MSE Cheap energy club -British Gas Collective Feb27 problems

WiserMiser

Yes, your figures are all correct and BG has goofed. Can't say I'm surprised, it's all too typical of BG.

Submit a formal written complaint (don't phone) and go to the ombudsman upon receipt of a deadlock letter, or after eight weeks if they don't send one.

Good luck, please come back in due course and tell us how you got on.

bodorange

Thanks for casting an eye over it. I raised the issue with their web based chat. It seems to take about 7 days to receive a reply (email). The first response was not promising. They claimed to have resolved it 'as per the email' but had in fact done nothing.

I then provided more detail and hope for a response later this week. If I get no joy, I will raise a complaint. They offered the option to do just that early in the webchat. It seems to be the standard opener in my recent experience. Is it better to make a snail mail complaint or take up the invitation to start one in the webchat? I'll be back to update either way.

WiserMiser

I'd use email or Royal Mail. BG webchat is like wading through treacle, and you often don't get the promised transcript.

bodorange

To get the transcript, it seems the other end have to end the chat. If they do not, you can just copy/drag & paste the text. Last time, I actually asked them to end the chat as the cynic in me thought they were deliberately holding off on doing so.

bodorange

@WiserMiser

This was resolved in the end with a credit on my account. The process has been fraught with error and frustration, half a dozen webchats, rejected emails, missing emails etc. So I try to keep it brief!

After asking to lodge a complaint in a webchat, I got a reference there and then, followed by an email confirming the ref. I relplied to it with the details and documents detailing my complaint. Having heard nothing for two weeks, I chased it up and was told no complaint existed on my account. Another webchat, another complaint reference, in response to which I resent my complaint (referencing both complaint numbers, the earlier comms and asked it to be back-dated). This time round I received a fancy format email with the complaint reference and account ID prominently displayed in the blue bar at the top. This I think is a sign the complaint has truely arrived in the system.

Two phone calls later from BG comlaints dept, we came to a resolution. The account was credited by my estimated difference in charges over the course of the tariff*, plus a good will gesture of 30 quid.

BG said the rates on the account were correct for the my account code/region. So by implication, the rates in the email were not. I got no concrete recognition of this however and they tried to assert taht the rates in the email were ex VAT. However, if this were the case, it would not account for the difference and, in any case the email states the prices are inc VAT.

I'm no closer to knowing how the wrong values in the email came about. Was it some combination of circumstances, my account or the route I took to get on the tariff? It would be genuinely good to know so as to avoid a similar fiasco in future. Is it something in the price comparison API, particular to specific energy providers or comparison sites?

• As far as fixing the issue, an individual account's rates cannot be changed on a per-customer basis. An individual energy account's rates point to values in specific regional tarifs (my recollection of the conversation). Hence, why both existing and estimated future overcharge had to be addressed with a credit.

WiserMiser

Congratulations, persistence pays off !

BG, EDF (derived from Électricité de France) and Scottish (=Spanish) Power all have deservedly poor ratings and should be avoided.

I note that Ofgem's powers are to be strengthened but I'll believe it when I see it…

bodorange

Other than a brief spell with Sainsburys Energy, we have been with BG dual fuel since energy de-regulation. But after this and the trouble I had with my late father's bills a couple years back, I'm going elsewhere once my tariff has run its course. The BG webchat experience is weird but I'm not going to speculate here as to why :-)