British Gas removes guarantee dates from SoLR tariffs...

Mstty

brewerdave said:

Mstty said:

I wonder if this mistake by BG comes off their profit when they pay compensation or if it is eventually lumped into the Standing Charge for everyone.

Ofgem as them to take on people, they made a mistake in wording and are having to pay compensation.

Just a thought

I'm sure the bean counters will make sure that any comp. paid for BG's c**kup in the wording , will be charged to the SOLR costs, so will ultimately end up being charged to the Standing Charge increases for everyone. The Board bonuses won't be hit ,mores the pity !!

Yep compensation paid by us all. Brilliant can't wait for the next standing charge rise in Oct😳

phillw

brewerdave said:

 the fact that they have paid various sums between £30 and £100 in compensation shows (to me anyway) that they have accepted that they are in the wrong but that's a long way from auto compensation of all affected customers !!

It might have been to hit some target for resolved complaints.

What I'm not sure about, is how it affected anyone? What would you do? Switch to a more expensive tariff?

Gerry1

phillw said:

brewerdave said:

 the fact that they have paid various sums between £30 and £100 in compensation shows (to me anyway) that they have accepted that they are in the wrong but that's a long way from auto compensation of all affected customers !!

What I'm not sure about, is how it affected anyone? What would you do? Switch to a more expensive tariff?

The issue is that BG's incompetence led many customers to believe that it was a special introductory offer with the kWh price and daily charge both fixed until 31/07/22 or whatever, after which the rates would drop on to the Standard Variable Tariff.  Such deals are widespread, e.g. newspaper and magazine subscriptions, e.g:

Therefore, these customers may well have lost out financially staying with BG, thereby missing out on attractive fixed deals that were available when BG became their SoLR but have since been withdrawn.

Mobtr

Gerry1 said:

phillw said:

brewerdave said:

 the fact that they have paid various sums between £30 and £100 in compensation shows (to me anyway) that they have accepted that they are in the wrong but that's a long way from auto compensation of all affected customers !!

What I'm not sure about, is how it affected anyone? What would you do? Switch to a more expensive tariff?

The issue is that BG's incompetence led many customers to believe that it was a special introductory offer with the kWh price and daily charge both fixed until 31/07/22 or whatever, after which the rates would drop on to the Standard Variable Tariff.  Such deals are widespread, e.g. newspaper and magazine subscriptions, e.g:

Therefore, these customers may well have lost out financially staying with BG, thereby missing out on attractive fixed deals that were available when BG became their SoLR but have since been withdrawn.

But were there any better tariffs available when these companies went bust? 

brewerdave

Mobtr said:

Gerry1 said:

phillw said:

brewerdave said:

 the fact that they have paid various sums between £30 and £100 in compensation shows (to me anyway) that they have accepted that they are in the wrong but that's a long way from auto compensation of all affected customers !!

What I'm not sure about, is how it affected anyone? What would you do? Switch to a more expensive tariff?

The issue is that BG's incompetence led many customers to believe that it was a special introductory offer with the kWh price and daily charge both fixed until 31/07/22 or whatever, after which the rates would drop on to the Standard Variable Tariff.  Such deals are widespread, e.g. newspaper and magazine subscriptions, e.g:

Therefore, these customers may well have lost out financially staying with BG, thereby missing out on attractive fixed deals that were available when BG became their SoLR but have since been withdrawn.

But were there any better tariffs available when these companies went bust? 

Better than the post April and certainly better than expected Oct 22. increases - yes there were - with the proviso that they were more expensive than the Oct. 21 cap , so it needed a careful prediction/calculation to work out the possible benefit with Winter 21/22 at higher rates.
I was one of those who believed that BG had offered a special deal til July 22 when NR collapsed so it seemed the best option. Until BG decided in Feb (10 weeks after the initial email) that they had made a "mistake" that is.

Mobtr

brewerdave said:

Mobtr said:

Gerry1 said:

phillw said:

brewerdave said:

 the fact that they have paid various sums between £30 and £100 in compensation shows (to me anyway) that they have accepted that they are in the wrong but that's a long way from auto compensation of all affected customers !!

What I'm not sure about, is how it affected anyone? What would you do? Switch to a more expensive tariff?

