Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.

British Gas

edited October 2012 in Not Sports Related
After the announcement of yet another price hike of 6% on top of my £330 per month gas bill, I have decided to speak with British Gas to discuss my options and probably leave them for a more competitive supplier. On phoning them today - the day that they announce their increase, the Customer Service Department is closed this morning for staff training........... couldn't make it up.
«1

Comments

  • Staff training in how to deal with even more pi**ed off customers .
  • PaulCAFC said:

    my £330 per month gas bill

    I'd try moving out of Buck House first. £330 per month? I'm lucky if mine is that during the heaviest quarter.

  • Come the glorious day, these people will be the among the first up against the wall.
  • had enough.

    opting out of the fixed price deal we have and moving to another supplier, possibly Scottish or Eon.

  • The problem is that you have to keep chopping and changing all the time which is ridiculous. The idea that competition would bring the prices down looked feasible on paper but has been shown to be ridiculous. If I change from british gas to another comapny - what actually changes? Does my gas come from another place? Companies waste money advertisng and competing with each other for customers which they should be using to cut prices but they know that competing on price would hurt their profits.

    The issue with publicly owned companies has always been culture which can promote waste. But this is something that is easily fixed - you simply have a small number of organisational motivations that are etched in stone that everybody must adhere to. We always seem to have to have one extreme or th eother in this Country.
  • The comparison sites just highlight how confusing it all is - different standing charges, discounts, varying unit charges, fixed rates, variable rates, penalty charges, etc, etc - I actually thought this was supposed to have been made easier!
  • How on earth is your gass bill £330? I pay £89 for gas and electric each month.
  • Macronate said:

    had enough.

    opting out of the fixed price deal we have and moving to another supplier, possibly Scottish or Eon.

    On the quote via a comparison site Eon claim that they can save me £619 per year on my dual fuel bill, but if I change and they don't save me anything what can I do? i just don't trust any of them anymore.
  • edited October 2012

    The problem is that you have to keep chopping and changing all the time which is ridiculous. The idea that competition would bring the prices down looked feasible on paper but has been shown to be ridiculous. If I change from british gas to another comapny - what actually changes? Does my gas come from another place? Companies waste money advertisng and competing with each other for customers which they should be using to cut prices but they know that competing on price would hurt their profits.

    The issue with publicly owned companies has always been culture which can promote waste. But this is something that is easily fixed - you simply have a small number of organisational motivations that are etched in stone that everybody must adhere to. We always seem to have to have one extreme or th eother in this Country.

    The domestic energy supply industry in this country is little more than a cartel. Therefore, the concept of competition is bogus. It's in none of the suppliers interests to have a price war which would force down prices and thus consumers bills continue to rise.
    Even in the middle of a recession the energy suppliers profits are higher than ever, only achievable because they operate as a cartel. The rich don't stay rich by being generous to their customers ....
  • robroy said:

    How on earth is your gass bill £330? I pay £89 for gas and electric each month.

    Biggish, 5 bed detached house, but no one home during day -its well insulated, double glazed, etc. Just a money pit to heat - during the winter the gas bill makes my eyes water. The meter has been checked loads of times by BG.
  • Sponsored links:


  • The problem is that you have to keep chopping and changing all the time which is ridiculous. The idea that competition would bring the prices down looked feasible on paper but has been shown to be ridiculous. If I change from british gas to another comapny - what actually changes? Does my gas come from another place? Companies waste money advertisng and competing with each other for customers which they should be using to cut prices but they know that competing on price would hurt their profits.

    The issue with publicly owned companies has always been culture which can promote waste. But this is something that is easily fixed - you simply have a small number of organisational motivations that are etched in stone that everybody must adhere to. We always seem to have to have one extreme or th eother in this Country.

    The domestic energy supply industry in this country is little more than a cartel. Therefore, the concept of competition is bogus. It's in none of the suppliers interests to have a price war which would force down prices and thus consumers bills continue to rise.
    Even in the middle of a recession the energy suppliers profits are higher than ever, only achievable because they operate as a cartel. The rich don't stay rich by being generous to their customers ....
    Quite right. Same applies to railways. Some things belong in the public sector - just not the 70s or 80s public sector.
  • PaulCAFC said:

    robroy said:

    How on earth is your gass bill £330? I pay £89 for gas and electric each month.

    Biggish, 5 bed detached house, but no one home during day -its well insulated, double glazed, etc. Just a money pit to heat - during the winter the gas bill makes my eyes water. The meter has been checked loads of times by BG.
    Still seems alot.|I have 1 less bedroom (detaced biggish) and pay £120/m
  • PaulCAFC said:

    robroy said:

    How on earth is your gass bill £330? I pay £89 for gas and electric each month.

    Biggish, 5 bed detached house, but no one home during day -its well insulated, double glazed, etc. Just a money pit to heat - during the winter the gas bill makes my eyes water. The meter has been checked loads of times by BG.
    You're being robbed blind there mate. My house is admittedly only 2 beds, but single glazed sash windows and not particularly well insulated - paying £77 per month in total for gas and electric. £330 just for gas per month is mental.

    Have a read of this - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity


  • MrLargo said:

    PaulCAFC said:

    robroy said:

    How on earth is your gass bill £330? I pay £89 for gas and electric each month.

    Biggish, 5 bed detached house, but no one home during day -its well insulated, double glazed, etc. Just a money pit to heat - during the winter the gas bill makes my eyes water. The meter has been checked loads of times by BG.
    You're being robbed blind there mate. My house is admittedly only 2 beds, but single glazed sash windows and not particularly well insulated - paying £77 per month in total for gas and electric. £330 just for gas per month is mental.

