British Gas Prepay Charges

Babayega

Hello, 

Looking for some guidance please.  My mum recently moved flat - she lived there over 11 years and had both Gas and electricity via prepayment meter which she paid for manually by purchasing top up credit at the local post office.

Her old post is being redirected and she received a final bill from British Gas for £480 which I immediately contacted them about as I didn’t understand how a sum that high could be achieved on PAYG and also the fact she left £10ish credit in the meter on her final day there.   They claim that this charge is for unpaid standing charges since Feb 2020 as the meter hasn’t been topped up since then? 

Naturally, I questioned that claim by stating it’d be virtually impossible for my elderly mother to have gone 3 years without gas, heating or hot water but they aren’t interested.  I pointed out that British Gas changed her gas meter in Feb 2020 but again, they say they cannot see anything relating to that occurring and are insisting the money is paid immediately.

Fortunately, mum had some recent top up receipts proving the meter has been getting used and therefore the standing charges are being paid via deduction from her credit amounts. Obviously, the meter number on the tip up receipts is different to the meter number they have registered for that address.

They are investigating the matter now (apparently) but I haven’t had a single call back / email response since I raised this with them on August 16th.

Is there anything I can do to escalate the matter because I just feel like I’m being fobbed off and in the meantime, this sum is showing (wrongly) as arrears which will cause her problems on credit history etc.

Has anyone else had anything similar to this and successfully won?

Thank you 🙂

Mobtr

Sounds like the meter details weren’t updated when it was exchanged in 2020. Quite odd there was no contact from them re no top ups for over 3 years though. Don’t suppose you have a photo of the meter do you? 

wrf12345

Only thing I can think of is that BG somehow set the prepayment meter not to charge the standing charge, otherwise it should be covered automatically but who knows with them, they have two completely different computer systems running that allow different things and many different types of meters that they have to interface with these different accounting/charging systems... unfortunately, post Brexit you can't threaten them with the EU bureau of consumer affairs (Scot Elec had a miraculous and almost immediate change of heart when I sent them a letter threatening to do so) and the UK regulator has no real interest in protecting consumers.

Babayega

Mobtr said:

Sounds like the meter details weren’t updated when it was exchanged in 2020. Quite odd there was no contact from them re no top ups for over 3 years though. Don’t suppose you have a photo of the meter do you? 

I do but they’re adamant they know nothing about a meter change despite being literally the only ones able to carry out such works! Thank you for taking the time to comment.

MattMattMattUK

Babayega said:

Mobtr said:

Sounds like the meter details weren’t updated when it was exchanged in 2020. Quite odd there was no contact from them re no top ups for over 3 years though. Don’t suppose you have a photo of the meter do you? 

I do but they’re adamant they know nothing about a meter change despite being literally the only ones able to carry out such works! Thank you for taking the time to comment.

British Gas do not change meters, almost all meter work is carried out by third party companies, as you mention flats it would not surprise me if the engineer got the wrong flat, crossed meters etc.

Was the meter in the individual flat or is it in a shared cupboard? Is there a possibility of asking the current occupant/agent to confirm the meter number if you do not have a picture?