The issue is that BG's incompetence led many customers to believe that it was a special introductory offer with the kWh price and daily charge both fixed until 31/07/22 or whatever, after which the rates would drop on to the Standard Variable Tariff.  Such deals are widespread, e.g. newspaper and magazine subscriptions, e.g:

Therefore, these customers may well have lost out financially staying with BG, thereby missing out on attractive fixed deals that were available when BG became their SoLR but have since been withdrawn.

But were there any better tariffs available when these companies went bust? 

Better than the post April and certainly better than expected Oct 22. increases - yes there were - with the proviso that they were more expensive than the Oct. 21 cap , so it needed a careful prediction/calculation to work out the possible benefit with Winter 21/22 at higher rates.
I was one of those who believed that BG had offered a special deal til July 22 when NR collapsed so it seemed the best option. Until BG decided in Feb (10 weeks after the initial email) that they had made a "mistake" that is.

Is that not all in hindsight though? Back when these suppliers went bust we didn’t know what the April price cap was going to be & if your tariff was going to be fixed only until July 22 then surely if there was a better deal out there that lasted passed this you would have changed to it regardless 

brewerdave

Mobtr said:

brewerdave said:

Mobtr said:

Gerry1 said:

phillw said:

brewerdave said:

 the fact that they have paid various sums between £30 and £100 in compensation shows (to me anyway) that they have accepted that they are in the wrong but that's a long way from auto compensation of all affected customers !!

What I'm not sure about, is how it affected anyone? What would you do? Switch to a more expensive tariff?

The issue is that BG's incompetence led many customers to believe that it was a special introductory offer with the kWh price and daily charge both fixed until 31/07/22 or whatever, after which the rates would drop on to the Standard Variable Tariff.  Such deals are widespread, e.g. newspaper and magazine subscriptions, e.g:

Therefore, these customers may well have lost out financially staying with BG, thereby missing out on attractive fixed deals that were available when BG became their SoLR but have since been withdrawn.

But were there any better tariffs available when these companies went bust? 

Better than the post April and certainly better than expected Oct 22. increases - yes there were - with the proviso that they were more expensive than the Oct. 21 cap , so it needed a careful prediction/calculation to work out the possible benefit with Winter 21/22 at higher rates.
I was one of those who believed that BG had offered a special deal til July 22 when NR collapsed so it seemed the best option. Until BG decided in Feb (10 weeks after the initial email) that they had made a "mistake" that is.

Is that not all in hindsight though? Back when these suppliers went bust we didn’t know what the April price cap was going to be & if your tariff was going to be fixed only until July 22 then surely if there was a better deal out there that lasted passed this you would have changed to it regardless 

In my case anyway - not hindsight - I made a positive decision to stay on the Oct 21 cap with BG as I believed them as regards July 31st end date. Haven't got the calcs. I made then but there must have been some predictions of April rise which I based my comparisons on with then available fixes. I can remember that staying on the Oct 21 cap til July 31st "saved" ~ £25pm vs expected cap and in reality would have "saved" ~£35pm

400ixl

Personally when I read the terms on transferring from NR, I didn't read it as a water tight guarantee at all. It clearly stated variable, which I took to mean that if the cap changed then so would that rate.

Gerry1

400ixl said:

Personally when I read the terms on transferring from NR, I didn't read it as a water tight guarantee at all. It clearly stated variable, which I took to mean that if the cap changed then so would that rate.

That's one way of looking at it, but the hybrid version to which I referred a few posts back is also a valid interpretation.

It's quite possible to have a variable tariff that follows the Ofgem cap but with a 6-months fixed introductory period bolted on to encourage people to try out the new SoLR rather than jumping ship immediately.

Nobody would have expected a massive supplier like BG to have dropped such a clanger with several SoLR agreements and to have left all of them uncorrected for months; many people were genuinely misled, they're not exploiting loopholes.

StartledJesus

Ironically this headline itself is misleading, unfortunately. Surely ‘should’ not ‘must’. It has not yet been ordered or instructed to compensate. Interesting though.

https://www.yourmoney.com/household-bills/british-gas-must-pay-compensation-over-price-guarantee-shambles/

Sounds like one chap received £270 compensation. Anyone beat that?