British Gas removes guarantee dates from SoLR tariffs...

jobdone1

So deadlock letter it is for me. She advised £75 they was not in the wrong if I don't accept the offer will be removed. Good now it's going to cost them more because I'm off to the energy ombudsman when I get the deadlock letter. I am not rolling over for £75 quid I have principles.

MattMattMattUK

jobdone1 said:

So deadlock letter it is for me. She advised £75 they was not in the wrong if I don't accept the offer will be removed. Good now it's going to cost them more because I'm off to the energy ombudsman when I get the deadlock letter. I am not rolling over for £75 quid I have principles.

What principals are you specifically referring to? There was a genuine issue with lack of clarity, most of us understand that, we many of us fail to see is why that entitles you to money.

MWT

MattMattMattUK said:

jobdone1 said:

So deadlock letter it is for me. She advised £75 they was not in the wrong if I don't accept the offer will be removed. Good now it's going to cost them more because I'm off to the energy ombudsman when I get the deadlock letter. I am not rolling over for £75 quid I have principles.

What principals are you specifically referring to? There was a genuine issue with lack of clarity, most of us understand that, we many of us fail to see is why that entitles you to money.

There is a reasonable claim to be made that decisions were made based on the wrong information which would have been different if they had not seen the guaranteed date on the tariff, but the claims do need to make that point and back it up.

Just claiming that it should remain guaranteed isn't likely to get more than a token gesture for 'poor customer service' and will not get the guarantee restored.

The tariff was agreed with Ofcom and was always a variable tariff, BG just messed up with the communication and misled people.

A claim for the consequences of the believing the wrong information has merit, a claim to just restore the guarantee doesn't.

jobdone1

I have worked out my increased unit rates and my usages I have work out they will receive just over £148 between 01april and 31st July so that's my demand.. this my loss due to there misleading information

MWT

jobdone1 said:

I have worked out my increased unit rates and my usages I have work out they will receive just over £148 between 01april and 31st July so that's my demand.. this my loss due to there misleading information

No, that would be the difference between what you thought the tariff was and what it actually was, your loss would be the difference between what you did as a result of the conflicting information, which was stay on the tariff, vs what you would have done if you had known it wasn't guaranteed and had picked a different tariff or switched elsewhere...

It is your choice what you do of course, but I wouldn't bank on the Ombudsman giving you that...

... anything is possible though, the Ombudsman decisions can be odd at times.

brewerdave

jobdone1 said:

I have worked out my increased unit rates and my usages I have work out they will receive just over £148 between 01april and 31st July so that's my demand.. this my loss due to there misleading information

I tried that approach but it didn't work directly with BG - AND I'm not sure that the EO would accept that way of calculating your "loss" either. Others who have been via the EO have tried to calculate their "loss" on the basis of a fix that they might have switched to ,IF they had realised that the BG information was incorrect, but I quickly decided that approach was unlikely to succeed as it was almost like consequential losses (and very difficult to calculate accurately !).
The successful E.O cases that I have read about ,seem to have resulted in a maximum of £100 award. I settled for £60 because I had had enuf of the nonsense! So £75 doesn't seem too bad especially as others have recently reported a hardening of BG's attitudes.

jobdone1

That's for the info, I said in previous posts I am rolling the dice, I have nothing to lose. 

MWT

brewerdave said:

... but I quickly decided that approach was unlikely to succeed as it was almost like consequential losses (and very difficult to calculate accurately !).

Agreed it is hard to calculate, but it is a valid type of damage in the context of reliance on misleading information (The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008) but, and it is a big but... 'mistake' is a valid defence when seeking damages, although it is reduced as mitigation when it is repeated multiple times as was the case here. That just leaves unwinding the contract which is not a solution for these cases, or a discount, which is what has been offered with the £75.

Personally I'd take the £75 at this point, rolling the dice with the Ombudsman will cost BG more for sure, but can often end up with a token gesture (£30-50) for the consumer.

MWT

jobdone1 said:

That's for the info, I said in previous posts I am rolling the dice, I have nothing to lose. 

... other than the £75 of course...

LtMike77

In a new low for British Gas they are trying to use the conflict in Ukraine as a reason why wholesale prices have risen. Last time I looked the conflict started after they removed the price guarantee.