British Gas: First hour of off-peak being charged at peak rate.

cash-magnet

I am on BG driver tariff. Off peak electricity between 0000-0500 every day.

I have a timer that switches on at 0010-0400 for the battery charger.

When I log into my account and look at the usage graph, it shows activity between 2300-0000 being charged at peak rate and 0000-0300 off peak. Their bills also show they are charging this peak rate hour each day and have been doing so since my account was changed over to their new account handling system. If I take this extra peak rate hour off each day and apply the correct rate, then their bill matches extremely closely to the figures in my spreadsheet.

I contacted BG a few weeks back regarding this discrepancy using their chat feature. The first customer support person just gave up and signed off after I had explained the issue twice to them (transcript saved) and the second customer support person confirmed BG is aware of this issue.

They are still carrying on this practice of charging peak rate for off-peak electricity. The smart meter is showing the correct time and when I stayed up to watch it switch rates over at midnight, it works correctly, so the issue appears to be with this new system, perhaps it's not handling british summer time clock changing correctly? (an antiquated system that should be dropped)

Recently I had to threaten them with the regulator as I was locked out from access on the website to change my direct debit. I use £25/month electric and they were charging me £42 and the account had built up almost 2 years worth of credit. Once access was granted, I changed my direct debit to £10/month to start bringing down the amount of credit. They confirmed the new amount then immediately changed it up to £37. I logged back in and dropped it back to £10/month where it has stayed.

I am still almost £150 in credit so, as an additional insult, they are increasing my direct debit to over £51/month from September, for the £25/month electric I use so the account credit will now skyrocket again!

My sincere apologies to the customer service agent I speak to tomorrow. You are not going to have a good shift, my friend.

Qyburn

cash-magnet said:

I am on BG driver tariff. Off peak electricity between 0000-0500 every day.

I have a timer that switches on at 0010-0400 for the battery charger.

When I log into my account and look at the usage graph, it shows activity between 2300-0000 being charged at peak rate and 0000-0300 off peak. 

Looks like their off peak hours are 00:00 to 05:00 GMT, ie not changing between GMT and BST. If that contradicts the information about the tariff, or it's not clear or not stated then you may have a claim for your usage to date. Meanwhile why not change your charging time to suit?

lohr500

I'm a bit confused.
Shouldn't the 2300-0000 be charged at peak rate anyway?
What happens after 0300?
Is it the 0300 to 0500 element that you are contesting?

Qyburn

lohr500 said:

I'm a bit confused.
Shouldn't the 2300-0000 be charged at peak rate anyway?
What happens after 0300?
Is it the 0300 to 0500 element that you are contesting?

His timer is set for 00:00 to 04:00 BST.  British Gas appear to record and bill that as 23:00-03:00 which suggests they are taking the times in GMT.

housebuyer143

I noticed this a few months ago. On the online account all my usage is an hour out because they are not changing the usage times with GMT etc. I get peak save savings and I'm certain that I don't benefit fully because it's an hour out. 

Reed_Richards

lohr500 said:

I'm a bit confused.
Shouldn't the 2300-0000 be charged at peak rate anyway?
What happens after 0300?
Is it the 0300 to 0500 element that you are contesting?

I'm with @lohr500, what's the problem?  You're not going to get anywhere with Customer Services if you cannot explain the issue more clearly.

born_again

housebuyer143 said:

I noticed this a few months ago. On the online account all my usage is an hour out because they are not changing the usage times with GMT etc. I get peak save savings and I'm certain that I don't benefit fully because it's an hour out. 

Are you missing that if they start a hour earlier or later that they also finish a hour earlier or later?

housebuyer143

born_again said:

housebuyer143 said:

I noticed this a few months ago. On the online account all my usage is an hour out because they are not changing the usage times with GMT etc. I get peak save savings and I'm certain that I don't benefit fully because it's an hour out. 

Are you missing that if they start a hour earlier or later that they also finish a hour earlier or later?

No, I understand that, but I didn't notice this for more than a year, maybe longer. They do not make it clear that you need to account for GMT when they email it advertising the peak save window.
It's not surprising so many get caught out because you wouldn't reasonably expect to have to check for this and to covert the time when accessing an advertised service.

It's almost of no consequence for myself, but those accessing EV charging like the OP will be caught out and it will probably end up costing a lot.

cannugec5

cash-magnet said:

I am on BG driver tariff. Off peak electricity between 0000-0500 every day.

I have a timer that switches on at 0010-0400 for the battery charger.

When I log into my account and look at the usage graph, it shows activity between 2300-0000 being charged at peak rate and 0000-0300 off peak. Their bills also show they are charging this peak rate hour each day and have been doing so since my account was changed over to their new account handling system. If I take this extra peak rate hour off each day and apply the correct rate, then their bill matches extremely closely to the figures in my spreadsheet.

I contacted BG a few weeks back regarding this discrepancy using their chat feature. The first customer support person just gave up and signed off after I had explained the issue twice to them (transcript saved) and the second customer support person confirmed BG is aware of this issue.

They are still carrying on this practice of charging peak rate for off-peak electricity. The smart meter is showing the correct time and when I stayed up to watch it switch rates over at midnight, it works correctly, so the issue appears to be with this new system, perhaps it's not handling british summer time clock changing correctly? (an antiquated system that should be dropped)

Recently I had to threaten them with the regulator as I was locked out from access on the website to change my direct debit. I use £25/month electric and they were charging me £42 and the account had built up almost 2 years worth of credit. Once access was granted, I changed my direct debit to £10/month to start bringing down the amount of credit. They confirmed the new amount then immediately changed it up to £37. I logged back in and dropped it back to £10/month where it has stayed.

I am still almost £150 in credit so, as an additional insult, they are increasing my direct debit to over £51/month from September, for the £25/month electric I use so the account credit will now skyrocket again!

My sincere apologies to the customer service agent I speak to tomorrow. You are not going to have a good shift, my friend.

Do you mean that the usage graph explicitly refers to the battery charger? 

Are you suggesting that the times for the charger and the graph don’t correspond? 

If you adjust the time on the charger (if it’s even possible to do that) can you get the charging and the off peak rate to synchronise their clocks - even if that means both utilising GMT.