British Gas Bill cheek

[Andrew Gabriel]

Just got my Gas Bill, which covers the period 1 Sep to 30 Nov. On the 19 September, there was a price increase. It seems British Gas have decided that I used no gas in the period

1-19 September when it was cheaper, and all the gas used in that quarter was during 19 Sep to 30 Nov when it was more expensive. Does this strike enyone else as rather cheeky?

I do have precise records of when my central heating boiler was fired up, and it does seem to have done so for a total of only 8 minutes during the period 1-19 September, so it would seem that I was not using heating during that time. I don't have records for hot water (separate heater) or cooking, but I did some of both (I'm sure I had at least one bath during that period;-). I can go through and work out how many minutes the central heating boiler was fired up during 19 Sep to 30 Nov to get the before/after ratio, but that will take a while as the figures are not currently stored in an easily processable format.

Probably not worth arguing about, but it did seem a rather cheeky assumption of British Gas. Any of you with high gas bills might want to check yours out more thoroughly too.

[Andy Hall]

Definitely.

I think I'd squeeze them to apportion the bill on days - i.e. if the total consumed was X, and the number of days in the quarter was Y, then (19/Y) * X at lower price and ((Y-19)/Y) * X at the higher price. You would be slightly ahead that way. I've found that threatening to take the business away helps, although whether it would with BG is another thing.

[logized]

If you change to a cheaper supplier now, then you could save money over the winter. I used to be with BG and made big savings by switching twice since then - the best deals are currently with internet only, dual fuel schemes. It is easy and free to switch - there are several online price comparison sites that do most of the work for you and so far I have not had any problems.

Dave

[Michael Mcneil]

How about querying the bill, changing supplier, then refusing to pay until they reanalyse it?

IIRC offering to pay hat you consider reasonable makes their claim against you rather more difficult to have enforced.

There was once a petrol station somewhere in Liverpool that was charging grossly inflated prices and still getting customers because they did not advertise their prices in the forecourt.

The cops would chase you if you just drove off but were not interested if you made a counter offer to the attendant. It became a civil matter not a criminal offence.

[Aidan]

It strikes me as being thoroughly devious. Their assumption may be based on the weather (degree days & such stuff, but I thgink it unlikely.

I would not want to deal with any supplier who treated their customers with such contempt. I dropped BG many years ago, at the first opportunity, because they'd stitched me up some years previously. How many people have they done this to?

[Bob Eager]

I'm afraid my initial comment would be 'Why use BG when they are relatively expensive?'...!

[ARWadsworth]

I was lucky, my bill arrived on the 1st November.

But how about this for being cheeky. My friend has a semi detached cottage and he has bought next door to make one large cottage. There are now two gas and two electricity supplies to one house. The supplies on the cottage he has just bought are now on a BG dual fuel discount and are not used. For a laugh he chose the £15 dual fuel discount and the £10 a year for the paperless billing and BG paid him.

Adam