British Gas Bill

Brainphrozen

Does anyone have an email address for British Gases CEO?  I tried emailing them about my DD as they want to put it up from £74 to 177 a month.  Pretty sure I'm not the only one and I want to ask for someone other the usual customer service to contact me.

McKneff

Before you do that, do thus. 

Ask or work out your usage for the last full year 

Divide that figure by 12 (next 12 months)
That figure is what you need to pay by DD monthly

itsthelittlethings

Why don't you ring customer services to talk about it?

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

You might prefer to have Monthly Variable Direct Debit so that you pay the whole bill in full each month, but apparently BG don't offer it on their new billing system to which all customers are being migrated.

Of course, MVDD would mean higher bills in winter and lower ones in summer but at least you'd be in control.

If you really want to contact the CEO you can find the info at the ceoemail website which is a dot com.

tifo

Brainphrozen said:

Does anyone have an email address for British Gases CEO? 

executiveoffice@britishgas.co.uk 

la531983

If you aren't happy with them, switch provider. I suspect you have a significant debit balance to clear off first though... 

Hoenir

Brainphrozen said:

Does anyone have an email address for British Gases CEO?  I tried emailing them about my DD as they want to put it up from £74 to 177 a month.  Pretty sure I'm not the only one and I want to ask for someone other the usual customer service to contact me.

Any email will simply be redirected. As they are unlikely to have access to view your personal account. 

400ixl

McKneff said:

Before you do that, do thus. 

Ask or work out your usage for the last full year 

Divide that figure by 12 (next 12 months)
That figure is what you need to pay by DD monthly

This, have helped a few people go through this with British Gas. Some have been able to change it online, others have been able to do it via chat.

One thing to add though is that if you are significantly behind then you may need to give a higher number to get back on track sooner.

dunstonh

Brainphrozen said:

Does anyone have an email address for British Gases CEO?  I tried emailing them about my DD as they want to put it up from £74 to 177 a month.  Pretty sure I'm not the only one and I want to ask for someone other the usual customer service to contact me.

When dealing with energy suppliers, it is best to talk in their language.    Not in the monthly direct debit as that is meaningless without context.

e.g. two people using the same energy per year can have different direct debit amounts.   One may not have been paying enough to begin with and built up some arrears or gone into the cold months with no Summer credit built up (typically at this point in the year you would look to have around 4 x your monthly payment as credit - assuming your monthly payment is accurate to begin with).      The other person could be paying less as they have summer credit built up and were paying an accurate figure to begin with.

You need to speak in unit count.  Look at your unit count over a year.  i.e. an actual read at start and end that is close to a yearly period as possible.   Not estimates.    You then take that unit count and multiply it by the unit rate and add on the standing charge annualised.   Divide that by 12 and you have the ballpark figure that you should be paying.

I say ballpark as 2022 and Winter 2023 were milder for most people that resulted in around 20% less energy use than median.    BG will be modelling on median temperatures, as should you.      In addition, if you have no summer credit built up, then you would look to be paying a bit more to reflect that.  

If your calculated monthly payment is way off what BG are recommending then you now have the ammunition to give them your data in a language they will understand.   Usually, the customer service representatives will respond better to those talking units and using real data rather than those that go by monetary amounts with no workings as to why they think it is wrong.

Gerry1

dunstonh said:

You need to speak in unit count.

@dunstonh No Sir, you don't !

Units are a formula for confusion: is a unit 100 cubic feet, 1 cubic metre or 1 kWh?

Gas and electricity are billed by the kWh and that's what should be quoted, annual consumption figures derived from actual meter readings (customer, smart or meter reader, never estimates).

dunstonh

Gerry1 said:

dunstonh said:

You need to speak in unit count.

@dunstonh No Sir, you don't !

Units are a formula for confusion: is a unit 100 cubic feet, 1 cubic metre or 1 kWh?

Gas and electricity are billed by the kWh and that's what should be quoted, annual consumption figures derived from actual meter readings (customer, smart or meter reader, never estimates).

I disagree.    Whilst your note on the actual measure is valid, the bill is still based on units used.   Without knowing the unit count, you cannot calculate your usage.