British Gas revised bill saving £700+ (SOLR billing problem) via Ombudsman Complaint

alienkraft

I thought I would share my experience with British Gas and the ombudsman in the hope it may help others.

I was a Peoples Energy customer transferred to British Gas as SOLR (Supplier of Last Resort).  I then switched to Bristol Energy who subsequently failed and I was transferred back to British Gas (SOLR).

Two months after the SOLR switch from Bristol Energy, I received a very large revised final bill for the 3 week period between the transferring from British Gas to Bristol Energy.  The bill also claimed very high usage over the billing period (equivalent of 3 months for my household usage).  I had photo evidence of the meter readings on the day of the billing period start date which were different to those on the bill.  I raised a complaint and after many message exchanges, providing photos of meter readings and the nightmare of them taking the full amount by direct debit and having to instruct my back to reverse it, I was eventually told that the bill was based on the final meter readings obtained from the previous supplier and that I had not been overcharged.  I told them I accepted that the energy usage was correct but I wanted to receive an accurate bill starting from the date they took over as SOLR.  They refused to provide one (they said it was impossible but would not explain why), so I went to the ombudsman.

Once I had submitted the complaint to the ombudsman, within one day I received an offer from British Gas which said they would remove the outstanding balance with the exception of standing charges and offered £75 compensation plus apology.  I wanted to know why they could not revise the billing in the first place, so asked the ombudsman to proceed with the investigation.  Ultimately, the ombudsman upheld my complaint but despite my request, did not (or were unable) to investigate why a bill could not be produced from the point British Gas took over as SOLR. They also did not increase the initial British Gas offer of £75 compensation. 

Thought this experience might be useful for others in a similar situation given the significant amount written off.

  

[Deleted User]

The answer lies in the simple fact that neither The Energy Ombudsman nor Ofgem have any powers over a failed supplier. If this issue had occurred with two operating suppliers, then an Agreed Readings Dispute would have been raised.

MWT

alienkraft said:

... so asked the ombudsman to proceed with the investigation. 

  

The Ombudsman does not investigate anything, they merely review the submissions by both sides and base their ruling on that information only.

A good outcome for you, but you will never get an explanation unfortunately.