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British Gas PAYG - exit charges?
Grucacious
Posts: 2 Newbie
in Energy
Hi all
Background:
My partner was living in a council property until May 25, and was on British Gas PAYG, despite trying to get switched over to DD. For the last 6 months or so she was barely living there as she was staying with me, and just occasionaly popped in to top up the credit and keep things alive. Towards the end of the tenancy (April) a power surge fried the electricity meter display and it was replaced by BG with a smart meter, the engineer advised that he couldn't take a reading to put on the system. At no point were either gas or electric services cut because of a lack of credit.
Anyway, cut to the moving out, and we send final meter readings. A few weeks later they send her a 'final bill' for £350. We of course have challenged, as how the hell can there be any debt on a PAYG scheme that is constantly in credit. They are trying to claim that this is for standing charges that are billed annually, but that doesn't make any sense to us, and doesn't match with the information on the BG website as far as I can see.
Any thoughts on this from anyone? I'm baffled as to how we could possibly owe them anything!
Background:
My partner was living in a council property until May 25, and was on British Gas PAYG, despite trying to get switched over to DD. For the last 6 months or so she was barely living there as she was staying with me, and just occasionaly popped in to top up the credit and keep things alive. Towards the end of the tenancy (April) a power surge fried the electricity meter display and it was replaced by BG with a smart meter, the engineer advised that he couldn't take a reading to put on the system. At no point were either gas or electric services cut because of a lack of credit.
Anyway, cut to the moving out, and we send final meter readings. A few weeks later they send her a 'final bill' for £350. We of course have challenged, as how the hell can there be any debt on a PAYG scheme that is constantly in credit. They are trying to claim that this is for standing charges that are billed annually, but that doesn't make any sense to us, and doesn't match with the information on the BG website as far as I can see.
Any thoughts on this from anyone? I'm baffled as to how we could possibly owe them anything!
0
Comments
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With a prepayment meter, standing charges and unit charges are usually taken out of the credit you have on the meter. If you never ran out of credit, then all charges due would have been paid.
If you had run out of credit, then standing charges could still accrue even though you obviously wouldn't be using any electricity1 -
You'll have to raise a complaint. Sometimes the person who deals with complaints is more sensible than the usual customer assistants.1
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We have been to the complaints team who have offered £50 compensation for “not sending you a bill last year due to a system change”, but they have not explained how there is a debt, they keep just saying “standing charges”. We’re being told to accept the £50 or go to the deadlock team, does anyone have any experience with that team, are they more able to understand and agree?0
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