*British Gas Help* : Escalating a longstanding complaint. 🤬

Wow Marydoll. The 🥂drinks are on you!!

Party at Marydoll’s…..

After a very stressful weekend and one last attempt to resolve matters. DH went into our account and found a credit of £17,000 🤣
However, they are still going to take off a huge DD. Watch this space.

At least the debt collectors won't be calling!

I had nearly a years worth of stress telling me one day I owed £60 the next day £6000 and it went on for nearly a year I was under so much stress they would not budge and then the price I owed started varying up and down but still nothing like the amount it should have been, for one person living alone with one gas fire.
Eventually I went to the ombudsman and it took them a couple of months or more to sort it out I eventually got £250 compensation as long as I took no further action
After a lot of poking around with the bills I found out when they changed my meter because of a leak outside the property a year or more ago they had never removed the old gas meter number so they were charging me double for the gas using both my old meter and my new meter numbers It still didn’t add to anything like £6000 but it was partly the reason

I ve had no trouble this year
Glammanana I too have been offered the new Warm Front tariff but have refused it because I do not want a smart meter like you

LizzieDrip

I have had several recent issues with BG and I did as a previous poster has mentioned - I emailed the CEO. I received a reply from ‘his office’ within days and a real life, named person was assigned to my case. She phoned me on a regular basis to keep me updated. This was within the last few months so I’m pretty sure this email address will be current: [email protected]
CEO’s name is Mr Chris O’Shea.

Good luck

I had an ongoing dispute with BG and escalated it to the CEO. I was also assigned a personal customer support person, who gave me her direct telephone number, and was most helpful. Good luck, Marydoll, I do hope this is resolved quickly for you.

I am with E.on and last week I got an email telling me I was eligible for their stay warm scheme (not the gov warm home scheme) they said if I changed my tarriff to what they suggested I would qualify for any overspend on my account and they would pay this until end of March 2024 thus keeping my heating on more than I normally do.
The catch was to have a smart meter fitted which I have always refused to have so I was told I don't qualify for the scheme I think this is discriminate against people who dont want smart meters I will keep my old meter thank you very much after all the problems I have read about them.

Hopefully you will get it resolved, either by contacting the CEO and / or the Ombudsman.

LizzieDrip

On the variable DD, they send me the monthly bill 2 weeks before the DD is taken out. In this way I know what’s going to come out well in advance. If it’s wrong, you’d have time to contact them and challenge it.

We did challenge and they ignored us, multiple times! That is the problem. They ask you to give then twenty one days to respond, then they ask you to bear with them again and again..
We are very savvy, but getting nowhere. Heaven help those who aren't.

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On the variable DD, they send me the monthly bill 2 weeks before the DD is taken out. In this way I know what’s going to come out well in advance. If it’s wrong, you’d have time to contact them and challenge it.

LizzieDrip

Also Marydoll I suggest you say the BG that you want to change from a fixed DD to a variable one where you just pay for what you use each month, but it comes out as a DD each month. This is what I did when BG wanted to double my fixed DD payment. I find it works well. Meanwhile BG can sort out the incorrect debit (their fault) and you will still be paying for the energy you currently use - not ‘paying back’ an incorrect debit. Hopefully you get somewhere with Chris O’Shea!

That's an idea. Thanks Lizzie. Howeevr, if we had been on a variable DD, £5000 would have been taken from our account! That's what we apparently used in a quarter!

Reading this makes me even keener to hang onto my manual gas meter, read it myself and send off the readings.

No, I don’t want a smart meter, thank you.

Also Marydoll I suggest you say the BG that you want to change from a fixed DD to a variable one where you just pay for what you use each month, but it comes out as a DD each month. This is what I did when BG wanted to double my fixed DD payment. I find it works well. Meanwhile BG can sort out the incorrect debit (their fault) and you will still be paying for the energy you currently use - not ‘paying back’ an incorrect debit. Hopefully you get somewhere with Chris O’Shea!

