The day my own consumer rights battle hit the headlines in the national and regional media
Having worked as a journalist for well over 30 years and tackled many consumer rights stories I tend to know one when I see one.
When it happened to me I knew it had to be brought into the public spotlight to prevent others from suffering the same fate too so I ended up becoming the news story for a change and it ended up in nationals such as The Sun and The Mirror along with the Daily Record in Scotland as well as regional and local media in Yorkshire.
What happened was that British Gas tried to raise my direct debit from £350 to £1,320 a month… and I almost didn’t realise they were going to do it.
When I investigated as a customer just how this happened I discovered there could be thousands more British Gas customers who were suddenly going to get hit with massive increases on their direct debits and would have absolutely no idea it was going to happen.
It was vital to get a warning quickly out there into the public domain through the mainstream media.
The major worry is that British Gas, like any company, can change your direct debit to any amount it wants and doesn’t have to agree it with you beforehand. It just has to let you know at least 10 working days before but if you miss the email or letter telling you it’s going up, the first you’ll know about it is when the money disappears from your bank account.
British Gas wants everyone to not be in any debt to it at the end of each year so carries out a review after every six months and then raises the direct debit if it feels you’ll still be in the red by the end of the next six months. This was the nub of the problem, especially if there is a big delay to the direct debit being set up which there was in my case – it took British Gas months to do it but the build-up in costs were off-set with money credited back by my previous energy supplier.
The trouble is, the figure they calculated for me was clearly ludicrous and had absolutely no basis either mathematically or from a commonsense viewpoint.
The unbelievably high monthly direct debit British Gas wanted me to pay would have brought in three times what the company itself estimated I’d use a year in gas and electricity.
British Gas estimated my use to be £5,722 but if I’d paid £1,320 a month for a year it would have been £15,840.
In October 2022 British Gas emailed me what was described as my March to October Energy Statement so I clicked on it just to see how my energy saving attempts were doing. I didn’t think it was a bill or a warning of an increase to my direct debits … just a statement to show me how things were going.
The statement said we were in arrears by £303 so, in my naivety, thought that wasn’t too bad. I checked the figures which had mainly been provided from meter readings and it was only on a second good look at the bill I noticed a blue box to the right side which stated my new monthly direct debit would be £1,320.04 from December 10.
No separate email to warn of this huge new figure and it wasn’t that easy to spot as it was under the rather bland headline in the email subject box Keeping You On Track.
I eventually found the section which said you could amend your direct debit online in your own account, but British Gas had already popped the £1,320.04 figure in and you’re not allowed to change it for less.
So, the only option then was to go through the agony of a phone call to try to sort it all out. It took me two hours.
The first call handler insisted on having meter readings to I did them while on the phone and our deficit rose from £300 to just over £400. My £350 direct debit was due a few days later so that arrears figure would have come down considerably then.
No matter how I tried to explain it, she kept insisting the £1,320 was correct as that was British Gas’ estimate as to what I’d use that year even though on the March to October energy statement it said clearly my projected annual cost for gas was £2,230 and for electricity £3,492 making a total of £5,722 – a third of what they were trying to charge me.
In the end she said all I could do was pay the bill every month … every penny that was owed.
But she did put me through to the wonderfully-named Ability To Pay Team and the call handler I spoke to was helpful, saw sense, accepted the amount they were trying to charge me was “crazy” but, worryingly, had no idea how it had been calculated to that sum.
We finally agreed to increase my direct debit to £420 a month – that’s £5,040 a year, way less than a third of what they were trying to charge me.
I made several points to British Gas in the aftermath of all this and the British Gas customer service manager seemed to agree that starting the 12 months from when the first direct debit is paid, not when the supply is switched, would be better.
He wrote: “The points you’ve made are valid and I believe would truly make a better experience for our customers.”
He then put them forward to British Gas management.
The story appeared in several local, regional and national publications and here are the links.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/20479477/energy-direct-debit-soared-after-missed-email/
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dads-warning-british-gas-raises-28551906
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/dad-in-disbelief-after-british-28550840
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/huddersfield-mans-shock-british-gas-25553967
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/dad-four-stunned-after-british-25561012