British Gas - Economy 7 scam warning

Gerry1

I have E7 but also GCH.  I managed to get the legendary BG Zero Fixed Oct 22 tariff (day 20.301p/kWh, night 10.793p/kWh inc VAT, no standing charge, no exit fee ) and they've never quibbled about the lack of storage heaters.  Almost as good as Symbio !

In any case, they could be shift workers, prefer to use the electric shower and tumble dryer at night or whatever, it's really none of BG's business.

Presumably it's related in some strange way with BG being unable of unwilling to support E7 smart meters?  The fewer E7 customers they have, the more smart meters they can force on people and the less they'll be fined for missing targets.

Some companies have refused to offer their single rate with an E7 meter, but no-one has ever asked about storage heaters.

If Ofgem were any good they'd mandate that all suppliers should offer single rate with an E7 meter, and also other options such as gas only, electricity only and monthly variable direct debit.

Similarly, existing customers should be able to enjoy rates offered to new customers, and new customers should be able to sign up at rates charged to existing customers.  All such anti-competitive practices should be outlawed, that's the only way to get a fair market.

A._Badger

OldScientist said:

A._Badger said:

I'm one of the electricity only customers transferred to British Gas when Together/Bristol Energy collapsed. For over a decade, across various energy suppliers, I have been on an Economy 7 tariff, which has worked well enough for me, despite not using storage heaters. British Gas however, has just informed me that because I don't have storage radiators, it is refusing to supply me on an Economy 7 tariff and that the bill it sent me yesterday, calculated on a single rate, will not be revised.

There are a few issues here. The first is that no previous supplier has ever asked me whether I have storage radiators - it's a time based tariff. not appliance dependent, so why would they? And how would they know, anyway? All they see is how much electricity I use during the relevant 7 hour period. 

Moreover, BG told me I would be switched to Economy 7 when I contacted them in February asking why my new account showed only a single rate. Why adopt an account already operating  a split tariff, refuse to honour the arrangement and not inform the customer?

Naturally, I'll be switching supplier and making an official complaint about this peculiar ruling but if you happen to have been transferred to British Gas and you are an Economy 7 customer, be warned. British Gas is living down to its reputation.

 

It appears that they (or at least their customer support) are making 'reasons' up as they go along - I too was on economy 7 prior to Neon Reef going bust and have so far had a nearly 4 month battle to get British Gas to switch me back to economy 7 and backdate it to the SoLR (and I do have storage heaters) - the initial responses were positive, it would be fixed soon, then there were 'technical' reasons why there was going to be a delay (I do not have a smart meter and was on economy 7 with them only a few years ago), then it swung back to a statement that it would be fixed very soon (within days) and finally one where they said it wasn't going to happen at all. I currently have a complaint in progress and will hopefully hear soon.

Yes, I was spun a line about it all 'being fixed' back in February when I first notified BG that they had me on the wrong tariff. Yesterday's call centre operative claimed that the first person 'had the wrong information' but how can you tell which of them (if either)  knows what they are talking about - particularly when you are speaking to someone who is thousands of miles away from head office and only has ;a supervisor' (again, no doubt, a remote local) to turn to for a definitive ruling?

It is pretty clear that BG is a shambolic organisation (much as MSE has pointed out recently) and should never have been given yet more customers to disappoint. 

Wright22

Although this is now a pretty old thread it has been massively helpful and I wanted to add to it for others. I was transferred to BG from Together Energy in Feb and waited for months to see what I was going to pay, intermitently giving two metre readings. On 14th November, no doubt pressured by the people on this forum, I received this email from BG "

We made a mistake with your energy tariff

Hello Mr ...   We're sorry, we made a mistake when you first joined us, and we didn't set your account up correctly.   Instead of setting your account up on Economy 7 rates with separate prices for your energy during the day and night, we used a single price.   What you need to do? Having your account set up in this way and not being on Economy 7 rates has saved you money since you joined us.   So if you'd like to keep the same set up and stay on a single rate for your energy, you don't need to do anything else.   If you'd prefer to change to Economy 7 rates - for example, if you'll be using storage heaters or a lot more hot water - then please get in touch.   Any Questions? If you need to chat to us, the quickest and easiest way to get through is on Live Chat, where you can find us Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.   Thanks for choosing us for your energy.   Your British Gas team

I had not realised that I was paying the single energy rate all this time and, until I read this thread could not find a way to calculate how much more/different I had been charged due to that error. I am going to try my best now to contact BG and get the correct pricing agreed. What a shower!

dunstonh

British Gas however, has just informed me that because I don't have storage radiators, it is refusing to supply me on an Economy 7 tariff and that the bill it sent me yesterday, calculated on a single rate, will not be revised.

You don't need storage heaters to be on economy 7.   We don't and have E7.    I don't know if this is BS or a BG thing.

E7/10 will be phased out in a few years, when the teleswitch system is switched off. You'll need a smart meter to access TOU tariffs then.

For decades, you havent needed the teleswitch system to be on E7/E10.  The meter just switched from register 1 to register 2 or 4 by timer.

