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Letter: Shocked by gas bill mistake
Thursday 4th February 2010, 7:12AM GMT.
I was shocked at British Gas last week when they sent me a letter informing me that they had made a mistake with the gas bill.
My wife and I are disabled pensioners and have a card meter for electric and gas because of the blunder that British Gas made a few years ago.
Now they want us to pay £66.68 at instalments of £6 a week.
Fair enough if we owe the money, although it is their own mistake.
They never asked us if we wanted to pay it in a lump sum, which we can. They just demanded that we had to pay £6 a week.
They even asked us if we had concerns about repaying the oustanding balance, especially if we are in receipt of any income-related benefits.
I phoned the customer service desk up to explain our situation but they were not to happy to help.
I will phone British Gas up tomorrow and pay all the money by credit card.
I don’t think it is a very good way to treat to disabled pensioners especially in the winter time when we need the money to pay for the gas and electric to keep warm, they could have waited for the summer.
I will be looking for a different supplier now, as this is the second time that British Gas has made a mistake with us.
This mistake was done by British Gas 18 months ago and now they are asking for the money. Does anyone know which is the best company to have your electric and gas with? (excluding British Gas).
Name and address supplied
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I’m a little puzzled by the claim that a mistake was made. I’m not an expert on meters, but doesn’t a card meter rely on insertion of a pre-paid card? If you have pre-paid, then how can they say that you owe them more, unless through their negligence or omission, they forgot to enter the right price in the meter?
If you say that it’s their mistake, then as disabled pensioners, you should qualify for legal aid, (or at least a free session with a lawyer to get advice), so why not get a legal opinion on the matter – far more reliable and personal than anything that I or others could write here. If you’re correct, you may even be able to get a cancellation and a possible refund for old mistakes.
Not sure what your legal position is, (and as I’ve often said in my comments, consumers cannot reply on regulator OFGEM to protect their interests – this toothless organisation seem continually pre-occupied with issuing press releases about lack of capacity to give the energy companies the perfect excuse to raise prices, regardless of wholesale direction), but there are plenty of pensioner charities and government “energy help lines” around who should be able to help you
Unless you’re actually going to change, why bother paying it off in one go? Keep the money as long as you can, don’t hand it out as quickly as possible to these people. However, if you do actually go ahead with changing, you’ll need to have a clean slate.
If your card meter is pre-payment, then you’ll most likely be paying way over the odds for energy anyway – you should enquire about “social accounts”. But beware – in my experience, due to high staff turn-over, most energy companies are as similarly disorganised as each other. In anticipation of possible problems, look beyond the immediate pricing and find one that has a freephone number to contact to resolve problems – it makes life cheaper in the long run.
I changed from BG to a company that has a freephone number and for the few problems that I have had in the past, they have always responded quickly and, more importantly, readily offered compensation. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that Shropshire Star allow such publicity and, even if they did, my situation is not the same as yours and so they not be the right ones for you.
One general piece of advice though – it’s usually cheaper to get electricity and gas from the same supplier on a “dual fuel” agreement.
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Pre-payment meters nowadays you shouldn’t be getting mistakes on as they are updated electronically when you top up with credit. British Gas announced a price decrease today on the gas meaning they are now the cheapest supplier on a PPM, and my understanding is they have removed any additional charges you may have been paying for this type of meter as well meaning in reality you should be seeing a decrease over the next few months.
However if you want to move that is your choice and would suggest calling round suppliers for there pre-payment prices.
As for Rodney Nosnails comment on changing to another supplier that has a freephone number. BG have freephone numbers to there customer services as well???? Also compensation might be important to you but imagine if they gave compensation out to everyone that had an issue? What would you do then when your bills go up because they are paying out?? Leave and go to a cheaper supplier?
Unfortunately we seem to live in a compensation culture.
As for the cheapest supplier( apart from BG) would suggest you call around and get prices or use a comparison website.
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i was with BG up until a few years ago, I pay direct debit but they still messed it up and the customer service or lack of it made me change suppliers.
You’re better having both fuels from one supplier to get dual fuel discount, some companies do special deals by being an on line customer
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Sorry bit lost on me, should disabled penshioners receice preferential treatment over disabled teenagers? If you can pay the bill pay it , if you cannot tell them you will pay what you can afford. Rather pointless letter from whining old folk.
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I may well be wrong here but this sounds like a similar experience I had with Npower shortly before I told them where they could stick their services, I was led to believe by one of their customer reps that even if the prices change, their failure to come out and adjust your meters meant that to demand you repay that amount is illegal and you should refuse.
My advice would be to get in touch with the CAB and see what they say.
I switched to EDF for my fuel and have never looked back, very low prices (I’ve saved almost £150 a year over gas and electric since swapping) their customer service number is an 0800 ergo free to call and they are most helpful and most courteous at all times.
As for the comment from ‘Mandy’ obviously the post was lost on you dear…get a life. The letter was not as you suggested ” Another whine by OAP’s” rather asking for suggestions for a good energy supplier. Your obvious problem with elderly folk will only suffice in making you enemies…you will be old yourself one day, let’s all hope that YOU are treated with as much respect as you show others!
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British Gas made a mistake? I’m not surprised. We had them in to quote for a boiler replacement under the scrappage scheme. Their quote : £3,700. A quote from an experienced and qualified local specialist : £2,350 and he explained important technical aspects, omitted by BG. Guess who will be installing the boiler …
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so they said pay back £6 per week and you said you’d pout it on your credit card – fool – the interest rates on that will see you paying far more back over the long term, even if you pay it back at £6 per week, or perhaps you will pay it all off, n which case you could have cut out the middleman and paid direct to BG.
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