British Gas really messed up my payment plan, TWICE

triade

I'm starting to feel really anxious about this,

I got switched to universal credit so now I can't pay the fortnightly payment plan I'd set up with British Gas, so I have contacted them yesterday to change my payment plan to twice per month on specific dates (i have my UC twice per month because I have adhd), £45 electric and £25 gas. I was very clear about this, I told them very clearly "Gas, £25 on 10th and 25th of each month. Electric, £45 on 10th and 25th of each month." I couldn't have been any clearer could I?

so I checked my account today and it's been set to those amounts every two weeks (fortnightly), which is exactly what I asked it to be changed FROM. so i contacted them again, and got somebody who has terrible English and I couldn't understand what they were writing half the time. I gave them the same instructions, very clear. now they have changed my account so it's £25 fortnightly and £50 fortnightly. I am just dumbfounded at how they can be messing this up so badly and the lack of clear communication is definitely an issue. I asked to speak to their supervisor or colleague, and they flat out refused. How am I supposed to resolve this if I can't understand them???
now the chat line has closed so I'm left with an absolute mess in my account and my anxiety is the worst it has been in years.
What is going on with this company?
I stuck with them because I thought they would at least be reliable, even if the prices are not the lowest. now I am scared. I need reliability.

swingaloo

triade said:

I'm starting to feel really anxious about this,

I got switched to universal credit so now I can't pay the fortnightly payment plan I'd set up with British Gas, so I have contacted them yesterday to change my payment plan to twice per month on specific dates (i have my UC twice per month because I have adhd), £45 electric and £25 gas. I was very clear about this, I told them very clearly "Gas, £25 on 10th and 25th of each month. Electric, £45 on 10th and 25th of each month." I couldn't have been any clearer could I?

so I checked my account today and it's been set to those amounts every two weeks, which is exactly what I asked it to be changed FROM. so i contacted them again, and got somebody who has terrible English and I couldn't understand what they were writing half the time. I gave them the same instructions, very clear. now they have changed my account so it's £25 fortnightly and £50 fortnightly. I am just dumbfounded at how they can be messing this up so badly and the lack of clear communication is definitely an issue. I asked to speak to their supervisor or colleague, and they flat out refused. How am I supposed to resolve this if I can't understand them???
now the chat line has closed so I'm left with an absolute mess in my account and my anxiety is the worst it has been in years.
What is going on with this company?
I stuck with them because I thought they would at least be reliable, even if the prices are not the lowest. now I am scared. I need reliability.

Your post doesnt make sense. You say you asked them to change your payment plan TO twice per month which they did then you say you asked for it to be changed FROM twice a month?

triade

swingaloo said:

triade said:

I'm starting to feel really anxious about this,

I got switched to universal credit so now I can't pay the fortnightly payment plan I'd set up with British Gas, so I have contacted them yesterday to change my payment plan to twice per month on specific dates (i have my UC twice per month because I have adhd), £45 electric and £25 gas. I was very clear about this, I told them very clearly "Gas, £25 on 10th and 25th of each month. Electric, £45 on 10th and 25th of each month." I couldn't have been any clearer could I?

so I checked my account today and it's been set to those amounts every two weeks, which is exactly what I asked it to be changed FROM. so i contacted them again, and got somebody who has terrible English and I couldn't understand what they were writing half the time. I gave them the same instructions, very clear. now they have changed my account so it's £25 fortnightly and £50 fortnightly. I am just dumbfounded at how they can be messing this up so badly and the lack of clear communication is definitely an issue. I asked to speak to their supervisor or colleague, and they flat out refused. How am I supposed to resolve this if I can't understand them???
now the chat line has closed so I'm left with an absolute mess in my account and my anxiety is the worst it has been in years.
What is going on with this company?
I stuck with them because I thought they would at least be reliable, even if the prices are not the lowest. now I am scared. I need reliability.

Your post doesnt make sense. You say you asked them to change your payment plan TO twice per month which they did then you say you asked for it to be changed FROM twice a month?

