British Gas New Billing System From 90 a month to 175, issued multiple different bills. Image inside

UndergroundSaxClub

Hi all,

Apologies for somewhat short, scattered post.

Recently moved house and managed to provide both electricity and gas meter readings upon moving in, and for the first month after. Since then, whenever I have submit a meter reading at the start of the month, their app/BG themselves seem unable to issue a bill.

This started on October 1st and I have since spoken to live chat agents 3 times and have an active complaint. Apparently I have been switched to their new system and setup for quarterly direct debit automatically. However nor this, or any other kind of billing method seems to work.

I have sent weekly emails to my complaint representative who apologises and tells me they are looking into it, rinse repeat. I am eligible to contact the Ombudsman at the end of the week. However, I'm unsure what exactly they can do? I can't imagine they can fix BG's billing system and allow me to send them the money owed. 

 I won't lie, having X amount of months worth of bills being possibly requested at any moment during the Christmas period hasn't been great. Anybody have experience with serious delays on this new system, or any ideas what to say to the Ombudsman (or should I copy/paste the post above)

Any input is greatly appreciated.

MattMattMattUK

UndergroundSaxClub said:

Hi all,

Apologies for somewhat short, scattered post.

Recently moved house and managed to provide both electricity and gas meter readings upon moving in, and for the first month after. Since then, whenever I have submit a meter reading at the start of the month, their app/BG themselves seem unable to issue a bill.

This started on October 1st and I have since spoken to live chat agents 3 times and have an active complaint. Apparently I have been switched to their new system and setup for quarterly direct debit automatically. However nor this, or any other kind of billing method seems to work.

I have sent weekly emails to my complaint representative who apologises and tells me they are looking into it, rinse repeat. I am eligible to contact the Ombudsman at the end of the week. However, I'm unsure what exactly they can do? I can't imagine they can fix BG's billing system and allow me to send them the money owed. 

 I won't lie, having X amount of months worth of bills being possibly requested at any moment during the Christmas period hasn't been great. Anybody have experience with serious delays on this new system, or any ideas what to say to the Ombudsman (or should I copy/paste the post above)

Any input is greatly appreciated.

You have a complaint and can continue that with the ombudsman, on that side of things that is all you can really do, they will get there in the end, but British Gas do seem to have some serious issues migrating some customers to their new billing system.

With regard to the financial side are you paying a monthly Direct Debit? Are you putting money to one side to cover your usage? If you know your opening and current meter reads then you could easily calculate what your bill will be, if you are not able to do that then post the opening read and date and the current readings and we can do it relatively accurately (the price change in January means it might vary slightly).

UndergroundSaxClub

Thanks for the reply.

I have been adding an extra £100 or so each month to my savings in preparation for the bill (the money would go to energy anyway.)

I was told BG to switch to their new app when this first started, I can see my initial meter read for electricity back in October for 11422, then a few months of estimates from BG, then it says "smart meter" in green with a value of 11944, whilst the actual meter reads 12011 as of today (15/02/2024) - So I guess they can see this accurately?

The gas meter has my opening reading of 6911 then nothing else, the meter as of today reads 6951. It seems like they can track my electricity usage, and in theory could take a gas reading from me. I'm a little confused as to where the issue may lie for the past few months.

UndergroundSaxClub

Hi all,

Looking for some more advice please, British Gas have finally fixed my account and issued a bill. Well, multiple bills. My complaint is still on-going and British Gas are keen to close it, however I am in need of some help.

On Thursday I received a bill from British Gas for the amount of £279 for both gas and electricity which is not bad, then 2 hours later another for £559. I contacted my complaint correspondent and we agreed that I should provide up to date meter readings, which I have done. The bill is now £697. 

For a single man in a 1 bed flat, this seems a little high? My average before this new billing system was around £90 a month, so £700 for the range 13/10/2023 - 22/02/2024, averaging £175 is a bit odd.

My bill also seems to state I am £279 in credit, despite paying on receipt of a bill after providing readings on a monthly basis, I'm unsure how I could be in credit with this system? Also the credit seems to be added ONTO the bill, therefore becoming debit.

I've attached an image of my redacted bill below, I am planning on sending a reply saying this bill makes no sense. However, in their email BG say this is validated and correct. I'm expecting heavy pushback and not much help from them. 

Any advice or input at all is greatly appreciated.

