British gas & refund!

[Hmum0fthree]

British gas oh me over £400 due to errors with meter readings and paying to much! They have been sending this refund since January!

They have put it in my bank twice now and it never went in, the other day I received a cheque put that in the bank and it says it was stopped by the person who provided the cheque and to contact them directly to arrange another payment

3 whole months now of no refund!? Where do I stand now? Should I cancel my direct debit until it is refunded?

Ohh i have never had this problem, they always pay me back by crediting my account
Due to the price increases could you not just leave it in for a buffer, which is what we are going to do?

Yes cancel the direct debit and use the £400 credit on the account to pay the bill with, until it's gone

DO NOT cancel your direct debit. You may well find they have different rates for those who pay by bill rather than direct debit, and the last thing you want is them changing you onto a more expensive tariff right now.

Have you tried the webchat? It took me about 30 minutes yesterday to go from 240+ in queue to speaking to an agent, but they resolved a problem the dorises on the phone couldn't solve.

Yes cancel the direct debit and use the £400 credit on the account to pay the bill with, until it's gone

Don't do this. The price cap for non-direct-debit accounts is higher than for direct debits, so if you cancel your direct debit you'll be paying more for your gas & electricity. Just reduce your monthly direct debit payments to take account of the surplus credit. Suppliers should allow you to do this, but British Gas has appalling customer service so it might require some effort to get your payments changed (it would take a matter of seconds with Octopus).

Were you charged for the bounced check?

@BlueSummerBaby

Yes cancel the direct debit and use the £400 credit on the account to pay the bill with, until it's gone

Why do people give this advice? 🙈

Do not cancel your direct debit as you will go down as a non-payer and it will impact your credit score in the long run.

It sounds simple but have you tried contacting them/shaming them on social media?

We just got a refund from them straight into the bank account. Ring them/tweet them

Are you on the standard tariff which is increasing tomorrow and paying annually? You can go online and check what your account is saying the status of your annual plan is. Mine runs to Oct but my cheap tariff runs out tariff so my rates on SVR will more than double and even though my account is in credit it says I'll owe £300 at the end of my plan. Don't cancel your dd but you can reduce it if your annual plan says you'll be in credit. I suspect it's the increase in tariff which might be why they haven't refunded you.

BG's My Energy which updates the smart meters hasn't updated since 16th February, which from a customer's point of view makes it difficult to see what energy you have used and how much you've used in kw hours to date.

Is the £400 still showing in your energy account or has it been deducted because BG are planning to refund it to you?

If it's still in your account, unless you really need the money now, to be honest I'd just leave it there because it's likely to get used up by the end of the year with increased prices anyway. Or you might have the option of reducing (but not cancelling, obvs) your DD, to use it up that way.

The above might be easier than continuing to go round in circles when things aren't working. Although it seems strange they can't sucessfully do a refund when there's a working DD in place.

But if you want/need the money back, and especially if it's been deducted from the account as a refund, so they actually owe you the money, I'd contact their complaints department via MSEs resolver tool, which walks you through the process and directs it to the right department.

I disagree with the suggestion to Tweet them about it, as it only encourages companies to give people shit customer service unless they are publicly shamed into resolving problems.

Tell them you want your £400 back and if you don't receive it within a reasonable period you will complain to OFGEM. They then have 8 weeks (I think) to give you the money, or else you are then allowed to go to the Ombudsman and this focuses their minds because they get charged by OFGEM for each (valid?) complaint received.

Hi everyone thanks for the advise! Had another cheque in the post this morning honestly don't think they know what they are doing!!

We have a price cap till mid May so no point leaving the extra in. Hopefully this won't bounce fingers crossed!

Why do people give this advice? 🙈

Do not cancel your direct debit as you will go down as a non-payer and it will impact your credit score in the long run.

It sounds simple but have you tried contacting them/shaming them on social media?

It only goes down as a default if they tried to take the money, so entirely irrelevant if you've cancelled the DD, because obviously you tell both the bank and the utility company you've cancelled it! Nothing wrong with my advice at all.