British Gas denying responsibility for my Neon Reef credit because I've switched supplier

Petriix

In a rather alarming twist to my energy saga, British Gas have claimed that they won't be crediting my account with the money Neon Reef owed me because they are not my supplier any more. They seem to think that Octopus (my new supplier) will somehow miraculously pick up the credit and add it to my account with them.

This came about because I recently reached what I thought was a sensible solution with a British Gas chat agent that I wouldn't need to pay the £41 outstanding on my 'final' BG bill because the credit from Neon Reef would wipe out that debt and leave BG owing me £12 or so.

I was told that my final bill was cancelled and I wouldn't be chased for payment. However, today I received a threatening email from BG 'collections' saying they will be passing the 'debt' to a third party debt collection agency and adding £28 for their troubles.

After spending about 2 hours on live chat, they registered my complaint but insisted I had to phone the debt collections team. That call resulted in the somewhat outrageous claim that they won't be applying my Neon Reef credit to my account at all.

They stated that the chat agent made a mistake and it wasn't possible to put the bill on hold for a closed account. They've agreed to delay chasing the debt for 28 days, which should at least give them time to respond to my complaint. But remained adamant that they won't give me my Neon Reef credit.

I'm fairly sure that they are legally obliged to honour the NR credit and that they were talking nonsense. This is mostly a rant and a warning. Has anyone else been told similar?

Any thoughts?

PennineAcute

If you have been a customer of NR and NR owe you money - whoever takes over as SOLR has responsibility to deal with the credit refund.

Yes, they are talking nonsense and yes, put in a formal complaint in writing.  By doing it in writing leaves a paper trail.  Doing it over the phone does not.

molerat

BG will pay your Neon reef credit.  They cannot credit it to your final BG bill if they don't have all the details yet.  You need to pay the BG bill and wait for the NR refund to be paid out, which BG will do eventually.  Front line CS staff have less clue around what happens than the average poster on here, if it ain't on the screen in front of them they try to wing it !  Your problem was likely switching away before the SoLR process was completed.

Petriix

molerat said:

BG will pay your Neon reef credit.  They cannot credit it to your final BG bill if they don't have all the details yet.  You need to pay the BG bill and wait for the NR refund to be paid out, which BG will do eventually.  Front line CS staff have less clue around what happens than the average poster on here, if it ain't on the screen in front of them they try to wing it !  Your problem was likely switching away before the SoLR process was completed.

On the other hand I'm now paying 5p per kWh for 75% of my usage. Swings and roundabouts...

I would have been perfectly fine paying the BG bill if they hadn't told me that it had been cancelled until the NR credit was applied. But I think I have reasonable grounds for complaint as a result of their ineptitude. I object to being told one thing then being sent threatening demands for payment as if I'd simply ignored the bill or refused to pay.

t0rt0ise

BG can't add the credit to your bill as your account is officially closed. They will send any credit from NR to you as a cheque. I am in a similar position but with PfP. I have paid my BG bill in full and await to hear about PfP.

Petriix

Success!

BG complaints phoned me today, apologised for the poor communication and incorrect information, and wrote off the £41 setting my account balance to zero.

They confirmed that, when my Neon Reef credit is confirmed, I'll receive a cheque for the full amount.

QrizB

Congratulations Petriix, that's a good result.