PeterGr

The bill that you posted starts with a debt of £559.70 (which is 2 x 279.85)  - What were those bills for, and why haven't you received a credit for both of them?

The bill posted makes sense, just that with the starting debt of £559.70 the energy charges increase it to £977.38.  The credit note (refund) of £279.85 is applied to this to arrive at £697.53.  If you get a credit for 2 x £279.85 then the bill is £417.68.  Given that Gas consumption may be 65% of the annual amount for October - February this would seem inline with your expectation.

So what documents do you have for the £279.85 and the £559.70?

UndergroundSaxClub

Hi, Thank you for the reply.

Please bare with me as I'm trying to juggle this at work. Please find below images of the three bills I have been issued since it has been resolved. Bills 2 & 3 in my initial/main image state 279 and 417, but then download a pdf quoting 559 and 697 respectively. I'm quite unsure how any credit can be on my account if I pay on monthly via readings. Unless they've added it wrong, then attempted to deduct the error via a credit on the account.

I appreciate you taking the time to assist and look at this. I thought I was finally out of the woods and this was waiting for me at the end.

PeterGr

Unless I'm missing something, Bills 1 and 2 are identical, and I would expect both of them the be creditted, in Bill 3 which is the most recent.  So your energy charges for 13 Oct - 22 February are £417.68.

So you now need to have another credit note applied to your account for £279.85.

Regards. (Well done for having these documents to hand)

Gerry1

Your estimated annual usage is about 70% of the national average for electricity and about 50% for gas so that seems about right in your case.

BG goofed because Bill 2 exactly duplicates Bill 1.  They've got it right on the third attempt, but Bill 3 is a bit higher because it covers a longer period.

The basic problem seems to be that you're on Pay on Receipt of a Monthly Bill.  Apart from being a more expensive method, it seems either that you haven't made any manual payments (believing you were on Direct Debit) OR that your payments are floating around in BG and haven't yet been applied to your account.

So check your bank statement and see what's gone out.

★ If money has left your bank then send BG a rocket because the payment(s) haven't been credited.

★ If money hasn't left your bank then send the latest meter readings and ask them very nicely to send Bill 4, covering the period from 13 Oct 23 to the present.

I suggest asking for Monthly Variable DD because it makes bills easier to understand, avoids credit building up, gives early warning of excessive consumption and avoids catch-up bills and sudden DD hikes.

Of course, it means bigger bills in winter and smaller ones in summer but it puts you in full control provided that you budget and you set money aside.

BG don't charge extra for paper billing so that's a good precaution to take in case everything gets deleted.

Incidentally, BG have goofed by using a calorific value of 40.08181818181818.  The regulations state that it must be rounded down to one decimal place.

Ask for compo because of all the silly mistakes.  Accept £50 if money hasn't left your bank account,  but hold out for £100 if it has.  The big boys should be competent enough to issue accurate bills which comply with the regulations.

Don't forget to come back and tell us how it went !

Alnat1

Not sure but I don't think British Gas allow variable DD on their new system. Maybe move to someone who does after this mess is sorted out.

Gerry1

Alnat1 said:

Not sure but I don't think British Gas allow variable DD on their new system. Maybe move to someone who does after this mess is sorted out.

They do, at least for customers migrated from the old system, I'm on it.

Very amateurish changeover (they switched over and then slowly populated it with the details) but it settled down after a few wobbly months.

UndergroundSaxClub

Thank you all for the invaluable advice. I'll get a response drafted and reply to BG in the morning. I'm wondering if I still push for the Ombudsman (or at least mention it in hope of some kind of compensation, even though I'm not at a financial loss) or try to get this resolved internally ASAP, I am over the Ombudsman waiting period. However the original complaint was regarding lack of billing.

@PeterGr

I guess I just ask my complaint manager to confirm 417 and ask if there is an additional credit to be supplied?

@Gerry1

For the manual payments. BG notify me it's time to send meter reads, I send them, then a bill comes in via email/app. For the past few months I was not sending meter reads as they were unable to generate bills and "accept reads" as the live chat agent told me. I have a handful on a notepad but nothing extensive. There is no DD setup.

Do you have a link regarding rounding down the percentages? This would be handy to have in my reply email - unsure if I should ask outright for compensation, or ask for the Ombudsman who will then decide etc.

Going forward this experience has left a bad taste in my mouth and I'll be considering alternatives, I have been looking (very briefly) at Octopus. I'd rather have a competent system/customer service and higher bills than go through this again.