British Gas billed me 6.5 times my real electricity usage for 2 years

wrf12345

Contact Daily Telegraph or Daily Mail or GBNews?

MeteredOut

BarelySentientAI said:

Firstly, take out all of the sentiment and emotional accusations.  "I believe they set out to damage me", "I considered this insulting" etc is not a sensible way to approach something like this.

What you are asking for as "proper compensation" is punitive damages.  This will not happen.

They will correct your actual demonstrable losses.

Reading that thread reminded me so much of the issue I had (and am still in the final stages of resolving) with EDF and my (proven by SGS) faulty gas meter.

I agree the OP needs to take the emotion out of their claim, but do not assume these companies will address the overcharging without a fight. Despite the Ombudsman finding in my favour, EDF are refusing to even engage with me on how they will calculate the extent of the overcharge from my faulty meter from November 2021 until it was replaced (after being tested) in December 2023.

The companies are not malicious; they do not go out of their way to fraud or scam or hurt anyone. But, their incompetence really had no limits.

MeteredOut

CouldntResist said:

If you knew the meter was faulty wouldn't it have made sense to get it replaced as early as possible rather than arguing about independent testing etc whilst it was tracking up more phantom digits?

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

As soon as the meter is replaced without a test, the consumer has no proof of the fault and the supplier will not rectify billing.  And without any evidence, the Ombudsman cannot (and will have no inclination to ) force them to even look into it.

BarelySentientAI

MeteredOut said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Firstly, take out all of the sentiment and emotional accusations.  "I believe they set out to damage me", "I considered this insulting" etc is not a sensible way to approach something like this.

What you are asking for as "proper compensation" is punitive damages.  This will not happen.

They will correct your actual demonstrable losses.

Reading that thread reminded me so much of the issue I had (and am still in the final stages of resolving) with EDF and my (proven by SGS) faulty gas meter.

I agree the OP needs to take the emotion out of their claim, but do not assume these companies will address the overcharging without a fight. Despite the Ombudsman finding in my favour, EDF are refusing to even engage with me on how they will calculate the extent of the overcharge from my faulty meter from November 2021 until it was replaced (after being tested) in December 2023.

The companies are not malicious; they do not go out of their way to fraud or scam or hurt anyone. But, their incompetence really had no limits.

Yes, you're right.

The more you keep it forceful yet factual, the more it shows up their inadequate responses.  As soon as you drift into accusations of maliciousness, you become easier to dismiss (wrongly) as a conspiracy theorist.

Lonnie7

Mobtr said:

Lonnie7 said:

Hi Mobrtr,
No, the account has not been adjusted because of a technical challenge they say they have.
To be exact the billing question in money has remained open, it is the overcharge in number of kwh units that has been finalised months ago.

They will need to multiply that number by the average cost per unit and that is a simple operation, but who knows.

They claim that the rebilling has been stuck since last January since "the exchange details of the (new) meter are still not showing on the National Database or our own system". 

And I do not see the connection between having the new meter details and crediting me over an overcharge that relates to the old meter either. I am just reporting things as they have been reported to me, careful not to make emotional comments.
Thank you

Unfortunately if your new meter is not showing on your account yet then they would need to wait for it to be updated, a final reading for the old meter to be added & this should then bill the account correctly removing the overcharges. 

I believe BG have changed systems so that could be the hold up if the meter was exchanged before you were migrated to the new system but not updated. EDF have similar issues with updating meters that were exchanged prior to migration, they’re taking forever as well. 

Hi Mobtr,
Thank you for adding to that.

Three months from the installation of the new meter seems a very long time indeed.
Also, considering I started to be billed more than I should 26 months, and all that followed, I cannot avoid thinking how penalised a customer who was in debit towards their provider for that amount of time would be.

The consequences would be certainly much heavier than just the payment of whatever is due whenever this is technically possible, after issuing an apology note.

Cheers

Lonnie7

MeteredOut said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Firstly, take out all of the sentiment and emotional accusations.  "I believe they set out to damage me", "I considered this insulting" etc is not a sensible way to approach something like this.

