British Gas misery

losingthewill68

In need of advice. 

In October 2021 following the demise of People’s Energy I was transferred to British Gas as supplier of last resort (an apt name for them). I received a couple of very low initial bills which I paid in the belief that British Gas would at some point read my meter and send me an accurate bill, it was a busy period.
After 9 months BG finally read my meter and sent me a bill of circa £5500. Unfortunately they had calculated the entire useage at the new, much elevated rate. I contacted them and asked them to check the bill as I had text them a meter reading at the end of March when the tariff increased. British Gas then cancelled the bill and credited my account with all of the payments I had already made.
I contacted them again with another meter reading but the online submission would not accept the reading, claiming it was too high!
I tried again on several occasions but gleaned the same response. I called British Gas and sure enough they attended and read my meter. 

I heard nothing and received no bill. They read my meter again 3 months later but again no bill. Then finally in January of 2024 - yes two years later I received a back bill which included a small inaccurate back billing adjustment. The back billing adjustment was around £6000 short of what it should have been. I raised a complaint and after several weeks I was referred by BG to the ombudsman. The ombudsman upheld my complaint and British Gas were to recalculate the back billing adjustment and pay £200 in compensation. That is when the problems began!
Despite the ombudsman’s instruction British Gas refused to recalculate the back billing adjustment and issued me with threatening legal letters from their counterpart BWLegal. I am loathed to pay British Gas what I owe them at this stage for fear of mis-allocation. Their legal team will not discuss the matter and are only interested in setting up a payment plan - which I do not need. 

I have appointed a costly solicitor in the hope that we could proceed to court and have the matter out but then BWLegal dropped the case and  returned the matter to British Gas. British Gas will not discuss the matter,  will not accept another complaint from me and refuse to recalculate the back billing adjustment on the grounds that Ofgem won’t let them! The ombudsman has acknowledged my plight but only responds with “I will refer the matter to British Gas”. The stress of this situation is gruelling. I run two electric vehicles and am trapped on a murderous tariff and cannot find a way out!!
Where can I go to compel British Gas to follow the instruction of the Ombudsman. There appears to be nothing in place to do so.

Mark_d

I don't understand why you weren't providing meter reads for your first 9 months with British Gas.  Anyhow there's lot of information here.  May be a case for your solicitor:

https://portal.energyombudsman.org/resources/energy-remedy-implementation-policy