British Gas Welcome to British Gas

beefturnmail

Good luck emailing the CEO.  I've tried 3 times and got no response from this route either.  Not even an acknowledgement and I know the email has been read by someone.  Just waiting out the time period to go the ombudsman...

StartledJesus

Copy of a post I made on another thread.

I have just been offered by British Gas an Exclusive May 23 v1 tariff, with the rider that ‘if you then find that one of our future tariffs is cheaper, you can switch again without paying an exit fee.’

I haven’t even looked at the detail yet, but my first thought is whether BG can be trusted with that promise, after the debacle of their SoLR tariffs, and massive customer confusion over when those ‘Welcome’ tariffs lasted until?  

Shedman

That doesnt look a particularly great deal....unit rates of 10.1p Gas / 33.3p Elec (for Southern).  Guess it depends on how much you think the cap is going to go up by.  They're certainly not being over generous..

BZ12

A brief update from me.  British Gas have made an eleventh hour appeal to the Ombudsman’s decision (to make them honour the price guarantee) which I believe means it will take another couple of weeks for this to be decided.

brewerdave

BZ12 said:

A brief update from me.  British Gas have made an eleventh hour appeal to the Ombudsman’s decision (to make them honour the price guarantee) which I believe means it will take another couple of weeks for this to be decided.

No real surprise - BG have been twisting and turning like the proverbial slippery eel and about the only consistent thing that has come out of all the reported "conversations" with their Complaints/Customer Services  has been their inconsistency over whether that there ever was a price guarantee ! 
The surprise (to me anyway!) is that the Ombudsman found that you should be given the guarantee. In other cases, the EO appears to have sided with BG'S view that the guarantee never existed but have awarded "compensation" for the misleading info. supplied.

BZ12

brewerdave said:

No real surprise - BG have been twisting and turning like the proverbial slippery eel and about the only consistent thing that has come out of all the reported "conversations" with their Complaints/Customer Services  has been their inconsistency over whether that there ever was a price guarantee ! 
The surprise (to me anyway!) is that the Ombudsman found that you should be given the guarantee. In other cases, the EO appears to have sided with BG'S view that the guarantee never existed but have awarded "compensation" for the misleading info. supplied.

Interesting thanks.  I guess it's six of one, half a dozen of the other, as to which remedy the Ombudsman applies. A (say) £100 payment would be pretty much the same as the modified tariff in my case.

BG's response to my dispute was to lie about what the Price Guarantee had meant.  They claimed it was intentional, but meant that the price couldn't go above the Ofgem price cap until 30th June.  When I pointed out that it couldn't go above the Ofgem price cap after that date (ever) they had no answer.  The subsequent deletion of the 30th June date appears to be a tacit admission of fault to my eyes at least.  We'll see how the Ombudsman views this.

StartledJesus

I suspect that even if the ruling goes in your favour, the Ombudsman will say that it just applies to your particular case. If he/she teases anything like a general principle, BG would be flooded with customer claims. And rightfully so, in my opinion. Despite being inefficient, inconsistent and contractually lax BG still manage to make money hand over fist, and what they have they hold. Or distribute to shareholders. 

jmsgld

So BG finally responded to my latest complaint, it took them over a month to do so. I was waiting for the information from SAR due 25/5/22 before taking to the ombudsman. 

They have offered me "Exclusive fix October 2023" backdated to connection date of 28/10/21
25.943 p per kWh
36.74p per day

We historically use approx 10,000 kWh annually (oil CH), though only used 5000 from 28/10/21- 31/03/22 so may be less this year. 

So the rate is much better than what is currently on offer, but it is some way from what was available when I searched on 17/10/21 (the day I received BG contract info). The offers started at approx £50 PA above BG's People tariff, although I don't recall who the suppliers were. Realistically having just been burned by Peoples Energy I would have gone for one of the big 6 or Shell. 

Does anyone know of fixed tariffs available from the big 6 / shell on or after 17/10/2021?

Are there any updates on ombudsman cases / BG's position?

Many thanks, 

QrizB

jmsgld said:

Does anyone know of fixed tariffs available from the big 6 / shell on or after 17/10/2021?

A focused search of the forum should find what deals were being discussed in mid-October. I think most people were choosing the SVR in the hope that the April cap would be lower than it turned out to be (Cornwall Insight were predicting a cap of £1660 or so, which turned out to be rather optimistic).

For example here's a thread from early October where the only fix on offer from E.ON was 29p/kWh plys 35p/day SC.

In hindsight that Exclusive fix seems quite reasonable, as it will see you all through Winter 22/23.

jmsgld

Yes, it certainly could be worse. 

I found this thread 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6305564/fixed-electricity-deal-ending-unsure-of-what-scottish-power-say-and-what-the-best-advice-might-be/p2

On the second page it seems that the BG Exclusive Energy June 2023 was available on 21/10/21. With my postcode would equate to 18.8p and 24.1p respectively ie better than the then cap, which doesn't seem plausible, 20 month fix seems a bit odd too.  

I have e-mailed BG to ask for confirmation that the offered tariff was their cheapest available on 17/10/21. 

It does seem that BG are softening their stance to the whole SoLR guaranteed rate fumble. My resolve has also softened somewhat on the issue, with time constraints elsewhere, I may well choose to settle, apologies.