dunx

iTrader: (3)

How much intelligence does it take to work this out !

Bought a new-build....
18 months later get a £606 gas bill ( Occupier Account )
Ring up and pay using debit card.

Whilst on the phone they ask me to put my name on the bill.... seems easy ?

Next I get a bill £24.75 owing on the old "Occupier" account number.
Even funnier I get a "new" bill in my name for nearly £700 ? WTF ?

So to you and me the credit hasn't been transferred to the "new" account, but the debt has.... how hard is that to sort ?

Apparently it's impossible !

Well for British Gas anyway, tonight is my third attempt and I threatenedto let it go to court and let them explain their incompetance....

And finally... asked if there was any way they could help !

I said "Can you recommend an alternative energy supplier...."

Grumpy (3 times !) Dunx

corradoboy

Been there, got the (wrong size, wrong colour, wrongly priced, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.....) t-shirt. I will NEVER return to them, even if they offer me energy at half of anybody elses price. By the time the fecked up bill comes in it would probably be twice as much and have half of Wigans supply on it, along with billing me for some cream cakes and some new net curtains for their Gran.

Incompetence is a compliment to BG.

Will

Agree with you. Nothing but useless. will never use them again

bootsy

my father in-law die last may.i rang british gas up and told them what had happen.all was sorted out.then for the next six months got got demand letters from them in my wifes name for her dads old account.the last 2 told us that they had sold the debt on.so now we've have other firms involved which i've sorted out.now i ring british gas up once a month to complain and to get it in writing that the account had been settled up and they have a copy of the death certificate(sent recorded delivery) and a letter of apology for my wife.will i get one will i ****

Gordo

I have just, after 3 years, countless phone calls and 6 VAT declarations convinced them to refund VAT on my house's gas bills as they had us down as a business user and were charging us 17.5% instead of 5%. Made no difference that we were domestic for electricity (with them) or that they had acknowledged in writing to me receipt of previous declarations. Cheeky sods even wanted me to work out the errors for them at one point - I agreed as long as they paid compensation - funnily enough they suddenly managed to do it then. After I threatened them with legal action.

They constantly lose paperwork, sometimes accuse you of lying and constantly pass the buck, blame different systems, bosses telling them to focus on more important things etc. needless to say I shall never be a British Gas customer ever again. I did enjoy myself advising every one of their employees I spoke to to go and work for someone else I thought Sky and BT were a nightmare until I had to deal with BG!!! Never again.

Gordo

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

sounds like quite a competant company in comparison to n-power

try their customer services, thats if you get through in under an hour...

P1Fanatic

Lol glad Im not the only one. Last year I spent 6 months getting a refund.

Split up with ex and I bought her out of the house. So updated name and bank account for all utilities. Everyone else piece of p*ss. BG decide that they need to open a new account for this and say they will refund my bank account with credit balance.

They dont then say they must send a cheque. It never turns up. Several complaints later and it turns up but in my ex's name even though the old account was in both names. OMG - 4 cheques later and they finally sort it after I sent a letter and email to customer services director.

Still with them as too lazy to move and tbh it sounds like the others arent much better.

Simon

corradoboy

So far, EBICO have been superb. Simple enough, I'm on both fuels and get 2 bills in one envelope each quarter, which I pay at the bank. They don't (didn't ?) do discounts for DD or pretty much anything else, but were the cheapest according to uSwitch and Money Supermarket when I changed to them at the time. Estimated bills have been mostly fair except one which was a little high and a customer reading supplied by myself provided a new bill within 3 days, no problem. So far, a breath of fresh air.

The Hoff

iTrader: (5)

I have also had problems with British Gas, the latest was when they increased my direct debit out of the blue to £45 from £20. When I asked them to change it back they refused becuase they said its wont cover the gas I am using even thought it always had done in the past. I cancelled the direct debit and paid monthly via debit card instead.

Now I have switched to EDF. I gave British Gas a meter reading when it was swapped over, same reading was given to EDF... EDF start billing me from stated meter reading where as British Gas continue to bill me even though the contact has been swapped over. They denied it and said EDF and I were wrong - had to contact the gas transport company (who deal with the contracts) to confirm BG were wrong and then they finally admitted it. Still waiting for a refund from them now.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Had a similar issue with them when we moved into rented accomodation. Previous tenants had not paid the bill, and British Gas was us to. They were not interested in getting the money from the old tenants or the landlord, they just wanted £1.2k from us.

They cared not that a new tenancy agreement was in place etc etc. In the end they said if we did not pay within 48hrs they would cut us off. We had to threaten to take them to court if they did. We never really got it sorted. Lived there for 2 years, we paid what we thought we owed, but they are probably still to this day causing hassle for whoever lives there.

Shark Man

BG's database system is very screwed up when it comes to addresses and account holders.

And the bods you call very often can't correct the problems. Needs calls to supervisors and written correspondance to sort it out.

I never pay anything by DD: It's essentially a free for all for a company to take whatever they want out of your account whenever they want. Ultimately leading to the usual cashflow problems, incurred bank charges and hours lost correcting it all.

Cheques are a pain and costs sligtly more, but it is easier to keep track of things and raise bill disputes (of course, paying what it "should be" in the meantime as a gesture of good will ). Otherwise you can wait for an eternity chasing up refunds or getting an account credited.

Many other utilities aren't much better: Infact I'm about to move from nPower to British gas for the electric, as neither are any better with customer service, but BG works out about £50 cheaper per annum (I had the calculator out last night ).

speedking

Been with BG for 25 years and never had a problem <touches wood>.

100% with you there, and suspect that is part of most of the issues.