British Gas didn't apply the tariff agreed

Hmonty66

Back in January we switched to British Gas to take advantage of their EV rate (with cheaper overnight electricity midnight to 5am). We finally got a bill from them and it turns out they have been charging us at their standard rate.  With the EV rate both the off peak and peak rate should have been less than the std rate (although the standing charge is slightly more).  I've been discussing this with British Gas who have offered compensation at a fixed amount per day as they say that they can't give me accurate figures for usage overnight.  From my car charger I can see how much we used and consequently work out that the compensation just about covers the amount we have lost from being on the wrong rate FOR CHARGING THE CAR but it doesn't take into account all the other electricity we have deliberately used over the off peak hours (dishwasher, washing machine, heating etc).  They tell me that they have no way of knowing how much electricity we used during the off peak hours.  Without this information I can't calculate whether it's worth taking their offer (considering that we did save on the standing charge) or whether to fight on.  Does anyone know if they do have access to the correct figures? Are they just using the 'set daily compensation' offer as means to get out of having to calculate it correctly?

Grateful for any advice

Many thanks

glennevis

Do you have a smart meter?

thozza

I had a similar issue with BG when I switched to their EV tariff, fortunately I was on monthly billing so noticed it quickly. 

The standard complaints through their chat system did not get resolved so I wrote to the Chief Executive, it was then dealt with by a different team.

Essentially the BG EV tariff uses the dual register on the meter in a similar way to Economy 7, they don't use half hourly readings, so if they hadn't turned on the second register, they don't have a record of your off peak usage. When I challenged them to obtain usage data from the DCC database, as I was able to, they couldn't or wouldn't.

I did provide them with the half hourly usage, and back checked it using the Hugo app (where you can input your own tariff), and eventually they wrote off an amount which was higher than the difference I had calculated. It was a rather protracted process but they did solve it in the end. 

Best of luck with BG, when things go wrong it's pretty difficult to get any action or sense from them. 

Hmonty66

glennevis said:

Do you have a smart meter?

We do but it just shows the daily amount used. I guess as they haven't turned on the dual fuel

BarelySentientAI

Hmonty66 said:

glennevis said:

Do you have a smart meter?

We do but it just shows the daily amount used. I guess as they haven't turned on the dual fuel

You're probably talking about your IHD, not your smart meter, but at least it shows you have one.

Try one of the free apps/websites that can read your meter data - thozza mentioned Hugo, but there are also Loop, Bright, and at least one other that I've forgotten.  If you do have a smart meter that's communicating correctly, they could have the information you would need to argue with BG.

lohr500

If you are handy with excel, another option is to sign up to the free n3rgy service : 

https://data.n3rgy.com/consumer-login

Once you have signed up, you can download your half hourly data over a given date range.

I've used it in the past, but I'm struggling to login again today, just to check out what download options are available for you. 

BarelySentientAI

lohr500 said:

If you are handy with excel, another option is to sign up to the free n3rgy service : 

https://data.n3rgy.com/consumer-login

Once you have signed up, you can download your half hourly data over a given date range.

I've used it in the past, but I'm struggling to login again today, just to check out what download options are available for you. 

That's the one I forgot - and couldn't spell closely enough for google to find.