15% off British Gas prices?

pinkpig08

I posted on another thread but was advised I'd get more info here......
I agreed to switch to BG last week when they said they'd give me 15% off their prices. Yes it was a doorstep salesman and yes I know I should have done it myself and gone through Quidco!

Anyway, now they are increasing their prices by up to 30% I'm thinking it wasn't such a great idea! I haven't had any paperwork yet, and I've got 7 days from when it arrives to cancel. Is that my best bet? My last bills were £202 for gas and £176 for electric. The BG man said they were really high

Cardew

pinkpig08 wrote: »

I posted on another thread but was advised I'd get more info here......
I agreed to switch to BG last week when they said they'd give me 15% off their prices. Yes it was a doorstep salesman and yes I know I should have done it myself and gone through Quidco!

Anyway, now they are increasing their prices by up to 30% I'm thinking it wasn't such a great idea! I haven't had any paperwork yet, and I've got 7 days from when it arrives to cancel. Is that my best bet? My last bills were £202 for gas and £176 for electric. The BG man said they were really high

15% off what prices??

You would have done better to have got full details of the prices per kWh and discounts.

I suspect you have been conned!!

magyar

As I said on the other thread, PinkPig, doorstep salesman have absolutely no authority to give 15% discounts, and the energy companies themselves are not allowed to do 'special offers' like this.

As Cardew says, I suspect this is a con.

You have a right to cancel a mis-sold contract, and I suggest you do so by contacting BG now and telling them what's happened.

Then go to a price comparison site, switch if you want, and use Quidco.

pinkpig08

The bloke who came had all the brochures and everything. I've got the leaflet in front of me and it says 'Join British Gas for Dual Fuel and receive a 10% discount'. It's called a 10% discount tracker, and I also get another 5 % off. Still going to ring and cancel though, thanks for the replies.

magyar

pinkpig08 wrote: »

The bloke who came had all the brochures and everything. I've got the leaflet in front of me and it says 'Join British Gas for Dual Fuel and receive a 10% discount'. It's called a 10% discount tracker, and I also get another 5 % off. Still going to ring and cancel though, thanks for the replies.

Well I'm lost here. British Gas have no product called "10% discount tracker". Is this a pukka British Gas leaflet, not just something the guy's knocked up himself?

British Gas do have a 'market tracker' product. This is one which will reflect an actual market index (a bit like a tracker mortgage). The only real advantage of this is that you can be reasonably sure you're getting a 'fair' price, but it doesn't really give you any discount.

pinkpig08

It seems like a proper leaflet which was in the brochure. Got their name on, the Ts & Cs at the bottom of the page. It says the 10% discount tracker rates apply until the end of May 2009. The rates are at 'discount of 10% for domestic electricity and 10% for domestic gas customers below our standard variable credit prices between 12th April 2008 and 31st May 2009. Customers must be new to British Gas and living in one of the following ares: East Midlands, Manweb, Midlands, Northern, Norweb, Scottish Power, Swalec or Yorkshire and take both their gas and electricity with British Gas.'

It's a photocopy but looks like it's been copied from a brochure. Still cancelling anyway.

SwanJon

There is a tracker for electricity only that is a certain amount below standard rates - the % varies in the different regions, but I wasn't aware it was being promoted.
As far as I'm aware, there isn't one for gas.
The 5% is probably the DD discount (rounded off).
Check online - you might find that it's cheaper to get an online plan.

They havn't announced any price rises yet - only the media have mentioned their guesses for %ages. I've seen 10, 15 20 & 30% - any advance?

What they said was that they are not going to be making the same kind of profits as last year and are getting close to having no margin so will probably have to increase prices to maintain a profit.

As all suppliers buy from the same pot they all tend to put prices up/down by simliar amounts at similar times. The difference is how efficient they are, whether they can subsudise residential from generation or other parts of the business etc

motts

I've had Npower like this. When you ask what price per unit would you be paying and for how long, all they say is you'll get a discounted price from what you are paying now. They do not know what price per therm or are relunctant to tell you. Perhaps it's their sales technique!

Steve_O_5

Scottish gas were on the phone to me a couple of weeks ago, saying if I went dual fuel with them, I would get 10% off gas & 5% of electricity. So there's your 15%