Another British Gas Account Issue

rise1984

When British gas changed their account systems in December 23 I have been hit with account bills now of over £2600. 
Despite emails to the account executive team and Jana Siber directly i have been kicked back to the customer complaints line, and i am not being funny but some of these people do not know their own name let alone how to read meter bills and payments. 

Has anyone got any good connections who can help me deal with this British gas issue. 
I have tried the Ombudsman and had no luck with them, they appear to be completely oblivious to new issues.
I have also now received debt collection letters from British gas despite trying to resolve this since January 24 and despite still making monthly payments.

I NEED HELP. This is effecting me physically and mentally. There appears to be a complete lack of support and i do not know where to go. 

Robin9

Can you go back intime to before Dec 23 please.  Have you a bill/statement which you agree with and has an ACTUAL meter read??

What bills have you had since  -  are all the meter reads Actual or Estimated ?

rise1984

yes I have bills from Dec 23 that i agree with. they replaced my meter in Jan when they changed to their new system and we got smart meters. I have meter readings now. 

Robin9

Is that meter change correctly shown on the bills ?

MeteredOut

Stop expecting BG to fix the issue. After 8 weeks from your complaint being raised, take it to the Energy Omudsman, give them the evidence, and they should force BG to get things fixed.

kuepper

Try Citizens Advice energy helpline: 0808 223 1133

Marksfish

Download the Hugo app or go to the 3nergy website. You can get graphs of your usage, put in your tariff and get relatively realistic costings. I went to the ombudsman with my graphs and usage when my meter wasn't working correctly. I got a decision in my favour which BG appealed stating I was benefitting from unbilled electricity. Provided some more information from the 3nergy website for the appeal. Ombudsman held up the original decision. This has been going on since January, so perseverance is necessary.

If you've been through the Siber side of things, you have probably already dealt with  specialist.referrals@britishgas.co.uk

DisabledDan

rise1984 said:

When British gas changed their account systems in December 23 I have been hit with account bills now of over £2600. 
Despite emails to the account executive team and Jana Siber directly i have been kicked back to the customer complaints line, and i am not being funny but some of these people do not know their own name let alone how to read meter bills and payments. 

Has anyone got any good connections who can help me deal with this British gas issue. 
I have tried the Ombudsman and had no luck with them, they appear to be completely oblivious to new issues.
I have also now received debt collection letters from British gas despite trying to resolve this since January 24 and despite still making monthly payments.

I NEED HELP. This is effecting me physically and mentally. There appears to be a complete lack of support and i do not know where to go. 

Sorry to hear you are having to deal with this, I had a long dispute with an energy company that kept starting the complaint over and over again to stop me raising it with the ombudsman.  I calculated they overcharged me over £2000, they offered £700.  I refused to pay them another penny, nor to let them fit a pre-payment meter.  In the end I left the property and I could not be bothered to fight them, I just let the debt run past 6 years and they got nothing.  They no longer exist and the debt does not appear to have been sold to anyone.

It seems to me you need evidence, start with a Subject Access Request for all the reads for the property, even prior to your occupancy.

Compare your property to others like it, speak to neighbours.

Tell BG you think the meter is faulty and ask them to fit an audit meter if they still do those.

You do not say if it is Gas or Electric but turn everything off and see if usage still increases, then put one device at a time on and measure.

Where I used to live we had a real demon neighbour upstairs. He connected his meter to another neighbours meter, there were 4 meters in a row and the pipes he put in were all under about 8 inches of stones.  He was caught but I think it was 4 years and 3 tenants he stole from. Later he wired his flat into a supply for a communal aerial that went on a meter connected to service charge.  I am not suggesting you have same but perhaps the installers made a mistake, there may be a leak of gas or the meter could be charging you for another consumers supply.

This one was 270 miles away!!

pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20240124/282175065986914

reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/19edw76/my_smart_meter_charged_me_for_a_house_270_miles/

I would suggest that you inform British Gas that you are a vulnerable customer, that this matter is causing you huge stress and if they do not resolve this issue as a matter of urgency.

You could also make a complaint about the ombudsman, see if you can get a new meter fitted and some sort of analysis.

rise1984

Thank you all for the support and good advice. 
I already have a complaint running with the ombudsman but i am not holding my breathe these people are paid retrospectively by the corporate companies. 

To add to my issues over the weekend i have received debt collection letters from British gas, saying they ar e passing my account to a debt collection company. 
If nothing at least this means i will get away from British gas and i will just pay them small amounts over the next few years , as the physical and mental stress of dealing with British gas is exhausting

Ectophile

rise1984 said:

Thank you all for the support and good advice. 
I already have a complaint running with the ombudsman but i am not holding my breathe these people are paid retrospectively by the corporate companies. 

To add to my issues over the weekend i have received debt collection letters from British gas, saying they ar e passing my account to a debt collection company. 
If nothing at least this means i will get away from British gas and i will just pay them small amounts over the next few years , as the physical and mental stress of dealing with British gas is exhausting

Remember that you need to tell the ombudsman exactly what the problem is.  Don't expect them to investigate for you.

Bills that are too high, by itself, isn't anything that the ombudsman can rule on.  Your neighbours paying less doesn't mean anything.  Maybe you keep turning the heating too high.  Instead, you need facts and figures.  Meter readings, bills, or whatever other evidence you need to demonstrate your case.

Kimsandra

Stress is an understatement, I left British gas in late feb early march I paid my final bill on time.  A few weeks ago I was sent a bill for £1,198 , I am a very low user of energy and I knew this was an error on there side, it took me a few attempts to speak to someone who knew it was a glitch, so she reversed the bill I asked her to send me an email saying i didn't owe anything, she did that.

Then a week or so later I got the bill again and spoke to someone who said if they system says I owe it then I need to pay it, she just didn't understand 

But about a week later I got another bill for the same amount, I did not get anywhere on online chat, I was passed from pillar to post and took me nearly two hours and they couldn't help. So I phoned again and again, by which stage I  was  so stressed I had to get my son to talk to them, We've spoken to them yesterday and after having the phone hang up on us by an agent who couldn't answer the question, then being on hold for ages. then I got a reminder telling me that my bill was over due. we eventually spoke to an agent who said it was something to do with the cross over between an old system and the new one, I don't have faith in them sorting it out , so I sent the following email to the yesterday.  Unfortunatly the ombudsman wont step in for 8 weeks, and by which stage my credit rating will be affected, I can't be the only one who this is happening to, I can't express how this is effecting my mental health. does anyone know what else I can do if this isn't resolved soon please?

email

I have now spoken to three agents I am extremely stressed as you are still not getting the bill right, i do not owe you anything, I have been told on 5th June that it was a glitch in the system, then my bill went to £0  then the other day i got another bill saying i owed you £1198,45

I left British gas months ago, i paid my final bill which is attached. 

I have explained three times that i have physical and mental health issues, I am very vulnerable, a similar thing happed a while ago with a different company and it effected me so much i tried to kill myself. please don't say "don't worry" it will not make me stop worrying. 

I hve no idea what has gone wrong but someone needs to fix it ! 

I am angry and stressed out at this, I don't seem to be getting anywhere, If this is not sorted out very very soon, I will speak with the ombudsman