The Direct Debit Saga (British Gas - Combined)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	British Gas - Combined
Date:	07/05/01 (793 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: not many

Disadvantages: lack of provosion for small users., lack of payment reviews, Unwillingness to pay back overpayments.

I've given up on british gas, and here's why. My partner and I set up a direct debit with them, and they decided to charge us twenty five pounds a month. Nothing wrong so far. But, we don't use much power - no central heating, no television, very few kitchen gedgets. As a result, we were using about twenty five pounds worth of power each quarter.

Being sensible people, we took a reading of our meter and phoned them up. They clearly didn't believe us so they sent a bloke round to check. They didn't change our bill, and we continued paying for three times more energy than we were using.

After three quarters of a year, British Gas owed us one hundred and twenty pounds (and some small change) and there was no sign of them offering to give us any of our money back or reduce our monthly payments. It was only when we changed supplier that we got our money back - I assume they would have continued to overcharge us indefinatley.

If you are a small user, like us, beware, because you may well be paying for far moer than you use. keep an eye on your meter, and harass your supplier. If this doesn't work, change supplier every year or so, because this does seem to result in a rebate. Its hardly ideal though.

Summary: