Back billing British Gas and Ombudsman poor decision

Lagerthanlife

Hello all,

I was a dual fuel consumer and had a complaint with British Gas regarding back-billing from 2021, I took it through to the ombudsman who upheld my complaint but found that back-billing did not apply, awarded me £100 credit to my account but still left me with a bill for over £3,000 gas and electricity which I am currently about 50% paid off in instalments, I challenged the ombudsman decision but they reverted to factual inacuracies with the case not what had actually happened.

Now in the light of Martin’s Commons appearance and recent back-billing in the news, it still appears to me that the Ombudsman has made an incorrect assessment and poor decision regarding my case and back-billing should apply - I shall try and keep this short....

In early 2001 Simplicity went bust and BG took over supply, I was paying a regular monthly fixed DD instalment at the time that continued, BG sent me a welcome letter in March 2021 via the email that I was using with Simplicity and I received a hard copy follow-up letter a few months later stating that there was nothing for me to do as BG were working on getting the account ready, I didn’t hear from BG for several months which then went into 2022, I made attempts to sort out my account with BG by contacting them on and off during 2022 but they stated (on the phone and in chat) that they had no record of my account.

In the middle of 2022 the direct debit doubled, with no warning, no letters or any other types of communication from BG, at this point I decided that a way to get BG to contact me would be to stop the DD as surely BG would then send threatening letters regarding non-payment of the bill, but I received nothing.

In October 2022 a meter reader visited my home and took a reading, I was at home when he visitied and I asked him about the account to which he didn’t have any information as he was just reading meters.

Time progresses into 2023 during which I make 2 or 3 more attempts to get BG to acknowledge my account without result. Towards the end of 2023 I am moving house and I make a concerted effort to contact BG to tell them I am moving and to prepare a final bill, at last after numerous calls both ways I get a password reset to an online account that has/had been setup for the supply.

They then send me a bill for over £5000. This bill is back billing to when supply was taken over but does not include the amount I already paid them via DD until the middle of 2022 when I stopped the DD (does this suggest they didn't have records of the DD applied to the account until I pointed it out to them?).  The bill was then adjusted to take DD payments already made into account and resulted in a bill of over £3000. The BG electronic paperwork that was presented to me in late 2023 shows estimates throughout 2021 until the meter read in 2022 and then estimates until my meter was read for final bill at the end of 2023.

At this point I decide that back-billing applies because I haven’t received a bill since supply was taken over in early 2001, I hadn't obstructed anyone from making contact or taking a meter reading. I go through the BG complaints process and then move to the ombudsman who upholds my complaint but states that back billing does not apply as BG was producing estimated bills and had a meter reading (but they still hadn't sent me a bill).

It appears that BG have generated the estimated bills but not sent them anywhere or if they were sending them to somewhere it wasn't to my email address that was setup with Simplicity, my supply address appears on the bills (no hard copy was ever received) but no email address appears on the bills. Throughout the complaints process I repeatedly asked for evidence for the email address where BG had been sending bills to, these requests were ignored by both BG and the ombudsman. The ombudsman appears to assume that back billing does not apply on the basis that BG was billing. I have not shut down the original email from the Simplicity supply, the email is still operational to this day, but still nothing has been sent to this email address, nor has any hard copy bill arrived at the property.

I repeatedly asked, as a customer with no control over this process, how I was supposed to obtain/receive a bill from BG despite attempts to contact BG and determine what had happened with my account.  I also asked why BG did not chase my non-payment of the bill when I stopped the DD, the bill went completely unpaid for 18 months at that point, how long does it take BG to chase customers for non-payment?

It appears convenient that BG and the ombudsman can ignore my requests for evidence as to where the bills were sent, just avoid the question and therefore back billing does not apply!

I have made an agreement with BG to pay off the debt to which I am halfway through but now I am wondering if I should stop payments and open a new case with the ombudsman or do something else to see if I can get the ombudsman to see my side and apply back-billing rules as they should be applied, the ombudsman appears to have made a decision based on the word of BG and not taken my explanation into account, despite my complaint being upheld, which is confusing.

Appreciate any thoughts at this stage, how can I challenge this again, should I stop paying off the bill whilst I go through some sort of new case process again, do I need to take it to small claims at this stage?

Many thanks.

masonic

What was the Energy Ombudsman's reasoning for why back billing rules did not apply to your case? It might be helpful if you could share their response with any identifying details redacted. Most bills these days are electronic and made available via an online account. Not receiving a bill by email or post would not necessarily mean you weren't billed, and perhaps the EO's view is that because the bills were available to you online, you were in fact billed within 12 months of using the energy.

