British gas

[squashysu]

i am with npower and british gas called me the other day and i told them to bugger off!!!! yeah like i want to go with you and then you up your prices by 35%, look at my i am green and thick BG!!!

[kirsty b]

I'm on prepayment meters with BG, and the gas doesn't cost much at the mo because we only use it for hot water at the mo and its set on a timer, but the leccy is needing to be topped up more often.
We are in the process of looking into going back on quarterly meters and paying by DD but don't know if we'll be that much better off or not.

[Fluorescent green]

Hi

These are the prices on 25th July on the BBC web site.

Average annual bill for dual fuel customer...

EDF �1,168
Npower �972
British Gas �968
E.On �967
Scottish Power �959
Scottish and Southern Energy �956
Source: Energywatch

I am with Scotish Power (green tarrif), I guess if you are with EDF, you should check for cheaper suppliers online.

FG

[smallblueplanet]

i am with npower and british gas called me the other day and i told them to bugger off!!!! yeah like i want to go with you and then you up your prices by 35%, look at my i am green and thick BG!!!

Errr perhaps, BG prices that went up by the amount you quote was their 'standard' tariff, if you're on their cheapest tariff 'Click 5' it wasn't increased at all.

When I checked my electricity via a couple of the online 'switch' sites then BG's 'Click 5' online, monthly DD was the cheapest - it still is.

Viva BG!

[Alice]

Welcome to the Vine Fluorescent Green and thank you for posting that. Looks as if there isn't much difference if you ignore EDF. We'll all just have to find ways to cut energy consumption.

[smallblueplanet]

Hi Alice, one thing to be aware of when comparing is that some companies charge different rates for supplying to different parts of the country - when I checked BG's tariffs there are about 10 different areas, all on slightly different rates per kwh.

[squashysu]

hi i was reading today that done go rushing and changing your supplier yet, as some havent changed but they will! BG is showing as cheapest on some tarifs, but this is gonna change!!!

i am gonna hold tight and see what happens and try not to use as much energy, mind you wish the weather would be nicer so i could get the washing dry, dont want to use the dryer!!!

[Two_Sheds]

Yes, don't all rush to change yet. That's why the other companies are holding off announcing their own price rises, to try and grab some new customers off B.Gas before they put up their own tariffs.

[kirsty b]

That Money Saving Expert chap was on the radio last week talking about this and he said that EDF may have been the first to announce rises, but they certainly won't be the last.

[MaureenHall]

I went onto a fixed rate tarrif with BG a couple of years ago, capped until April 2010. I thought it was a bit expensive at the time, but the salesman was very persuasive. I'm glad he was, but I hope (in vain?) that I'll be able to find another capped rate when this one expires. I'll be 64 when I have to change, or stay with BG at the new higher rate. Just hope the state pension (my only income) rises in line with the cost of living!! Oooooooooooooops, did you just see that pig flying over there?

[HeyWayne]

Proud to be British - Gas that is, and probably will for quite some time yet.

When LadyWayne and I first started living as grown ups and paying our own bills, competition amongst the energy providers was still a relatively new phenomenon. We switched several times and each time had an appalling experience, both during the switchover and in subsequent months/years as customers - NPower, Powergen and a couple of others.

I made my mind up some time ago that there's more to this than who's the cheapest. Too often cheapest does mean cheapest.

I'm staying put - the others will catch up.

It's all a bladdy conspiracy anyway. It's just governments attempting to meet their emissions targets/quotas by making fuel so expensive that society is forced to change its consumption habits.

Then, they'll tell us the aliens took over government for a short while and it's all back to normal.

[di]

When we moved house last October we experienced really bad customer service with BG.
Firstly we set up DD for both gas & electric therefore giving them all our personal details,just before christmas recieved a letter for "the occupier"stating that they had no details of the presesnt occupiers!So not only had they"lost" our bank details but obviously the DD's weren't happening so we were gradually mounting up a bigger bill that we were hoping the DD would prevent.Also recieved a bill with "actual reading" even though the meter is inside & we knew noone had been to read,when I took a reading 2 weeks after they supposedly had it was lower!No apologies & actually tried to pass the buck to the metre reading company they use.I understand that mistakes happen but would've appreciated them aknowledging their mistakes & at the least offering an apology but nothing! I know compared to some peoples horror stories of managing to rack up bills in the thousands partly due to mismanagement/poor billing we got away lightly but I'm afraid they've lost us as customers.
No doubt given a few more months with our present company we'll realise they're all the same!

[Two_Sheds]

I just had a very long begging call from a Scottish chap from BG, trying to get me to go back to them. He kept going on and on about how they're cheaper than all the other suppliers now ... yes, until they get you fixed into a contract and then put up the price again. I can't be bothered with it all any more.
He also said "I've been told to say that we're the greenest supplier too, but I have yet to talk to a customer who cares about the environment". (I didn't think it politic to say I was a tree-hugging, veggie-growing cyclist).

There's no way on earth I'd go back to BG after the fiasco we had for 2 and a half years with them.

[julesapple]

Years ago, we were on a budget scheme with BG. They asked what sort of heating we had (anthracite boiler, pump powered by electricity, 8 radiators, immersion heater then) and they estimated that our electric should be paid at �30 a month. We thought this was too low despite their insistance to the contrary, and upped our payments to �60 a month. They then estimated our bills for 14 months despite there always being access to the meter for it to be read. One day, they did read it and we ended up with a �900+ bill. We took legal advice and went to court. The court found fault with BG and we only had to pay �76. BG had to pay our court costs but it took years to get it sorted.

Last year we had a bill from npower, which was clever because they don't supply our new gas central heating or our electricity. It has taken us a year of letters, phone calls and finally solicitor's letters to get them to admit they had made a mistake. We finally got a 'bill' saying our balance was nil. This was followed very quickly by a letter asking us if we were satisfied with npower's customer service!!!! Um...not really!

We're capped with Eon now and so far, they've been great!

Jules

[smallblueplanet]

Lol! I'm with BG online becasue its the cheapest out there for electricity only.