British Gas messing up Bills

TheMilkmansDad

just an observation from what people have posted in regards to the bill. If the readings had been overestimated and are now back on track; would the monthly DD not now seem woefully short (£37.91 pm) for upcoming bills when you bar in mind the monthly Standing charge is close to £21? Would the OP be better of asking for an increasing the DD? (Apologies if I've missed something obvious - I'm still on my 1st coffee of the day!).

DiseasedBunny

Just submitted a complaint to BG as this is the 3rd time now they have sent the bill with the wrong opening read (funnily enough, its always about 700 units worse off for me).  First couple of time i dealt with live chat, they sent out correct bills that matched roughly what i thought it should be, then a couple of days later i get a "corrected" bill which shows me about £100 worse off!  This is time number 3 currently, and have sent a formal complaint at the same time, as its causing undue stress to me! (I also have photographic evidence of both the reading i gave them and the screenshot they sent confirming the reading) 

5avvyinvestor

We transferred to BG because our supplier went bust.

we pay a monthly Standing order  of £300 and are advised with that you’ll get a 6 monthly statement.  So it’s ages till we know what our liability is.

I asked for monthly bills and was told that’s only available with a variable direct debit - so no ability to smooth the cost

i asked for quarterly bills and was told that only available if you pay by cheque or cash

the only way I can think to get around this is a separate bank account into which I pay a regular monthly payment and from which they take a monthly variable dd.  But I shouldn’t have to do a work around.  

Oh and irresponsibly BG suggested I should lower my SO to £20 as it looked as though I was overpaying.  Maybe at summer consumption but winter approaches and with an average bill expecting to be over £4000 annually soon that’s clearly a big mistake.

pochase

If you are really paying by standing order and not direct debit you are overpaying by 7%. Standing order does not give you the direct debit discount. but variable direct debit will.

PhilB72

British Gas Lite changed over a faulty smart meter and took a closing read and mistakenly generated a £19500 bill and took it as a direct debit from my parents account (I manage their online account as they are quite elderly). I have contacted them four times over the space of 42 days to try and get money back. They have admitted the mistake and continually tell me that it is being processed......I want to shout at them but chat-bots are not quite as easy.

t0rt0ise

PhilB72 said:

British Gas Lite changed over a faulty smart meter and took a closing read and mistakenly generated a £19500 bill and took it as a direct debit from my parents account (I manage their online account as they are quite elderly). I have contacted them four times over the space of 42 days to try and get money back. They have admitted the mistake and continually tell me that it is being processed......I want to shout at them but chat-bots are not quite as easy.

Invoke the direct debit rules and ask the bank to get it back.

And you'd be better starting a new thread instead of writing on a 2 year old one!

Gerry1

Make a formal written complaint and ask for £100 compensation plus interest on the c.£19500 wrongly taken.

Go to the ombudsman upon receipt of a deadlock letter, or after eight weeks if they don't send one.

Dreamscometrue

Maybe it's because they've calculated the bills as if you have an imperial meter and suddenly corrected it? I took them to the ombudsman and I'm still waiting for them to correct my payments and refund me. They are charging me almost 3 x for gas!