British Gas - credit balance disappeared in the move from the old to the new billing system

Colin_E.

Hi Folks,

I've been struggling with British Gas for quite some time now - repeated errors, incomplete bills, arbitrary adjustments. For a long time I have been overpaying, with British Gas promising that this will be resolved via their Direct Debit adjustment process. However, once again my Direct Debit has increased rather than decreased.

After spending about 4 hours digging into my billing history, I have discovered that my credit balance has been entirely erased in their migration from their old billing system to the new in ~ Nov 2023. The missing balance totals £3,280.26.

I'm highlighting it here in case others have had similar issues.

I have spent this evening composing a six page complain letter with all the details which I will send tomorrow (annoyingly you cannot email complaints, either online chat, phone or post!). 

I'd like to share the complaint letter here, but unfortunately cannot post links.

Once I have this resolved, I'm definitely changing suppliers!

Colin E.

MeteredOut

Others have reported the same issue - it *seems* they get sorted in the end (I don't think we've had a case of anyone saying they've ultimately "lost" money) but that obviously doesn't take away the annoyance/stress of it happening.

Colin_E.

MeteredOut said:

Others have reported the same issue - it *seems* they get sorted in the end

I hope so - spent 1h20 mins on the phone to them today. Again, they repeatedly told me the balance was correct. However, they did confirm that average monthly cost on my bills was far lower than my direct debits, so could not explain why I didn't have a significant positive balance.

The amount of time it takes their customer service reps to investigate clearly shows just how poor their systems are.

Petriix

The thing that I found was a significant discrepancy on a bill they produced for the transition between systems. They used one reading for the final bill on the old system, then use a spurious estimate for the start reading on the new one which was several thousand kWh lower than reality. There will be an audit trail for the charges they've applied, you just need to identify where they've magically inserted the additional charges. 

MeteredOut

Colin_E. said:

MeteredOut said:

Others have reported the same issue - it *seems* they get sorted in the end

I hope so - spent 1h20 mins on the phone to them today. Again, they repeatedly told me the balance was correct. However, they did confirm that average monthly cost on my bills was far lower than my direct debits, so could not explain why I didn't have a significant positive balance.

The amount of time it takes their customer service reps to investigate clearly shows just how poor their systems are.

If you do get to the point where they are adamant the bills is correct, and you are adamant it is not, ensure you have a complaint open, and escalate it to the energy ombudsman after 8 weeks if not resolved. You'll have to collate all the evidence though.

It is ironic that it takes so much energy from consumers to get these issues addressed.

kezsrj0

The same has happened to me and I've had over £1800 wiped from my account for both gas and electricity.  I show customer service my bill showing the credit and then the next with it missing and they keep telling me the bills are correct and I owe them nearly £100.  Does anyone have any tips on how to the got British Gas to find the credit again?

I know there is a comment that British Gas find it eventually - but that is not my experience - electricity went missing in June 2023 and Gas went missing in August 2023 - and we are now April 2023 and they are still claiming my bills are correct.  So hope is fading.  If this is a known issue - why do those answering my emails not know how to check this 'common error'?

MattMattMattUK

kezsrj0 said:

The same has happened to me and I've had over £1800 wiped from my account for both gas and electricity.  I show customer service my bill showing the credit and then the next with it missing and they keep telling me the bills are correct and I owe them nearly £100.  Does anyone have any tips on how to the got British Gas to find the credit again?

I know there is a comment that British Gas find it eventually - but that is not my experience - electricity went missing in June 2023 and Gas went missing in August 2023 - and we are now April 2023 and they are still claiming my bills are correct.  So hope is fading.  If this is a known issue - why do those answering my emails not know how to check this 'common error'?

First, raise a formal complaint, from then they have eight weeks to resolve it or you can take it to the ombudsman.

You need to establish when you had been billed before you were transferred, if it was 6+ months ago then there could have been significant usage to account for, if it was days or weeks then far less likely. Do you have copies of your old bills, new bills and meter reads?

Robswife

My balance with BG is currently £5860 in credit ???? Can’t wait to see how they lose it - we have always said we are over paying for energy (little 3 bed terrace/new windows/newly insulated etc paying £250 a month - which doesn’t cover the £3-400 bill per month) - I’ve notice that old bills have been adjusted by some very strange amounts - I’ve downloaded all bills and can’t understand how they can dramatically change a bill from last year when they have had ‘actual’ readings ???

kezsrj0

So mystery was solved!  If this happens to anyone else....they may have posted a cheque out to you!!  

As I keep my bills uptodate and am ahead with my money - I don't look at post from British Gas because it's either a request to have a smart meter installed or a boiler - or some other advert - so I bin them!  Unbeknownst to me I was sent a cheque last year - which I never opened, threw away and which I never cashed - but on their system - the credit has been returned and they don't marry up uncashed cheques.

So call and ask if a cheque has been sent out to you - ask to speak with the old bill team - and they will cancel the cheque and then arrange to have the credit transferred to your energy account.  You have to wait nearly 3 weeks though - 10 days for the cheque to be cancelled and 2 for the credit to be returned to your account.  You have to be transferred to the Old Bill Team - because the regular customer service advisers can't do this - but they can transfer you - ask to be transferred - or they will make things up like say you can't have the credit added to the account - which was just made up!

Why they decided to return credit I have no idea - but I hope this might help someone if you are in the same boat as me - I was going through a parent's serious illness, caring and then bereavement.  Despite raising a complaint - all I got back was - send us a meter reading - and today, some three months later - someone tells me there was a cheque in the post!

kezsrj0

MattMattMattUK said:

kezsrj0 said:

The same has happened to me and I've had over £1800 wiped from my account for both gas and electricity.  I show customer service my bill showing the credit and then the next with it missing and they keep telling me the bills are correct and I owe them nearly £100.  Does anyone have any tips on how to the got British Gas to find the credit again?

I know there is a comment that British Gas find it eventually - but that is not my experience - electricity went missing in June 2023 and Gas went missing in August 2023 - and we are now April 2023 and they are still claiming my bills are correct.  So hope is fading.  If this is a known issue - why do those answering my emails not know how to check this 'common error'?

First, raise a formal complaint, from then they have eight weeks to resolve it or you can take it to the ombudsman.

You need to establish when you had been billed before you were transferred, if it was 6+ months ago then there could have been significant usage to account for, if it was days or weeks then far less likely. Do you have copies of your old bills, new bills and meter reads?

I had raised a formal complaint but they just wanted a meter reading. 

I realised that I would continue to use energy and the bills would change- but the issue was - where was the money that on one bill shows I was in credit and then next said I had 0 credit - yes the bills still continued - but the credit I had was sufficient to pay the bill - but by it vanishing - then my new bills showed unpaid because of the missing credit.  I checked the meter readings - and they were roughly what the bills had estimated - electricity was under and gas was over by around 10 units (which I hope wouldn't cost £1300!)  It was the credit just disappearing - that has nothing to do with usage or meter readings - it turned out they had sent me a cheque - see my later post for further details.  

wrf12345

You have to understand that this is the modern world, slowly being dominated by AI, which in the case of big businesses has the fundamental aim of keeping the business solvent whilst maxing out returns for investors and directors... if the AI system detects a fall in revenue that threatens its fundamental goals then it will harness extra income from whatever source is available, such as losing customer credit in the system... ok, just joking, I think, but u never know!