British Gas Welcome to British Gas

BZ12

Having asked the investigation officer who made this appeal decision, he has confirmed that there is no further right of appeal.  It will be interesting to see if BG pay up.  The sum involved is certainly large enough to merit taking them to court if they don't willingly pay.

Given that the appeal decision is for them to pay a significant multiple of the amount in the original decision, perhaps they might think twice about appealing these decisions in future...

Taiko

I've had my own Ombudsman decision today, and awarded £75.

They concluded that the tariff is clearly variable, and didn't uphold that part of my complaint. However, they did uphold on the poor customer service side.

Conclusion

In conclusion I am unable to request that British Gas make a tariff adjustment in-line with the actual tariff terms highlighted in the welcome letter.

I conclude that you were switched to British Gas on a variable tariff and the information provided on the welcome letter issued by British Gas, advises the tariff to be variable, but also held information that lacked transparency which fails to meet the standards expected of an energy supplier.

Furthermore, you have remained a customer of British Gas based on unclear information provided and did not shop around for alternative tariffs.

I acknowledge that the customer service you received from British Gas was below the standard that we would expect from an energy provider.

Overall, my investigation has found service shortfalls from British Gas, and you have clearly experienced inconvenience and unreasonable delays resolving your issue.

I have considered the time spent regarding this matter, and in resolution to this aspect of your complaint, I will include a requirement that the company issue you a written apology and credit your energy account with a goodwill payment of £75.00 to you.

If you have any questions, please contact me on xxxxxxxxxxx or send me a message online, using our complaint management system where I will be able to respond directly to you.

Outcome: Upheld

JezzaG

Just got my decision from the Ombudsman...

"It is clear that the information that you were provided by British Gas indicates that your price is guaranteed until 31 July 2022. This is made more apparent by British Gas advising that your tariff also ends on 31 July 2022 therefore in my opinion it is entirely reasonable that you believed that your prices were fixed and guaranteed."

Outcome: Upheld

brewerdave

JezzaG said:

Just got my decision from the Ombudsman...

"It is clear that the information that you were provided by British Gas indicates that your price is guaranteed until 31 July 2022. This is made more apparent by British Gas advising that your tariff also ends on 31 July 2022 therefore in my opinion it is entirely reasonable that you believed that your prices were fixed and guaranteed."

Outcome: Upheld

...But what have they "told" BG to do ?

Danny16

Taiko said:

I've had my own Ombudsman decision today, and awarded £75.

They concluded that the tariff is clearly variable, and didn't uphold that part of my complaint. However, they did uphold on the poor customer service side.

Conclusion

In conclusion I am unable to request that British Gas make a tariff adjustment in-line with the actual tariff terms highlighted in the welcome letter.

I conclude that you were switched to British Gas on a variable tariff and the information provided on the welcome letter issued by British Gas, advises the tariff to be variable, but also held information that lacked transparency which fails to meet the standards expected of an energy supplier.

Furthermore, you have remained a customer of British Gas based on unclear information provided and did not shop around for alternative tariffs.

I acknowledge that the customer service you received from British Gas was below the standard that we would expect from an energy provider.

Overall, my investigation has found service shortfalls from British Gas, and you have clearly experienced inconvenience and unreasonable delays resolving your issue.

I have considered the time spent regarding this matter, and in resolution to this aspect of your complaint, I will include a requirement that the company issue you a written apology and credit your energy account with a goodwill payment of £75.00 to you.

If you have any questions, please contact me on xxxxxxxxxxx or send me a message online, using our complaint management system where I will be able to respond directly to you.

Outcome: Upheld

Was this after an appeal or is there still an option to appeal? If you can provide more evidence that you relied on that information to stick with SVG then it should look more favourable on your part. 

Also no one seems to say what evidences they have brought to the E.O I imagine this plays a huge part in their decision making?

I provided my original contract details and times/dates of calls and contact and copies of correspondence I had hold of. I should have requested a DSAR, well I did but they havent complied. I know I should go to the ICO regarding that matter but then it will be a full time job trying to deal with it all. 

