British Gas Reviews: Give your feedback

Mitch_hyde · 1 March 2017 at 3:28AM

I moved out of a property in August 16 and did not move into a property until October 16 due to it not being built.
I asked BG to move their supply and gave them notice on the previous property in August. They said they could not move us until we were in the new property. When we moved in we contacted them again and after a few weeks of them deciding whether they supply us or not they set up the correct gas and electric accounts. In the mean time they had closed the previous accounts and settled them to balance.
February 17 they added an estimated bill to the electricity account to the old property and took the payment out of our account using the new direct debit set up on the new account at the new address!
I complained and explained do his was illegal. I received an email today titled bill stating I still needed to pay and then telling me a credit was added to this closed account. There has been no explanation of what happened and no apology. As customer service goes this is atrocious. As a debtor department in a massive company goes they do not know their proverbial from their elbow.

British_Gas_Rep_Matt · 11 March 2017 at 1:30PM

Mitch_hyde wrote: »

I moved out of a property in August 16 and did not move into a property until October 16 due to it not being built.
I asked BG to move their supply and gave them notice on the previous property in August. They said they could not move us until we were in the new property. When we moved in we contacted them again and after a few weeks of them deciding whether they supply us or not they set up the correct gas and electric accounts. In the mean time they had closed the previous accounts and settled them to balance.
February 17 they added an estimated bill to the electricity account to the old property and took the payment out of our account using the new direct debit set up on the new account at the new address!
I complained and explained do his was illegal. I received an email today titled bill stating I still needed to pay and then telling me a credit was added to this closed account. There has been no explanation of what happened and no apology. As customer service goes this is atrocious. As a debtor department in a massive company goes they do not know their proverbial from their elbow.

Hi Mitch hyde, I totally understand you being annoyed; however it is sometimes necessary to amend final bills; for example when a new occupier informs us the reading was incorrect.
We'd never take a payment from a new DD arrangement though and it sounds like your old electricity account hadn't been closed previously, which means your DD would still be active.
I'm really sorry for all the confusion as regardless of why the bills was amended, you should always be told in advance of any payment being collected either through the post or email.
We'll need to take a look at your account to find out what's happened and if you'd please give our office a call on 0800 048 0202; we'll get to the bottom of what's going on. Thanks, Matt

Sjc1973 · 11 March 2017 at 1:51PM

I switched to British gas in November through the money saving enengry club, which was a good tariff rate including cash back. Switch went ok, got updates from emails accept they did not tell me the date when the switch would happen and when it had. I did have a email saying the switch would happen soon.

They have some free offers which was good - got a free canvas photo print. Although, they also told me I could get free offer of nectar points and when I clicked the link there was nothing.

One issue I had were that they were bombarding me with calls about 'arranging to fit your smart meter'. I told them on several times I did not want one, but the calls kept coming. I complained through email, it did take them a couple of days for them to respond but at least they did and a few more emails where I had to keep telling them to stop their marketing department from calling me about smart meters- they did stop eventually.

I pay a fixed price for duel fuel and I am surprised they have not asked me to provide a reading as I am sure being the winter months I am using more energy then I have paid, although that might balance out in the summer months

So far its been ok with BG, but it's still relatively early days !!!!

Mrs_E_R · 16 March 2017 at 12:38AM

I switched to British Gas in November through the money saving expert collective switch.
The switch went ok and my monthly direct debit dropped from £66 to £58 based on my previous years energy usage.

I received by first bill from BG just over a week ago. My monthly payments are to increase from £58 to £84.50 a month starting from the April direct debit as BG state I am currently in debit with my account and their energy usage estimate for the year based on my last five months actual usage requires me to pay this amount for the remainder of the year!

I submitted actual readings (BG did not email to request meter readings before the bill was produced, whereas EDF my previous provider did) as BG had used an estimated reading for electric (my gas meter is outside, so they took an actual reading for this, but the electric meter is inside). This reduced my new monthly payment from £84.50 to £76.50 in the monthy dd calculation. I updated my direct debit to this revised amount, but after completing this on the BG website it now shows that i will be paying £98.50 direct debit a month! Im hoping this will change when my account is updated in the morning, but it means i will have to log back in to my account to check again tomorrow! If not i will have to contact BG to find out what is going on?!!

After spending quite some time looking at my account on line, this increase looks to be because BG do not take into account that i will be using less gas and electric in the summer months. The revised monthly direct debit amount is calculated purely on my actual energy usage since the account was opened 5 months ago, which being over the winter period is naturally higher than summer.
BG provide estimated anual usage predictions for gas an electric on the bill. BG's total anual enegy usage for my account calcualates out to be £55 per month, which contradicts what Im being told i have to pay starting next month!

I just wanted to make other forum users, and perhaps moneysaving expert personel aware that not all energy providers seem to calculate estimated energy consumption and direct debit payments in the same way.
My direct debits are about to jump by nearly £20 a month and are £10 more than what i was paying previously with my old provider. Being on a pension I need to manage total monthly outgoings carefully, so this increase certainly wont make things any easier. I have little doubt that my account will be significantly in credit by the end of the year (even paying £66 per month to EDF my account was well in credit last year and i received a refund shortly before I switched) and BG will be refunding me the excess, but it doesnt help while im having to afford these increased payments!

System · 16 March 2017 at 9:55AM

Mrs_E_R wrote: »

I switched to British Gas in November through the money saving expert collective switch.
The switch went ok and my monthly direct debit dropped from £66 to £58 based on my previous years energy usage.

I received by first bill from BG just over a week ago. My monthly payments are to increase from £58 to £84.50 a month starting from the April direct debit as BG state I am currently in debit with my account and their energy usage estimate for the year based on my last five months actual usage requires me to pay this amount for the remainder of the year!

