British Gas new system billing problems.

ennyD

Seems that all BG customers are experiencing the same. I received 2x revised bill. One in July 2023 for usage back from April 2022 (it was under a Deceased family member then). The second one was in July 2024 for the same starting period (over two years?). They totalled all the credits as "Other adjustments" which is lower compared to all the payments I had made. A couple of previous charges were not reversed and two weeks worth of standing charge was double counted in two different bills 
There was a "back billing" in the first revision which they failed to explain what it was for. They gave me a credit for that.
I put in a complaint and their complaint handling was almost a pre-scripted answers which did not address my points. The second person sent me an email for a completely different person and problem but using my complaint reference number.  She listed out my payment record but missed out two payments. I'm now on 3rd person whose hopefully going to re-do the bills. I'm not optimistic about they'llget it right. The The property was vacant for months and only use consumptions in the last month. I was expecting the final bill in the region of £90, not nearly £200.

NorbieG

During the financial crisis, I was involuntarily transferred back to British Gas after having switched to a different supplier a year earlier due to unsatisfactory customer service.

Correspondence with British Gas - self-explanatory.
To British Gas:

Thanks for getting back to me.

How do you explain the irregular monthly and quarterly payments as shown below?

Payment History:

20 September 2024  Amount: £152.51

Transaction type: Variable Direct Debit

21 June 2024  Amount: £73.99

Transaction type: Variable Direct Debit

17 May 2024  Amount: £66.37

Transaction type: Variable Direct Debit

25 April 2024  Amount: £359.85

Transaction type: Variable Direct Debit

21 December 2023  Amount: £361.41

Transaction type: Variable Direct Debit

 29th Sep 2023    £115.73

 27th Sep 2023    £29.11

 23rd Jun 2023    £290.30

 23rd Mar 2023    £542.61

 27th Jan 2023    £105.05

 29th Nov 2022    £366.54

 28th Oct 2022    £30.82  (Bill cancelled & replaced)

Also, can you explain (above) why the 28th Oct 2022, £30.82 bill was cancelled & replaced; and then a month later 29th Nov 2022 my account was debited by (a massive) £366.54 - for just a month's energy use?

I would like to raise my concern about my discount on the government winter fuel payments, which I understand should be applied automatically.  I need to see evidence of that.

Response from British Gas:

Thank you for contacting British Gas to enquire about the invoice where you were charged massively and the fuel payment. I will be looking after you to ensure things go smoothly.

I am sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. We will work to get this resolved for you as a priority.

What I have done

I have taken the following steps in resolving your case about the huge bill and the alternate fuel payment :

• I have checked the account and I can confirm that the bills which you are referring to was created when the account was with our old billing team and I am from the new billing team.
• The details which we have on the account is post 07/09/2023 anything before this period is being held by our old billing team.
• Your account has been transferred from our old to new billing system within British Gas.
• I am pleased to inform you that I will help you with the contact details for correct service as we do not have access to old accounts. Kindly contact them and they will help you. 
• You can reach them at 0330 100 0056. The specialist team is available to assist you from Monday to Friday from 8 am - 6 pm and Saturday 9 am - 2 pm.
• I can also confirm that you are a part of our priority service register, if you wish to make any changes to this please get in touch with us.

I’m happy to let you know that it's all done for you. If you require any further help, please let us know.

Thanks for being with us for your energy.


To British Gas:

Dear British Gas Team,

Thank you for your response.

I have reviewed your email, and I must clarify that it is not my responsibility to contact the previous team. This matter should be resolved between your new and old teams. Additionally, making such calls incurs costs for me, which is unacceptable.

I have previously addressed this issue with your new team earlier this year and was assured it was resolved. Therefore, I expect you to liaise with the old team and resolve this matter promptly.

If this issue is not resolved, I will have no choice but to escalate the matter to Ofgem and other relevant authorities. I feel I am being overcharged for the energy used, and my Winter Fuel Discount has not been applied.

Please address this issue urgently.

Gerry1

• When you joined the Priority Services Register, BG should have advised you of their 0800 number.

• You'd need to contact the Energy Ombudsman, not Ofgem.

Moonpig0114

I have been having exactly the same problem.  My problem started in January 2024 when British Gas lowered my gas and electric payment from £180 to £22.00 a month.  I called them immediately and asked for them to put this back up, the customer advisor said that this had been done.  In February again £22.00 came out of my account and not the £180.00, I again asked for this direct debit to be put back to £180.00.  This time I was told they had run into a problem and I was not on the old system any more I was on the new system.  I lost access to my online account and couldn't see any bills either.  

To cut a long story short, I have called them every month trying to pay more since January and every time I have called I have had a different response, some say it has been sorted, others say they cant access the system.  I finally got through to someone after 15 calls all an hour long to British Gas who actually said it was sorted.  I received an email to say a direct debit had been set up for £180.00 (yay).  Not yay, 2 days later I got an email to say this direct debit had been cancelled and they had set up a direct debit for £297.00.  I paid this for 2 months but this is way too much for me to pay so I called again and asked if this could be brought back down, which the operator told me she had done.  The next email I received informed me that my direct debit had been cancelled and I would have to pay every 3 months for my energy, it also informed me that my bill had risen from just over £897.00 to over £1300.  

I have called again to try and set up a payment card or have a meter put in and they are even unable to sort this!  I have contacted the energy ombudsman in November and this is still not sorted. 

I am currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer and just want an easy life and to go back to just paying my regular payment of £180.00

British Gas you need to sort this out!  The stress of trying to get this sorted is not helpful especially as I am due to have another operation in March.