I have had several recent issues with BG and I did as a previous poster has mentioned - I emailed the CEO. I received a reply from ‘his office’ within days and a real life, named person was assigned to my case. She phoned me on a regular basis to keep me updated. This was within the last few months so I’m pretty sure this email address will be current: [email protected]
CEO’s name is Mr Chris O’Shea.

Good luck

Thank you Georgesgran and welbeck re Octopus.

I did have a very odd incident with Octopus recently. All their fault, which they acknowledged straight away, then sorted it via emails and paid compensation into my credit balance. They also sent me a letter outlining their actions should I need proof of their fault.
I still recommend them.

Marydoll, have you thought about using Resolver?

Sparklefizz, Octopus score well on customer service.

I can only think that energy companies think we are all running cannabis farms rather than being one or two elderly people in a fairly small house. My infuriating dealings with Ovo in the year since my smart meters were installed are doing my blood pressure no good at all - the latest is that the visit from “the meter team” booked for yesterday morning didn’t happen and I can’t find anyone to talk to about it!

Hi Marydoll I'm so sorry to hear what you're going through with BG and I know how stressful it is because I have had similar problems with Eon this year from March till September. My smart meter stopped working so Eon began estimating huge bills based on nothing at all - certainly not based on any previous usage of mine.

The hours I spent on trying to get some result. I had various complaint ref numbers and emails containing promises that never materialised. Several people I spoke to on the phone did not do what they said they would, until eventually someone did. Frankly I didn't believe him because it had happened so many times before. I wanted to change suppliers but asking around I found they were all pretty much the same.

I do hope you can resolve this. It's scary and stressful. Like you, I'm juggling a number of health conditions. I live on my own and struggled to keep my head above water.

for you and hopes and prayers for a resolution.

We were told if we cancelled the DD our meter would be removed and they would instal a prepaid one, as I was on the vulnerable list!
You couldn't make it up.

Oh, Marydoll, how stressful for you! I’m outraged on your behalf, and hope you can get this sorted.

When we had trouble with British Gas a few years ago, and were going round in similar circles, we found the ceoemail.com website worked like a charm (it doesn’t always).

I emailed the CEO address given at the time and got an immediate reply from someone who worked in the CEO’s office. She cut through all the nonsense and sorted it all out for us straightaway, kept checking back that we were happy, and even helped us the following year when we had another problem and contacted her directly.

The CEO email given on the site now for residential energy is
[email protected]. Perhaps give it a try?

Fingers firmly crossed for you.

It took me 8 months of phone calls to get an overpayment refunded by Scottish Power. I spoke to a different person every time I rang (once on the line for 2hours 10minutes!) and it was obvious there were no notes of my complaint or details of my contacting them every 2 weeks. I had to go through the whole story every time and was constantly assured that the cheque would be released and in my possession within 10/14 days. I had the names and locations of everyone I’d spoken to, a complaint number and was assured it had all been escalated (God knows where).
Eventually, I said that despite everyone I’d spoken to being positive, helpful and well meaning, I was going to have to contact the Ombudsman. Amazingly my cheque arrived a few days later.

I really do feel for you Marydoll. This is a problem you could well do without!
Would Citizens Advice be able to help? Being flippant, I’d say cancel your DD and let the Company contact you - bet they’d be quick off the mark there.
Good luck with it though. X

LBC have a consumer advice hour from 9pm fridays. with dean dunham.
ring before that time to get on.
there is also a legal hour from 9pm saturdays, but that barrister is an employment specialist.
remember not to name the company if you get on, just say an energy provider.

Marydoll, sorry to hear about all your problems with BG. I had numerous problems with them last year when they installed a new boiler. They were totally unprofessional and unreachable until my son put all the details on X and other Social platforms.
It was soon sorted out.
I think you should do as GG13 and fancy that have suggested, they will not want want the bad press.
This cannot be helping your health.
Take care