A._Badger

Wright22 said:

Although this is now a pretty old thread it has been massively helpful and I wanted to add to it for others. I was transferred to BG from Together Energy in Feb and waited for months to see what I was going to pay, intermitently giving two metre readings. On 14th November, no doubt pressured by the people on this forum, I received this email from BG "

We made a mistake with your energy tariff

Hello Mr ...   We're sorry, we made a mistake when you first joined us, and we didn't set your account up correctly.   Instead of setting your account up on Economy 7 rates with separate prices for your energy during the day and night, we used a single price.   What you need to do? Having your account set up in this way and not being on Economy 7 rates has saved you money since you joined us.   So if you'd like to keep the same set up and stay on a single rate for your energy, you don't need to do anything else.   If you'd prefer to change to Economy 7 rates - for example, if you'll be using storage heaters or a lot more hot water - then please get in touch.   Any Questions? If you need to chat to us, the quickest and easiest way to get through is on Live Chat, where you can find us Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.   Thanks for choosing us for your energy.   Your British Gas team

I had not realised that I was paying the single energy rate all this time and, until I read this thread could not find a way to calculate how much more/different I had been charged due to that error. I am going to try my best now to contact BG and get the correct pricing agreed. What a shower!

I also received this email and it's left me baffled, too. As I reported at the start of the thread, BG claimed they had sorted this out when I lodged an official complaint months ago and I have been dutifully reporting my day/night figures every month since. Stupidly, it turns out, I'd assumed their bills took account of this error and that I was now being charged correctly on an Economy 7 rate but now I have received a completely revised bill stretching back to the point at which these clowns took over from Together, cancelling all my previous bills and recalculating them.

Are they right now? Honestly, I have no idea. I find heir bills obscure, to say the least, and cannot make any sense out of them. Perhaps if another MSE reader manages to get some sense out of BG they'd be kind enough to report back so that we can compare notes? 

EssexHebridean

How do their estimates compare with the readings you have taken since you started giving them manually? That's definitely your best way of challenging it if it turns out that they are estimating inaccurately (and in their favour!). 

Gerry1

A._Badger said:

Are they right now? Honestly, I have no idea. I find heir bills obscure, to say the least, and cannot make any sense out of them. Perhaps if another MSE reader manages to get some sense out of BG they'd be kind enough to report back so that we can compare notes? 

@A._Badger

BG are totally incompetent.  Since November 2021 they've cancelled and replaced my bill no fewer than 11 times.  They made exactly the same mistake (double charging of several months' usage) no fewer than four times.

My last day with Neon Reef was 17 Jun 21: I left NR when a very good variable rate was finally increased so I switched to Symbio.  I then switched independently to BG on 25 Oct 21, long before Neon Reef went bust on 16 Nov 21.  BG were appointed SoLR for Neon Reef but at the time this didn't concern me.

However, on 14 Jul 22 BG sent yet another revised bill allegedly going back to my start date of 25 Oct 21 but showing the much lower closing meter readings I had given to Neon Reef way back in July 2021.  This meant that BG were charging me for usage for several months when I had been supplied by Symbio.

BG corrected their mistake each time I complained, only for it to happen again and again and again, always without any specific notification or explanation.  Eventually BG admitted that they couldn't prevent their system continually malfunctioning, so instead they gave me a credit equal to the amount that they had overcharged.

I suspect that many other Neon Reef customers who had switched before they went bust were also overcharged by BG in exactly the same way.  It's extremely difficult to spot the double charging, the only clue is that the meter readings allegedly taken on 25 Oct 21 were actually the closing ones given to Neon Reef in mid July 2021.  Most people would never have spotted this because BG had deleted all the cancelled bills, but fortunately I had kept a copy of every bill as well as a spreadsheet of my own meter readings.

I managed to get £100 compensation from BG.

ben_glastonbury

A_Badger, I also got transferred to BG from Neon Reef. The whole thing has been a nightmare with multiple cancelled bills, revised bills issued with different opening readings and incorrect estimated readings when I had supplied readings when tariffs had changed. 

I also had an email from British Gas

We made a mistake with your energy tariff We set you up on the wrong tariff rate

Hello Mr Ben 

We’re sorry, we made a mistake when you first joined us, and we didn’t set your account up correctly. Instead of setting your account up on Economy 7 rates with separate prices for your energy during the day and night, we used a single price.

What you need to do?

You don’t need to do anything. We’ll switch your account on to Economy 7 rates, as your energy will be cheaper this

way.

To make sure you haven’t lost out, we’ll go back and re-bill your account from when you first joined us, using Economy 7 rates instead of a single rate. You may notice a positive change to your account balance when this is done.

I have had no further information from them since the letter was sent. I am not 100% convinced I would be better off on Economy 7 so I have asked them to sort out all my other bill problems first, including a "dummy bill" for 2500 pounds which is "not available yet" before sending me details of what my bills would look like if I was on economy 7. 
They also seem to have messed up their billing operation completely as a result of their new billing system. They cannot access the old system so if there is a query on that system they have to go to their boss who gets onto a specialist who still has access to the old system, when they get those bills back they then need to send them to a different specialist department who try to understand the bills. 

What a mess!!!!

jrh22542254

Verdigris said:

E7/10 will be phased out in a few years, when the teleswitch system is switched off. You'll need a smart meter to access TOU tariffs then.

Thanks. Didnt know this. I am still on an E7 teleswitch and continuing to refuse to go onto a smart meter. Will be interesting to see when what happens when they switch off the teleswitch system?

dunstonh

jrh22542254 said:

Verdigris said:

E7/10 will be phased out in a few years, when the teleswitch system is switched off. You'll need a smart meter to access TOU tariffs then.

Thanks. Didnt know this. I am still on an E7 teleswitch and continuing to refuse to go onto a smart meter. Will be interesting to see when what happens when they switch off the teleswitch system?

It won't be that interesting.  You will be forced to change.