Issue with British Gas bill under old billing system, can't get it fixed on new billing system!

deluwu12

For context my parents do not speak English and aren't very tech literate, so I often times can only help them with bills (e.g. pay or dispute) once they themselves know the issue exists and check their emails. They had a bill for November 2023 that they only told me about in January 2024 from British Gas, but they said it looked incorrect.

I looked at the bill and as usually someone from British Gas comes to look at our gas meter which is located outside our flat building, human error often happens. This was the case as the gas meter reading was almost 1000 units off.

In the past this has happened I would just ring British Gas up and get it sorted in 15 or 20 minutes. However, it turns out that this bill was fast tracked so they could close our old account and move it to the new billing system.

The issue with this is that now that this has happened, British Gas support only covers new billing accounts and it is near impossible to get a hold of someone from the old billing department. When I request to be moved to it, I wait 10-15 minutes only to get put through to another person from the new billing department.

As this is an issue with a bill from the old billing system, and that account has now been closed in favour of the new system (meaning they do not have access to the bill itself, only the balance), it seems like there is no easy way to dispute the amount on our latest bill. Has anyone else had this issue and managed to solve it?

I tried the live chat and submitted today's readings, but what ended up happening was the support technician said there was a malfunction in the calculation and that the bill came out to be almost 80 grand -- which is more than what this household makes in a year! He assured me that it would be reviewed and be amended, but considering how difficult it has been to amend this so far, I am extremely pessimistic. I would love to hear other people's experiences with this, and I'll be sure to keep this thread updated with progress as there is no way on hell I am paying the current amount, let alone 80 grand.

[Deleted User]

Hi.

you should be able to view your old account on new account homepage,

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Go to the website and you can download the old bills.

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/identity/

deluwu12

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi.

you should be able to view your old account on new account homepage,

I'm able to access bills completely fine, the issue isn't accessing bills - it's disputing gas readings on the last bill under the old billing system. There's no clear way of doing this, and there seems to be a very small team for old billing system department!

Gerry1

Forget the phone, make a formal written complaint.  Go to the ombudsman upon receipt of a deadlock letter or after eight weeks if they don't send one.

deluwu12

Gerry1 said:

Forget the phone, make a formal written complaint.  Go to the ombudsman upon receipt of a deadlock letter or after eight weeks if they don't send one.

Thank you for this, it'll be a last resort action. I managed to finally get routed to the old billing system department (noticeably, it seems like the South African call centres handle old billing whereas Indian call centres handle new billing) and they told me they amended it and we'll get a new balance within the next seven days.

How this will react with the cat and mouse chase I had with the live chat and two hour phone call earlier (which ended in the call suddenly failing, which I find incredibly hard to be my fault since I live right next to a cell tower) I have no idea, but they also said I'll see it online tomorrow.

I'm going to keep submitting readings on my own accord daily now before I get my smart meter installed next month just to make sure this doesn't happen again, and will keep you guys updated on any changes to the situation.

QrizB

We've had several threads where the changeover reading from BG's old billing system to their new one has been wrong, usually high by a four-figure value.

Mostly these get fixed when the next meter reading is submitted.

deluwu12 said:

I tried the live chat and submitted today's readings, but what ended up happening was the support technician said there was a malfunction in the calculation and that the bill came out to be almost 80 grand -- which is more than what this household makes in a year!

It sounds exactly like this is what has happened; your new meter readin is lower than the old one. However, instead of fixing it they've assumed that you've rolled the meter all the way around to zero again.

It will get fixed when second-line support look at it.

Here's a made-up example for you to illustrate the probmem.

Correct changeover reading: 61200

Changeover reading on the system: 62200 > means you were charged for 1000 cubic metres of extra gas, an extra £800.

User submitted meter reading: 61400 > less than changeover, so you'd expect a 800 cubic metre refund (about £640)

But system thinks you've used from 62200 all the way to 99999, then around through 00000 and back to 61400 > charged for almost 100000 cubic metres of gas, about £80k.

If the first-line CS agent had more discretion, they could've foxed it for you there and then but they don't get tht sort of power.

Gerry1

Make sure you download and save each bill as soon as it becomes available.  BG have a nasty habit of issuing replacement bills and deleting all the old ones.

I noticed that a replacement BG bill showed a start date some months before I joined them.  There was no explanation, and it turned out they had overcharged me for an account with Neon Reef that had been fully paid and closed long before NR went bust and BG became the Supplier of Last Resort.

I complained and BG issued a refund.

Surprise, surprise, BG repeated the overcharging three more times !  They said they couldn't stop their system doing this.

Eventually they made a one-off special payment equal to the overcharge.

I made a fuss because of the significant time they'd wasted and held out for £100 compo and got it.

There must be thousands of other former NR customers who were also overcharged but never noticed.

Gerry1

QrizB said:

If the first-line CS agent had more discretion, they could've foxed it for you there and then but they don't get that sort of power.

Sounds like that's exactly what did happen !  😈

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/fox_2

QrizB

Gerry1 said:

QrizB said:

If the first-line CS agent had more discretion, they could've foxed it for you there and then but they don't get that sort of power.

Sounds like that's exactly what did happen !  😈

OK, typos seem to follow me around these days and leap into my words when I'm not looking! I'm sure it's got worse since I've changed laptops, although all the letter keys are meant to be in the same place.

Gerry1

QrizB said:

Gerry1 said:

QrizB said:

If the first-line CS agent had more discretion, they could've foxed it for you there and then but they don't get that sort of power.

Sounds like that's exactly what did happen !  😈

OK, typos seem to follow me around these days and leap into my words when I'm not looking! I'm sure it's got worse since I've changed laptops, although all the letter keys are meant to be in the same place.

Don't worry, they're all the right letters, but not necessarily in the right order !

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-47409017