MWT

The back-billing rules allow them to use the DD payments you were making to cover the charges from 2021 onwards, so you'd have to work out how much of the total was covered by the payments you had made to determine if there was any use they are charging for that is actually not covered by the DD payments and is also outside the 12 month limit for back-billing...

Lagerthanlife

masonic said:

What was the Energy Ombudsman's reasoning for why back billing rules did not apply to your case? It might be helpful if you could share their response with any identifying details redacted. Most bills these days are electronic and made available via an online account. Not receiving a bill by email or post would not necessarily mean you weren't billed, and perhaps the EO's view is that because the bills were available to you online, you were in fact billed within 12 months of using the energy.

Thankyou for your response.

The online account with Simplicity was discontinued at the time of BG takeover in 2021 and no new online account details were forwarded to me at any time until the point where I persisted that something be done (when I needed a final bill in 2023) for me to be able to access a BG account online, I was half expecting them to send me something in the post as it had been so long without contact.  Ombudsman decision below:

From my investigation, I can see that the most likely scenario is that the account was created when you
first switched to British Gas, but you only gained access to the online account in October 2023. I have
come to this conclusion as you have provided the welcome email in the evidence which was sent on 1st
February 2021, the bills all show the dates they were issued, and the evidence provided for October
2023 was a password reset of the online account. If the bills were issued after an account was created in
October 2023 and charged back to January 2021, this would be 1 bill for the entire period with the date
it was issued. Furthermore, you have been billed to the following actual reads during this time:
10th March 2021 – electricity 13078 – gas 27862
26th October 2022 – electricity 26531 – gas 29546
24th October 2023 – electricity 32008 – gas 29952
13th November 2023 – electricity 32338 – gas 30007
14th December 2023 – electricity 32838 – gas 30121
As such, back billing does not apply but I do consider the following to be shortfalls in service:
The length of time this has been ongoing.
British Gas not recognising actual reads have been used in their comments.
British Gas could have done more and give a better explanation to avoid the situation.
Due to these shortfalls in service, I require British Gas to apply a goodwill credit of £100 to your energy
account and issue a written apology to acknowledge the time and trouble caused.

Lagerthanlife

MWT said:

The back-billing rules allow them to use the DD payments you were making to cover the charges from 2021 onwards, so you'd have to work out how much of the total was covered by the payments you had made to determine if there was any use they are charging for that is actually not covered by the DD payments and is also outside the 12 month limit for back-billing...

And now I see why Martin's comments around the back billing rules are so grey and that consumers are not aware of their existence in the first place, they are not clear enough in any contractual terms and highly likely that energy companies won't want to advertise this fact.  I only became aware that the rules existence when chatting with a work colleague who metioned he had had back billing rules applied to his account!

Clive_Woody

As much as it pains me, I would suggest contacting the bloke at the Daily Mail who does consumer outrage as I suspect they would love a headline of customer billed £5000 by British Gas. They would be able to apply pressure that you can't to get BG to relent on this billing.

masonic

Lagerthanlife said:

masonic said:

What was the Energy Ombudsman's reasoning for why back billing rules did not apply to your case? It might be helpful if you could share their response with any identifying details redacted. Most bills these days are electronic and made available via an online account. Not receiving a bill by email or post would not necessarily mean you weren't billed, and perhaps the EO's view is that because the bills were available to you online, you were in fact billed within 12 months of using the energy.

Thankyou for your response.

The online account with Simplicity was discontinued at the time of BG takeover in 2021 and no new online account details were forwarded to me at any time until the point where I persisted that something be done (when I needed a final bill in 2023) for me to be able to access a BG account online, I was half expecting them to send me something in the post as it had been so long without contact.  Ombudsman decision below:

From my investigation, I can see that the most likely scenario is that the account was created when you
first switched to British Gas, but you only gained access to the online account in October 2023. I have
come to this conclusion as you have provided the welcome email in the evidence which was sent on 1st
February 2021, the bills all show the dates they were issued, and the evidence provided for October
2023 was a password reset of the online account. If the bills were issued after an account was created in
October 2023 and charged back to January 2021, this would be 1 bill for the entire period with the date
it was issued. Furthermore, you have been billed to the following actual reads during this time:
10th March 2021 – electricity 13078 – gas 27862
26th October 2022 – electricity 26531 – gas 29546
24th October 2023 – electricity 32008 – gas 29952
13th November 2023 – electricity 32338 – gas 30007
14th December 2023 – electricity 32838 – gas 30121
As such, back billing does not apply but I do consider the following to be shortfalls in service:
The length of time this has been ongoing.
British Gas not recognising actual reads have been used in their comments.
British Gas could have done more and give a better explanation to avoid the situation.
Due to these shortfalls in service, I require British Gas to apply a goodwill credit of £100 to your energy
account and issue a written apology to acknowledge the time and trouble caused.

