British Gas - utter shambles - online account doesn't match what I'm being told.

ChrisJJ

British Gas have really excelled themselves in this matter. Today I received TWO bills, dated two days apart. For completely different amounts. obviously! One was for gas alone and that was more than for gas and electric combined in the other bill...

I attempted to speak to someone on the online chat, but as usual, it was a waste of time. She couldn't find the bills and said that she 'could confirm' that a new bill of....$1500 was being generated! (I can't do the pound sign) Given that the bills were $300 odd and $400 odd, this was a big leap.

I also asked if the $130 goodwill payment had been deducted as I couldn't find it on either bill - she said it hadn't and that I'd need to call a certain number to get this deducted. When I checked again, I could see that it had actually been deducted but because they'd deducted VAT/tax from it, it was only $123 now.

Have left a message with the ombudsman and hoping they can clarify that it's ok just to pay the one based on accurate readings.  

It's driving me utterly mad.

Annemos

ChrisJJ 

Have just been through a similar issue as you, but mine did not quite end up in the complete mess yours has. 

1. Gas meter was changed in Oct 2022 and by sheer coincidence they put me onto the new billing system in the same week. I fell through the cracks and the new meter was not attached to the Central country-wide database. 

2.  June 2023 new gas meter was still not connected to new BG account, so readings still being estimated. (And as Imperial readings, whereas new meter is Metric.)  So I got fed up with waiting and also went to the Ombudsman.  Ombudsman agreed awful service and they must connect new meter to new account,  pay a bit of goodwill money...AND send me a new bill with UP-TO-DATE readings. 

3. BG accepts findings and in September 2023 sends me the good will amount via a new bill running from October 2022 to September 2023.    Fantastic I thought....... until I looked at the gas readings. In spite of the fact that they had bang up-to-date meter readings, they had completely IGNORED them and stuck in ones that were way too low!! 

4.  Me fuming..... next day I went on to the chat-bot and it was in India I think. Explained that the Ombudsman had ordered an UP TO DATE bill, BUT they still had not done it. She actually arranged for a revised bill with the proper readings and it was on my on-line account within the day. And same one mailed to me in the post, too. 

(Only the one bill..... and I agree with you, it is very horrid, when they have cancelled all the old estimated bills within it and you have to track and check it all... and all the Government help etc etc!)     As I say, mine are not smart-meters. 



But here is something else odd. Fixed tariff just came to an end end October 2023. For certain reasons I wanted to sign up to a new fix with them. No confirmation came. After 6 days I escalated again on the phone this time with billing. He said it should only have taken 24 hours. (Fortunately he could see the chat where I had asked for it to be actioned 6 days before.)   

It transpired that my new Fix Application was actually still stuck in the system!!   "Because every tariff change has to be notified to the Central Database.... and my application had not been accepted!" 

The chap had to do a manual override to get it to be accepted. That new issue must still be linked to the old Central data-base issue. I am not convinced it will be correct when this new year fix expires again end 2024! We shall see!   


I do hope you get your bills sorted out eventually. I feel like we are having to DRIVE everything through. Nothing is working automatically. 


PS Just looked back again at your comments. You are still on the old System. I was told somewhere in the middle of my mess, that once I had been switched to the new system, it can take several weeks for them to be able to access the Old Billing System.  

frielfree

British Gas is an absolute shambles and I fear that this so called " Ombudsman"  is some sort of government quango ......I would have though the term ombuds man would have awakened the woke brigade by now!!.?
My brother after 2 years of trying got smart meters fitted, during the interim period he regularly provided meter readings and paid as requested.   Then  "BRITISH GAS stole £3000 out of his account which drained his account ......getting the money back was a night mare ! And caused him to go over drawn .....too long winded to provide all the details ......my conclusion is if the Ombudsman was doing his/ her job properly British Gas Dirctors would be in jail 
They have call centres in India or possibly Tim Buck To, staffed by people who can't speak English 
AVOID BRITISH GAS AS AN ENERGY SUPPLIER like the plague!! I am sorry for all the good people wh are suffering under this shambles and I hope you all manage to resolve your issues  Chris F.

MeteredOut

I knew BG were bad, but for them to be billing in dollars is shocking

tifo

frielfree said:

British Gas is an absolute shambles and I fear that this so called " Ombudsman"  is some sort of government quango

Of course it's a govt quango and totally useless like most of them.

I'm not surprised with your BG issues, it's been a nightmare for me too trying to get them to listen to anything. And their online account is mostly useless for me.

ChrisJJ

So sorry to hear that other people have experienced the horrors of British Gas! My issue is still ongoing. Despite the bill agreed to by all parties, they changed it, charged me more for the exact same period and couldn't give me an answer as to why. They then chased me for that bill. My account has now been rehashed and it says I'm over a thousand pounds in credit whilst they do...whatever it is they're doing at their end. The ombudsman can't help with this issue as it is supposedly resolved (ha!) I have lodged another complaint and it will go to the ombudsman when the required waiting period has passed.

MWT

ChrisJJ said:

My account has now been rehashed and it says I'm over a thousand pounds in credit whilst they do...whatever it is they're doing at their end.

That is relatively normal as the first step when re-billing is usually to reverse the 'incorrect' billing first which leaves you with a large credit balance.

Also your earlier comment about the VAT being deducted from the goodwill payment, is the correct practice as well.

They reduce the amount by the VAT element and then apply it to the pre-VAT bill total.

ChrisJJ

I spoke to BG on 11th December and was promised it had been escalated to a level 4 complaint. Rang today and it hasn't. It's with 'Gary' who deals with level 4 complaints but it hasn't officially been pushed up the pile. Fingers crossed 'Gary' can shed some light on the chaos that is my account. It's doubtful...

ChrisJJ

I now contact British Gas via the Citizens Advice Bureau, it's much easier. And getting through to someone who is easy to understand really helps. They also seem to have a tad more knowledge about what's going on.