I submitted actual readings (BG did not email to request meter readings before the bill was produced, whereas EDF my previous provider did) as BG had used an estimated reading for electric (my gas meter is outside, so they took an actual reading for this, but the electric meter is inside). This reduced my new monthly payment from £84.50 to £76.50 in the monthy dd calculation. I updated my direct debit to this revised amount, but after completing this on the BG website it now shows that i will be paying £98.50 direct debit a month! Im hoping this will change when my account is updated in the morning, but it means i will have to log back in to my account to check again tomorrow! If not i will have to contact BG to find out what is going on?!!

After spending quite some time looking at my account on line, this increase looks to be because BG do not take into account that i will be using less gas and electric in the summer months. The revised monthly direct debit amount is calculated purely on my actual energy usage since the account was opened 5 months ago, which being over the winter period is naturally higher than summer.
BG provide estimated anual usage predictions for gas an electric on the bill. BG's total anual enegy usage for my account calcualates out to be £55 per month, which contradicts what Im being told i have to pay starting next month!

I just wanted to make other forum users, and perhaps moneysaving expert personel aware that not all energy providers seem to calculate estimated energy consumption and direct debit payments in the same way.
My direct debits are about to jump by nearly £20 a month and are £10 more than what i was paying previously with my old provider. Being on a pension I need to manage total monthly outgoings carefully, so this increase certainly wont make things any easier. I have little doubt that my account will be significantly in credit by the end of the year (even paying £66 per month to EDF my account was well in credit last year and i received a refund shortly before I switched) and BG will be refunding me the excess, but it doesnt help while im having to afford these increased payments!

I can sympathise. There is a problem with late season switches in that you transfer to a new supplier with no credit in the bank. I had a similar situation with one of the other Big 6 suppliers that took my consumption during the period Jan to Mar divided it by 3 and multiplied it by 12 to work out a new monthly DD. I complained and took it to the EO. The EO responded by saying that suppliers can calculate projected annual usage in anyway that they like and, more, importantly, suppliers have a Licence obligation to prevent consumers from getting in to debt. There is no obligation as such. You are right of course, If your actual annual consumption matches the consumption used to set up your monthly DD, you can expect the DD amount to fall. Not much comfort if you are trying to budget.

Mrs_E_R · 16 March 2017 at 2:09PM

If its possible I wonder would MSE consider changing the date of their collective fixes from October to around March or April?
Its fabulous that they are negotiating such good rates for MSE members, but as you say late season changes do mean that you can be liable to a significant increase in monthly dd amounts as your account may be in debit when you receive your first bill because of using more energy during the winter months than the summer.
A March or April switch would allow time over the summer to accrue credit in your account to cover winter energy consumption without the monthly dd from changing?
I will have to think very carefully before doing another late season switch as I dont want to be in a similar situation to what i find myself in now.

System · 16 March 2017 at 2:29PM

Mrs_E_R wrote: »

If its possible I wonder would MSE consider changing the date of their collective fixes from October to around March or April?
Its fabulous that they are negotiating such good rates for MSE members, but as you say late season changes do mean that you can be liable to a significant increase in monthly dd amounts as your account may be in debit when you receive your first bill because of using more energy during the winter months than the summer.
A March or April switch would allow time over the summer to accrue credit in your account to cover winter energy consumption without the monthly dd from changing?
I will have to think very carefully before doing another late season switch as I dont want to be in a similar situation to what i find myself in now.

Sadly, MSE hasn't offered a market beating collective switch since October 2016. Suppliers appear not to want to pay price comparison sites c.£60 to retain existing customers. Energyhelpline has also struggled with its collective switches. I fear that collective switches may have had their day - not least, because the smaller suppliers that now offer the cheapest fixed deals do not pay any referral fees.

Cardew · 16 March 2017 at 2:53PM

Hengus wrote: »

. Suppliers appear not to want to pay price comparison sites c.£60 to retain existing customers. Energyhelpline has also struggled with its collective switches. I fear that collective switches may have had their day - not least, because the smaller suppliers that now offer the cheapest fixed deals do not pay any referral fees.

Agreed.

I have been 'banging on' about Price comparison websites for years. They are parasitic and have simply added an additional cost to the gas and electricity prices that we customers pay.

We have a Government financed and sponsored 'quango' namely the Energy Saving Trust(EST). They should be instructed to set up a comparison website that would be authorised by the Government. No charges for the energy companies to participate, no £30 bribes(multiple times for some) to customers for switching.

At a stroke this would remove the £millions(billions?) of commission that we end up paying.

luckwudaveit · 16 March 2017 at 5:48PM

Hi BG Rep Matt. Are you able to look at ticket 8008177425 (KMM50701443V13041L0KM) for me please? It relates to me being charged according to the standard tariff in the period between a fixed tariff ending and the new supplier taking over. In the case of my final electricity bill it is just for a day, which is against the conditions of supply licence.

I have raised this on the phone and by email, where it has been confirmed that my final gas bill will also be incorrectly billed against your standard tariff.

Barbara1001 · 17 March 2017 at 4:15PM

In October 2016, I transferred to British Gas through the Cheap Energy Club. I understand that equal Direct Debit payments allow for high and low useage over the year.
I have had two statements so far and have been told in today's email from British Gas that my payment is to be increased by over 40% in April.
Am I within my rights to refuse to the change ?
Or...
Am I allowed to use a Standing Order?
No rationale has been offered for the change but I suspect that they extrapolate from recent readings, presume constant use from thereon and, mistakenly, recalculate the whole year.

Any advice?

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