Bad experience fixing my energy with British Gas! What are my rights?

GTare14

I don't know why but I'm having a terrible experiance with British gas and their customer service atm. I keep having to phone up because it seems they are not doing what I'm asking them to do and this time it looks like it could have cost me. I was offered the loyalty june 23v, which I agreed to take with someone over the phone. I was told it would take 24 hours for the change over, but when I checked after a couple of days, I noticed it hadn't been done.

I phoned them up as soon as I realised this and they told me I was still on the variable rate, but they could see in the notes that I was supposed to have been switched to the June 23v1. They then told me that I could no longer have the fixed June23 v1 because it was lo-longer available and that I would have to choose a more expensive fixed rate, what? I told them the notes clearly state I had agreed to the June 23 v1, so that is what I want or I will need to speak with the manager.

What are my rights on this matter? Do they have to give me the tariff I agreed to over the phone with them, which was the June23 v1? I'm really annoyed with their customer service because I find I'm having to ring more than once for things to actually get done.

elsien

Written formal complaint if nothing else works. 

Mstty

Grab all you data including the call log of number and duration, formally ask BG for a transcript of the call giving them the date and time and duration and raise a complaint.

Complaints Management Team

PO Box 226

Rotherham

S98 1PB

customerservice@britishgas.co.uk

Snwps

This happened to me last year. I'm not sure what your rights are but I fought it and raised a complaint with BG. At first they didnt even explain to me that the offer was no longer available just kept telling me the switch was under way. I pestered them for updates and escalated the complaint when they said there was nothing they can do. I finally got through to the right person in complaints who done it for me within 24 hours. So it is possible to do it. But I dont think the 'average joe on the phones' would have the authorisation to sigh up on a deal thats expired. 

Wishing you all the best of luck. Its not a quick process but keep on at them.

GTare14

Snwps said:

This happened to me last year. I'm not sure what your rights are but I fought it and raised a complaint with BG. At first they didnt even explain to me that the offer was no longer available just kept telling me the switch was under way. I pestered them for updates and escalated the complaint when they said there was nothing they can do. I finally got through to the right person in complaints who done it for me within 24 hours. So it is possible to do it. But I dont think the 'average joe on the phones' would have the authorisation to sigh up on a deal thats expired. 

Wishing you all the best of luck. Its not a quick process but keep on at them.

 

I also see in the app that it says the switch is under way, but a week has passed now and I was told it would only take 24 hours. This means I've also lost out on the July 23 v2 if I had wanted that. The app now shows July 23 v3, which is even more expensive. It won't let me switch to any tariff now in the app because a message pops up that says: "we are working on switching you".

Who did you ask to speak to because without sounding awful, their customer service is terrible. It just seems nothing gets done and you have to keep calling them to check they've done what you've asked them to do. Two months ago, I asked for my bills to be produced each month. I had to call them four times because even though they told me it was sorted, it never was. I just ended up asking to speak to a manager and I still don't know if they have sorted it yet.

Snwps

I dont have a specific name sorry. I done a lot of my contact with BG through their Chat (as it has the option to email yourself the transcript of the chat, so I had it for my records). I made it clear on the chat that I was raising a complaint and that they had 8 weeks to look into and deal before passing the info onto the ombudsman. It did take a while so be patient. 

I even had an email reply from the complaints department as they'd tried to call me once but I couldnt answer in time, and they give me a deadline to contact them or they'll log the complaint as closed, without even speaking with me. This really wound me up but what made it worse was that when they would phone, they let it ring twice then hang up. Ive worked on the phones on outgoing calls before and I know this is a tactic used to show youve tried to call but no answer. I even called BG back immediately after the guy done this and had them internally message him to phone again, but he didnt.

There was a lot of back and forth and I made a nuisance of myself, but also treated those I spoke to with respect as I know at the end of the day they hadnt been the issue personally.

When BG finally sorted it, they guy in complaints offered compensation but I made it clear I wasnt after financial gain just the deal offered as agreed. I even asked him to backdate the tariff and I had amended bills. 

username

Complain in writing (email, chat, letter), do not discuss on the phone.

This is where people go wrong, there is no audit trail to you as the client, and the phone ops are keen to get you off the phone. And having to call repeatedly and sit on hold is a waste of time as has been demonstrated by some of the experiences in this thread.

Phoning should be the absolute last resort in 2022.