nothing else has changed.
I have tried calling them but automated answer keeps on getting to the point where it cuts me off without getting to speak to anyone
I regularly supplied old supplier with up to date readings so usage was up to date
I need help if any one has it for the following
1 - Anyone else experienced this? did you solve it?
2 - help getting in contact with British gas, other than telephone which seems pretty useless and there is no online chat I can find?
3 - I obviously cannot afford such a price hike, around 4 times usual monthly price - any advice with this?

many thanks in advance

emmajones1976

They said they would match the old tarriff? Are you actually sure of this?  The main reason companies are going bust is because the prices were too low.

Robin9

Look closely at both your PE and BG meter reads .  and at the letters A C and E

Is is possible that you had had a long series of Estimated bills from PE and were actually in debt with them.

Has BG now got actual readings ?

Are they your readings or Smart ?   If yours have your read the meters correctly ?  Give us todays reading please.


PS You have actually posted in the wrong part of the forum - this is for LPG etc. (You are not the first and wont be the last)

dunstonh

Just had first bill for 1st 2 months in and its come in at £927, with over 600 of that for gas, which is surely wrong as they said they would match old tariff from old supplier.

£600 for gas, if its heating, is not much for November & December..  Typically you use around 85% of your gas during the cold months and spend the rest of the year building up credit to cover it.   

I regularly supplied old supplier with up to date readings so usage was up to date

What about BG. Have you given them meter readings?   
Have you checked the closing meter readings with the old supplier and if they match with BG?

bagand96

bsreedy2022 said:

Just had first bill for 1st 2 months in and its come in at £927, with over 600 of that for gas, which is surely wrong as they said they would match old tariff from old supplier.

They did not say they are matching the old supplier's tariff. Like all recent failures, customers from People's Energy have been moved onto a tariff that is set at the Ofgem price cap. The only way it would match PE tariff is if you were out of a fix with PE and on their SVT. More info here https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/peoples-energy.html

bsreedy2022 said:

1 - Anyone else experienced this? did you solve it?

You need to look at the bill and understand what it's billing you for. What are the meter reads on it? Did you take a meter reading when PE went bust? Have you had a final bill from PE? What does your meter reading say today? How do the readings on the bill compare?

bsreedy2022 said:

2 - help getting in contact with British gas, other than telephone which seems pretty useless and there is no online chat I can find?

There is an online chat facility with British Gas.  It pops up as a blue button on the bottom right of their website for me on most pages. But if you don't get that try the help pages https://www.britishgas.co.uk/contact-us.html It can be quite hard to get connected and strangely I've always had more succes when I was logged out of my online account rather than logged in. 

bsreedy2022

Hi everyone, thanks for all your replies
I managed to live chat them, had to go on a different web browser for it to show for some reason
There was a issue with moving over readings, all been sorted now. monthly is £132 instead of £450 odd
More than with old supplier but about right considering the tariff price has gone up
thanks again everyone

booshya

bsreedy2022 said:

Hi all,
New here.
Looking for some advise. 
I was paying around £125 a month for gas and electric with people's energy until they went bust (ended up just under £300 in credit)
Been given a British gas account and told everything will be done including sorting out what I was in credit.
British gas also recommended I set up a direct debit, when I went to do so originally before my first bill It was saying my monthly bill was going to be £600 odd a month. 
So I left it
Just had first bill for 1st 2 months in and its come in at £927, with over 600 of that for gas, which is surely wrong as they said they would match old tariff from old supplier.
I know its been winter but we have hardly had heating on, and other than that nothing else has changed.
I have tried calling them but automated answer keeps on getting to the point where it cuts me off without getting to speak to anyone
I regularly supplied old supplier with up to date readings so usage was up to date
I need help if any one has it for the following
1 - Anyone else experienced this? did you solve it?
2 - help getting in contact with British gas, other than telephone which seems pretty useless and there is no online chat I can find?
3 - I obviously cannot afford such a price hike, around 4 times usual monthly price - any advice with this?

many thanks in advance

When and how did they make this recommedation to you?
According to their website, they are hoping to transfer PE DDs over to themselves, but it does say you can set up a DD mandate with BG if you want to.

In regards the bill, does it start with the same meter reading the PE final bill ended on?

Is the BG latest reading estimated? If so, how does that compare to what your meter actually reads?

Are you being billed according to the BG tariff you were advised of?

Finally, worth checking the maths, but it's rarely wrong as bills are computer generated.


Details of the various ways you can contact BG are given on their website