Twice monthly is not the same thing as every two weeks.

Brie

maybe it would be easier for you if you switched to standing orders rather than direct debits.  That way you will be in control rather than depending on them trying to get it right.

triade

Brie said:

maybe it would be easier for you if you switched to standing orders rather than direct debits.  That way you will be in control rather than depending on them trying to get it right.

Thanks that is good advice and it is almost what I currently do.

I was toying with the idea of gong DD but after the last time they screwed up my bill and hearing about how others have had issues, I don't think I would ever do that.

My main concern is, I cannot match the current payment plan dates because I got switched to Universal Credit. I had the payment plan set up as a way to pay my bills on a piecemeal basis so they don't expect me to pay the bill all in one go. I pay on the day of the agreement and they don't bother me about any payments. it's in my control when the money gets paid, but I am scared about what happens now I can't pay on the agreed dates (every other friday). I get paid on the 25th and the 10th now, so I want to set the agreement to those dates. I need to do it this way as I have adhd and I find budgeting almost impossible to do. 

Based on this recent experience with them, I'm coming to the conclusion British Gas are not reliable any more. I heard that Octopus Energy is, so I may switch to them as soon as I clear the debt with British Gas.

Gerry1

A standing order seems to be the way forward.  Octopus are much better than BG in all respects, which probably explains why Octopus have just beaten BG to become the largest supplier.  Make sure you're on the Priority Services Register.

You can also share £100 by getting a referral code from another Octopus customer so that will be a nice welcome.

triade

OK that seems like a sensible future plan.

For the time being though, I have this looming threat that if I don't pay according to the payment plan, they will cancel it and send me the entire bill and demand payment immediately... Something I definitely would not be bale to afford, so I'm scared I will end up getting more and more threats and my supply getting cut.

t0rt0ise

I would guess that the supplier's system can't be set up the way you want, so they've done as close as they can which is fortnightly. Why not get some advice on money management instead from Citizens Advice.

Ildhund

I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to set up two separate payment plans for a single customer? There are surely situations where this would be more helpful all round than insisting on what appears to be a monolithic arrangement. Then triade could ask for Payment plan A: e.g. pay £50 on the 10th of each month from Account 1; Payment plan B: e.g. pay £50 on the 25th of each month from Account 2. It should make no difference to the payee that Accounts 1 and 2 are the same account.

triade

I do know that the water company was unable to set up two different payment plans. They could do frequency of once a month or fortnightly, so I set that to monthly since it's only £20. They were able to communicate that to me clearly though.

 

I think the primary issue here is communication. I clearly communicated what I wanted and they told me that they had done it. I came back to discover that they hadn't done it. Either they had lied to me or they didn't understand my very specific instruction. This is why I asked the (slightly rhetorical) question in my OP, and since nobody mentioned it, I assume my request must have been very clear.

Then when the second advisor told me they'd done it yesterday and I saw that it was still on 'every two weeks' and had changed to £50 rather than the 45 I had stated,  I began to despair.

What can I do, if I cannot even get proper communication? If their system cannot do what I asked for then they need to tell me that. 

I can't handle being 'assisted' by someone who doesn't understand what I'm asking or is going to lie to me, or is asking me something that literally doesn't make sense.

"let me help you dearest customer, how much do you wish me I deduct from your direct debit" is one of the lines.

I'd already asked to set up a payment plan and had said clearly that I don't have a direct debit and do not want one. How can anyone be expected to have any faith in that level of service?

molerat

Is this paying off debt or just normal payments ?

I think the problem here is that the systems are not set up for twice monthly payments, they are generally monthly or fortnightly.  I very much doubt they will be able to change that, virtually no one actually wants to do it that way.  You may be able to get gas and electric separated but that would mean electric £90 on 10th and gas £50 on 25th. They may be able to do it weekly but it seems you want to pay in line with your UC payments rather than budget for the payments.