I will update mine when I hear back from E.O.

Good luck to everyone else out there battling British Gas at the moment

MarkToday

JezzaG said:

Just got my decision from the Ombudsman...

"It is clear that the information that you were provided by British Gas indicates that your price is guaranteed until 31 July 2022. This is made more apparent by British Gas advising that your tariff also ends on 31 July 2022 therefore in my opinion it is entirely reasonable that you believed that your prices were fixed and guaranteed."

Outcome: Upheld

Interesting...

JezzaG

JezzaG said:

Just got my decision from the Ombudsman...

"It is clear that the information that you were provided by British Gas indicates that your price is guaranteed until 31 July 2022. This is made more apparent by British Gas advising that your tariff also ends on 31 July 2022 therefore in my opinion it is entirely reasonable that you believed that your prices were fixed and guaranteed."

Outcome: Upheld

Subsequent to the complaint I opted to take the "Exclusive May 23v1" fixed rate so the ombudsman offered me two options: a) to compensate me for the difference in cost between the April uplift and when I took the fixed rate deal; or b) to cancel the  fixed rate without exit fees and be compensated from the April uplift until the end of July. Additionally a recommendation of a £30 goodwill payment. I opted for a) as think I'll be better off with the impending increase.

brewerdave

Once again this proves that the Energy Ombudsman service is not fit for purpose!
 In view of the number of complaints on this issue, the E.O should have instructed BG to offer ALL the affected customers the same resolution rather than the hodge podge collection of "solutions" which have been publicised - however, if BG were an ethical Company ,they should have forestalled action by the E.O by accepting that they had mislead their SOLR'd customers late last year and putting things right themselves!

Taiko

Danny16 said:

Taiko said:

I've had my own Ombudsman decision today, and awarded £75.

They concluded that the tariff is clearly variable, and didn't uphold that part of my complaint. However, they did uphold on the poor customer service side.

Conclusion

In conclusion I am unable to request that British Gas make a tariff adjustment in-line with the actual tariff terms highlighted in the welcome letter.

I conclude that you were switched to British Gas on a variable tariff and the information provided on the welcome letter issued by British Gas, advises the tariff to be variable, but also held information that lacked transparency which fails to meet the standards expected of an energy supplier.

Furthermore, you have remained a customer of British Gas based on unclear information provided and did not shop around for alternative tariffs.

I acknowledge that the customer service you received from British Gas was below the standard that we would expect from an energy provider.

Overall, my investigation has found service shortfalls from British Gas, and you have clearly experienced inconvenience and unreasonable delays resolving your issue.

I have considered the time spent regarding this matter, and in resolution to this aspect of your complaint, I will include a requirement that the company issue you a written apology and credit your energy account with a goodwill payment of £75.00 to you.

If you have any questions, please contact me on xxxxxxxxxxx or send me a message online, using our complaint management system where I will be able to respond directly to you.

Outcome: Upheld

Was this after an appeal or is there still an option to appeal? If you can provide more evidence that you relied on that information to stick with SVG then it should look more favourable on your part. 

Also no one seems to say what evidences they have brought to the E.O I imagine this plays a huge part in their decision making?

I provided my original contract details and times/dates of calls and contact and copies of correspondence I had hold of. I should have requested a DSAR, well I did but they havent complied. I know I should go to the ICO regarding that matter but then it will be a full time job trying to deal with it all. 

I will update mine when I hear back from E.O.

Good luck to everyone else out there battling British Gas at the moment

I didn't appeal, this was the original decision. I'm a low-user, and based on readings between 1st April and July,I calculated the difference to be £60, so £75 more than covers it. 

Mstty

@brewerdave I like this to Housebuilders. Whilst some (maybe 5%) may create a snagging list 95% are happy to just get on with whatever finish and issues they are sold.

What percentage of BG customers off this board do you think are complaining.

It's cheaper for BG to just pay out to those that complain than all.

I suspect.