So it is as I suspected. A technicality. The bills were produced but you were unaware due to not knowing about the online account access until you tried to reset your password. So the complaint has been upheld to the extent that BG failed in other areas of customer service.

Lagerthanlife

Clive_Woody said:

As much as it pains me, I would suggest contacting the bloke at the Daily Mail who does consumer outrage as I suspect they would love a headline of customer billed £5000 by British Gas. They would be able to apply pressure that you can't to get BG to relent on this billing.

I'll have a think about that one, I'm not sure I want my face and details plastered all over the Daily Mail, I'm sure it would be fun though.

Lagerthanlife

masonic said:

Lagerthanlife said:

masonic said:

What was the Energy Ombudsman's reasoning for why back billing rules did not apply to your case? It might be helpful if you could share their response with any identifying details redacted. Most bills these days are electronic and made available via an online account. Not receiving a bill by email or post would not necessarily mean you weren't billed, and perhaps the EO's view is that because the bills were available to you online, you were in fact billed within 12 months of using the energy.

Thankyou for your response.

The online account with Simplicity was discontinued at the time of BG takeover in 2021 and no new online account details were forwarded to me at any time until the point where I persisted that something be done (when I needed a final bill in 2023) for me to be able to access a BG account online, I was half expecting them to send me something in the post as it had been so long without contact.  Ombudsman decision below:

From my investigation, I can see that the most likely scenario is that the account was created when you
first switched to British Gas, but you only gained access to the online account in October 2023. I have
come to this conclusion as you have provided the welcome email in the evidence which was sent on 1st
February 2021, the bills all show the dates they were issued, and the evidence provided for October
2023 was a password reset of the online account. If the bills were issued after an account was created in
October 2023 and charged back to January 2021, this would be 1 bill for the entire period with the date
it was issued. Furthermore, you have been billed to the following actual reads during this time:
10th March 2021 – electricity 13078 – gas 27862
26th October 2022 – electricity 26531 – gas 29546
24th October 2023 – electricity 32008 – gas 29952
13th November 2023 – electricity 32338 – gas 30007
14th December 2023 – electricity 32838 – gas 30121
As such, back billing does not apply but I do consider the following to be shortfalls in service:
The length of time this has been ongoing.
British Gas not recognising actual reads have been used in their comments.
British Gas could have done more and give a better explanation to avoid the situation.
Due to these shortfalls in service, I require British Gas to apply a goodwill credit of £100 to your energy
account and issue a written apology to acknowledge the time and trouble caused.

So it is as I suspected. A technicality. The bills were produced but you were unaware due to not knowing about the online account access until you tried to reset your password. So the complaint has been upheld to the extent that BG failed in other areas of customer service.

That helps my understanding, I wish the EO had put it in those terms.  Ethically it is wrong though, a consumer should not have the anxiety of wondering what has happened, what bill will land and when just because an energy company has failed in their own procedures, despite best efforts by the consumer to rectify the situation over an almost 3 year period, it's a joke.

Let's hope Martin can effect some change here, maybe it's yet another scandal in the making.

KittenChops

Lagerthanlife said:

Clive_Woody said:

As much as it pains me, I would suggest contacting the bloke at the Daily Mail who does consumer outrage as I suspect they would love a headline of customer billed £5000 by British Gas. They would be able to apply pressure that you can't to get BG to relent on this billing.

I'll have a think about that one, I'm not sure I want my face and details plastered all over the Daily Mail, I'm sure it would be fun though.

Other consumer columns exist in other newspapers (I wouldn't want to be associated with the Daily Mail either) e.g. here: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/mar/12/mobile-top-up-firm-dragging-its-feet-over-fully-refunding-my-mum-1900
Typically they use your initials & no photo, so you can't be identified

I once emailed one of these - probably almost 20 years ago, I can't even remember which newspaper it was - about a complaint with a car insurance company - and I got my money back this way, even though I'd been through car insurance company's complaints procedure & they'd rejected my complaint.

If you'd never been given any details about the online BG account - then I think this could be a good idea