What you are asking for as "proper compensation" is punitive damages.  This will not happen.

They will correct your actual demonstrable losses.

Reading that thread reminded me so much of the issue I had (and am still in the final stages of resolving) with EDF and my (proven by SGS) faulty gas meter.

I agree the OP needs to take the emotion out of their claim, but do not assume these companies will address the overcharging without a fight. Despite the Ombudsman finding in my favour, EDF are refusing to even engage with me on how they will calculate the extent of the overcharge from my faulty meter from November 2021 until it was replaced (after being tested) in December 2023.

The companies are not malicious; they do not go out of their way to fraud or scam or hurt anyone. But, their incompetence really had no limits.

Incompetence? All I am saying is that there have been two very different meter reports here, and booking the second one was made so difficult by the provider that I had to ask the Ombudsman to intervene so that they had it authorised, even if it was due.

Also, keeping emotions aside, one may certainly assume that there is a substantial health cost involved in trying to resolve something of this entity.
It should not be happening.
Thank you.

MeteredOut

Lonnie7 said:

MeteredOut said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Firstly, take out all of the sentiment and emotional accusations.  "I believe they set out to damage me", "I considered this insulting" etc is not a sensible way to approach something like this.

What you are asking for as "proper compensation" is punitive damages.  This will not happen.

They will correct your actual demonstrable losses.

Reading that thread reminded me so much of the issue I had (and am still in the final stages of resolving) with EDF and my (proven by SGS) faulty gas meter.

I agree the OP needs to take the emotion out of their claim, but do not assume these companies will address the overcharging without a fight. Despite the Ombudsman finding in my favour, EDF are refusing to even engage with me on how they will calculate the extent of the overcharge from my faulty meter from November 2021 until it was replaced (after being tested) in December 2023.

The companies are not malicious; they do not go out of their way to fraud or scam or hurt anyone. But, their incompetence really had no limits.

Incompetence? All I am saying is that there have been two very different meter reports here, and booking the second one was made so difficult by the provider that I had to ask the Ombudsman to intervene so that they had it authorised, even if it was due.

Also, keeping emotions aside, one may certainly assume that there is a substantial health cost involved in trying to resolve something of this entity.
It should not be happening.
Thank you.

If not incompetence, what? Your initial post stated you think someone/some people at BG are intentionally set out to damage you and that there is some sort of cover up. I'm surprised Horizon was not mentioned


That is very unlikely to be the case; if you've ever worked in any large organisation, you'll know that the people you are dealing with are not empowered or incentivised to actually help customers - their goal is to get the case closed as quick as possible and move onto the next one. Their response it to follow the path of least resistance, hoping the issue will go away, passing the responsibility onto someone else, or just kicking the can down the road.

If you're suggesting the first meter reader lied about the inaccuracy, I also doubt that is the case. He might not even have worked for BG.

I've probably had at least as much obfuscation, being misquoted, being ignored, being told I'd be phoned back and not, being told I'd be emailed back and not, questions going unanswered etc etc as you, and I've been engaging for EDF longer than you've been engaging with BG (Aug 2022 is when I identified and notified EDF of the issue in my case, for an issue going back to Nov 2021). I've spent literally dozens of hours collating and sending this evidence to both EDF and the Ombudsman over that period of time.

£100 compensation for the is what the Ombudsman awarded me for the inconvenience too, but at least EDF did credit that to my bill.

But I've keep things at the factual level - engaging with both EDF and the Ombudsman. I think you'll find it hard to justify further recompense unless you can show the issue has had a direct impact on your health. 

I do agree that small claims court is where it may end up for me if I don't get it resolved by the end of this summer. By that point, I'll have enough data to show the true overcharging on my account.

pinkladyvenus

you are not alone with having major problems with British gas check out this face book group British Gas incompetence  https://www.facebook.com/groups/173900419338680

Lonnie7

Pinkladyvenus I cannot quote your link cause I am new.

Link is shocking, but it all makes perfect sense.

Really appreciate that.