British Gas Bills

Thetermin8or

Hi All

I am having nothing but trouble with my British Gas Bills.
My mother died last year then British Gas started bombarding me with letters and request for payments etc.
I have now spoken to three or four separate people from British Gas who have assured me that everything has been sorted out with accurate bills and the situation explained about the bills my mum left behind and reassured me it was now all on their system and correct.

I have recently received more bills from them that are not showing everything they told me and said they will do and this is causing me extreme upset and stress. Everytime I call them, the person says everything is updated and I am happy with what they say, only to receive another bill a week or two later with nothing changed like they keep telling me.

My question is here:
What should I do from here?
If I call them again, I will be told what I want to hear then receive a bill that does not reflect what I will be told and promised.

Any other members that my have had this happen or any friendly advice would certainly be welcome.

Thanks in advance
A

Brie

Are paying for bills for a property you don't own/live in?  Are you dealing with the bereavement team?

Did you mom leave an estate for which you are executor?

born_again

Were they informed at the time when she died?
Were meter readings taken at that point or just after?
Has anyone living in the property since her death?
As bills will still being applied due to Standing Charges at the very least.

twopenny

Contact as in old fashioned writing to the Complaints Department with details of what has happened and photocopy the death certificate.

It's the only thing that worked for me.
They have a 2 week response time but I did get an apology and it was resolved.

Gerry1

Don't phone, keep everything in writing so that you have an audit trail.

Call centre staff are pressurised to meet call handling targets, and it's not unknown for them to say what you want to hear just to shut down the call. 

ollywobbles78

Hi all, so im hoping im in the right place, apologies if not, we’ve had issues with British Gas, (surprise surprise),  we had some minor financial difficulties and we noticed that we were in credit with BG by over £900 so we asked for a refund, we discovered that although we were paying the direct debit of £90 a month British Gas’s system hadn’t actually taken it, we were told they needed to calculate our bill and they could refund the difference, strap in because this is where the roller coaster starts, BG come back to us and tell us that we owed them nearly 3.5k, naturally of course we challenged this, they recalculated the bill again and got it to something like 2.1k and again we challenged this, as well as making various complaints, we found out they took the billing date back to 2021 even though we proved we had paid up to that point, and that they had not been charging us for 23/24, but according to them their billing was correct, we went to the energy ombudsman who despite the evidence we provided said that British Gas were correct, the bill was lowered to the range of 1.2k, we asked for help from British Gas multiple times and were refused, we were told to go to the British Gas energy trust and we contacted step change and submitted an income/outgoings form and were told because we no longer had an active British Gas electricity account that they couldn’t help us and the decision was final and could not be appealed. Im diabetic and my partner is disabled with spinal condition that affects her mobility and ability to work so she’s on benefits, its making us both stressed and ill and we need help and advice, this is their fault yet we’re being punished for it!

TimeLord1

If british Gas failed to send accurate bills or take Direct Debits despite you providing readings, they shouldn't be charging you for anything older than 12 months from the date they finally "caught up."

Falls under the back billing rule.

TimeLord1

Are you registered with them as priority because of disabilities or benefits? 

Priority Services Register (PSR)

​Since you are diabetic and your partner has a mobility disability, you both legally qualify for the Priority Services Register. @ollywobbles78

TimeLord1

Subject Access Request (SAR): You have the right to see every piece of data BG holds on you. Demand a full "Statement of Account" from 2021 to now. This often reveals where their "system errors" occurred

MP Intervention: This is often the most effective route when the Ombudsman fails. Contact your local MP’s office. They have dedicated caseworkers who deal with energy companies and can bypass standard customer service to get to the "Executive Complaints" team.

https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP?hl=en-GB

WiserMiser

Unfortunately your DD of £90 was unlikely to pay the bills, so you were probably accumulating debt all the time, especially if dual fuel.

BG is notorious for poor billing and customer service, so leave them as soon as it's all been sorted out.

Were you sending monthly meter readings?  Doing so will help to prevent similar problems in future.

TimeLord1

I think this thread was moved hopefully the new member finds it.