......... or why I left British Gas

[BeeE586]

Actually, I left them some time ago.

I am always wary of all these people and companies who offer to save me money since it usually involves spending a great deal more than is saved. However, I was intrigued by this latest campaign to save energy by British Gas, so logged on to the website and, just for the crack, filled out the questionnaire, quite honestly I might add.

As a result they offered to save me £182 a year, but I would need to spend getting on for £3000. This involved loft insulation - I live in a ground floor flat so don't have a loft; cavity wall insulation which I can't have because it is a flat; draughtproofing which I also don't need because of doubly glazing, all of which information I put in my answers.

They estimated my gas bill at £850 a year. Actually I pay £29 a month for both gas and electricity. Two questions ..........

1) Does anyone actually READ these things ?
2) Do British Gas actually have any customers if this is an example of their charges ?

Eileen .................. |shakehead|

[busyglen]

Last year we merged our Gas & Electricity and when the next bill came in we owed them money. Although we pay by Direct Debit, it has always caught up in the summer when we are not using so much, but they insisted we increase the monthly charge. We duly complied, and when the next account came in, we were in credit. We recently received a bill for the Gas and we were £183 in credit!! My husband immediately rang them, to request that we have a refund. First of all they came up with all sorts of excuses why they couldn't do that....`It's an estimated bill'. `No it's not my husband' replied, `you came and read it'. `Oh' it doesn't show that' After quite a lot of `chat' my husband said that we were old age pensioners, and couldn't afford to lose that sort of money. The man replied that `they all say that'! My husband then said `Today is my 67th birthday,
would you class me as a pensioner?' He then went on to say that we'd had a new boiler system put in recently which doesn't spend hours heating a tank full of water for nothing. That revelation appeared to help, and the man then agreed that would make a difference to the gas consumed, and agreed to refund the money in full, and reduce the monthly charges...he then ended the conversation with `Happy Birthday sir!'

So...it pays to chase them if you think you are paying over the odds.....and now we also check out the best prices annually. We've saved quite a bit doing that.

Glenys

[Jan1954]

About 10 years ago, we had central heating installed. We had used open fires and a back-boiler up to that point and the only gas appliance was the cooker. Needless to say, our next gas reading was substantially higher than it had ever been.

Upon submission, British Gas contacted us to check that we had taken the reading correctly as they couldn't understand why it was so high and they didn't want to charge us for gas not used. So "bless 'em" in this instance!

[Neil Wilson]

The other B G quoted my mum for a new boiler and as the old one was 31 years old she decided to go with them rather than wait for it to break down and to be told there wasn't any spare parts. Quoted 3 days to fit it, it took them 5 days and she is getting a late finishing payment. She as please as punch with the quality of work and how the workmen tidied up after them and replaced the carpet better than it was fitted in the first instance. So, in this case full marks for them.

[tony vines]

All this free advertising!!

[Jan1954]

All this free advertising!!

Hmm. But some good, some not so good...