Help would be amazing to try and sort this MESS out!

NorbieG

Moonpig0114 said:

I have been having exactly the same problem.  My problem started in January 2024 when British Gas lowered my gas and electric payment from £180 to £22.00 a month.  I called them immediately and asked for them to put this back up, the customer advisor said that this had been done.  In February again £22.00 came out of my account and not the £180.00, I again asked for this direct debit to be put back to £180.00.  This time I was told they had run into a problem and I was not on the old system any more I was on the new system.  I lost access to my online account and couldn't see any bills either.  

To cut a long story short, I have called them every month trying to pay more since January and every time I have called I have had a different response, some say it has been sorted, others say they cant access the system.  I finally got through to someone after 15 calls all an hour long to British Gas who actually said it was sorted.  I received an email to say a direct debit had been set up for £180.00 (yay).  Not yay, 2 days later I got an email to say this direct debit had been cancelled and they had set up a direct debit for £297.00.  I paid this for 2 months but this is way too much for me to pay so I called again and asked if this could be brought back down, which the operator told me she had done.  The next email I received informed me that my direct debit had been cancelled and I would have to pay every 3 months for my energy, it also informed me that my bill had risen from just over £897.00 to over £1300.  

I have called again to try and set up a payment card or have a meter put in and they are even unable to sort this!  I have contacted the energy ombudsman in November and this is still not sorted. 

I am currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer and just want an easy life and to go back to just paying my regular payment of £180.00

British Gas you need to sort this out!  The stress of trying to get this sorted is not helpful especially as I am due to have another operation in March.

Help would be amazing to try and sort this MESS out!

They claim to have resolved my issue, but am unsure if I can trust them.  Are BG actions deliberate, or do they simply have incompetent staff???

Northern_Wanderer

NorbieG said:

Moonpig0114 said:

I have been having exactly the same problem.  My problem started in January 2024 when British Gas lowered my gas and electric payment from £180 to £22.00 a month.  I called them immediately and asked for them to put this back up, the customer advisor said that this had been done.  In February again £22.00 came out of my account and not the £180.00, I again asked for this direct debit to be put back to £180.00.  This time I was told they had run into a problem and I was not on the old system any more I was on the new system.  I lost access to my online account and couldn't see any bills either.  

To cut a long story short, I have called them every month trying to pay more since January and every time I have called I have had a different response, some say it has been sorted, others say they cant access the system.  I finally got through to someone after 15 calls all an hour long to British Gas who actually said it was sorted.  I received an email to say a direct debit had been set up for £180.00 (yay).  Not yay, 2 days later I got an email to say this direct debit had been cancelled and they had set up a direct debit for £297.00.  I paid this for 2 months but this is way too much for me to pay so I called again and asked if this could be brought back down, which the operator told me she had done.  The next email I received informed me that my direct debit had been cancelled and I would have to pay every 3 months for my energy, it also informed me that my bill had risen from just over £897.00 to over £1300.  

I have called again to try and set up a payment card or have a meter put in and they are even unable to sort this!  I have contacted the energy ombudsman in November and this is still not sorted. 

I am currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer and just want an easy life and to go back to just paying my regular payment of £180.00

British Gas you need to sort this out!  The stress of trying to get this sorted is not helpful especially as I am due to have another operation in March.

Help would be amazing to try and sort this MESS out!

They claim to have resolved my issue, but am unsure if I can trust them.  Are BG actions deliberate, or do they simply have incompetent staff???

You can switch to a better company then you don't have to deal with them.

Grizzlebeard

NorbieG said

...

They claim to have resolved my issue, but am unsure if I can trust them.  Are BG actions deliberate, or do they simply have incompetent staff???

Having been through the BG mangle myself (pre Octopus) I have an opinion.

BG have incompetent revenue-focused Management, a system that is incompetently designed and implemented and is impossible for even the best staff in the world to work properly.

The poor staff are underpaid, undertrained and overstretched box tickers. They get performance grades based on the number of calls they handle, not the number of problems actually solved.

The whole system seems to be configured to help money flow in and hinder money flowing out. Full Stop.

5tanMN

In 2023 BG transferred us from one back end billing system to another. In our case it has come to light in late 2024 that during that migration they failed to bill us. Extract from BG complaint;

'....we established  due to a system error we did not bill the Electric from 11th Oct 2023. Instead it was billed from 10th Jan 2024 meaning that the electric used between 11th Oct 2023 - 10th Jan 2024 was not charged until your final bill was issued on  27th Sep 2024.'

The problem i now have is that they are demanding £600 from me... even though i moved to another supplier.... for an error on their part over a year before!

Has anyone else experienced problems due to British Gas system migration... is there a forum to understand just how many people this has affected? I suspects thousands are affected and like me thousands will not even now of BG error yet!?!



 

MeteredOut

Moving to another supplier in itself does not in itself mean any debt is not due.

But, look into back billing rules - there's a good chance you should not have to pay for any usage more than 1 year before the bill date. Have they issue you with a new bill?

Inigo_Montoya

my issue is a bit different

because of this migration all my gas & electric bills on the old system have ceased to be downloadable (both on the old and new system)

this is an issue for me mainly because the bills in question are for an empty property I am looking after so I can go quite a few bill cycles without checking them

I have been informed they know about this issue and will be fixing it soon but Im not holding my breath 

I was going to move to octopus but it got put on the back burner due to not visiting the property for an extended period - I will be moving as soon as I visit the property & take accurate meter reads