    Have a read of this - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity


    I wouldn't light a match in your house if I was you?
  • One of the reason they have given is the free insulation that they have been giving away, so I don't get how it is free!
  • Its a con after a con on an ongoing piss take

    Thatcher told us year after year Nationalised industries lost us money, where shit and the "level playing field" of the Free Market would be OPEN competion drive down costs and increase effiecies ----------total bollox

    The nationalised industires borrowed money re building power stations etc.That debt was written off by Thatcher---that was money owed to us as tax payers.She then sold our Utility companies to us !!! when we already owned em-----except they were brought by huge so called multi nationals (some owned by other Governements) --lie---a con---a con-------and an ongoing lie.
    Still the Tories wave the Union flag whilst selling everything they can and could.
  • MuttleyCAFC said:
    The problem is that you have to keep chopping and changing all the time which is ridiculous. The idea that competition would bring the prices down looked feasible on paper but has been shown to be ridiculous. If I change from british gas to another comapny - what actually changes? Does my gas come from another place? Companies waste money advertisng and competing with each other for customers which they should be using to cut prices but they know that competing on price would hurt their profits.

    The issue with publicly owned companies has always been culture which can promote waste. But this is something that is easily fixed - you simply have a small number of organisational motivations that are etched in stone that everybody must adhere to. We always seem to have to have one extreme or th eother in this Country.

    The domestic energy supply industry in this country is little more than a cartel. Therefore, the concept of competition is bogus. It's in none of the suppliers interests to have a price war which would force down prices and thus consumers bills continue to rise.
    Even in the middle of a recession the energy suppliers profits are higher than ever, only achievable because they operate as a cartel. The rich don't stay rich by being generous to their customers ....

    Said it all lads it isn't really a free market at all as they all buy the gas/electricity from the same source and I for one got sick of changing suppliers to try and secure the best deal. There is supposed to be an Ombudsman looking into this personally I would love his job as it appears to entail doing f**k all!
  • I must have missed the part where British Gas et al became registered charities.
  • edited October 2012
    There were things that could be sold but after they were the government didn't want to stop there. Ideolgy over rationality which I'm afarid is still prevalent. You don't want wasteful public services so the logical option is to have ones that are not wasteful - not privitising them.Make them accountable and develop a culture of efficiency and cost effectiveness. You can do this on a piece of paper - you don't need multi million pund executives. I'm all for competition - Supermarkets show how the markets work to drive down prices - whether you like them or not, but utilities and rail are different matters.
  • MrOneLung said: I must have missed the part where British Gas et al became registered charities.

    nothing wrong with free enterprise MOL but simples is right because the so called choice doesn't exist in the same way as for instance buying your weekly shopping where true competition exists. On top of that they rarely (if ever) reduce prices down when the gas price is lower, in fact this is true today as the gas price is lower than the same time last year. The prices are high for one simple reason to create value and profit for shareholders, nothing wrong with that unless you are rip[ping off the market and I am afraid that is what is happening here and once again the government do nothing about it.

    And before we get into the latest round of Tory bashing this situation proliferated under the last government as well!
  • Sponsored links:


  • The problem is that once you sell them - they are too expensive to buy back! Cheaper in the short term to try to make them work for you (not cost the Government money) but whilst thay may work for them to a degree - they certainly don't work for us!
  • Gas, electric, petrol - its all the same and we are all being done in the arse by profiteering companies and the government who benefit from the taxes we pay on the fuel and the increases.
  • Petrol is different and is legitimately governed by market forces - although the tax the government takes from it really hikes up the price.
  • I'm a staunch capitalist but I am finding myself thinking more and more that certain industries need to be either (re)nationalised or run by private companies under very strict rules on what they are allowed to charge. Essentials like water, gas, electric, fuel etc should not be allowed to operate in an essentially unregulated market where they can simply put their prices up and know that their so-called competitors will just follow suit. This is particularly galling when dealing with products whose prices are based upon a raw material (oil, gas etc). When you look at the price of the raw product and compare it to the price we pay you see just how much we are getting ripped off but the regulators do nothing other than say that our bills need to be made clearer and easier to understand. No! Our bills need to be made smaller and easier to pay!

    /rant
  • There is a solution for utilities though. The Government could set up a lean company from scratch that does not advertise or have shareholders to compete with the others. It could look at what realistic salaries and numbers are and not base it on competitors. It could be called GovEn or something like that. Its clearly stated goals must be -1) best value for consumers at all times - ideally to at least match the price of the cheapest competitor 2) It can never make a loss and 3) and agreed percentage of profits spent on infrastructure. I'd ccertainly move over to it and voila - you have renationalised with something that is better than what it was before it was privatised.
  • The problem with the competition argument is that it's a fallacy in so many of the privatised industries. Take for example water, I can't change water company so how is there competition? Trains are the same, when I go to the station I don't have a choice of train companies operating the route, so where's the competition?

    There is one reason and one reason only that privatisation happened, to keep the Tories in power. They wanted to offer tax breaks to the middle classes to secure votes, but to do that they needed money. At the same time there were a load of nationalised industries that needed investment urgently. So the choice was, invest in the country, or give tax breaks, and they chose (as they always will) the latter.

    Same with right to buy. This wasn't some noble scheme to get people onto the housing ladder, it was a cynical plan to turn labour voting council tenants into conservative voting home owners, with the added bonus of bringing short term funds into the councils allowing them to look good by either offering lower taxes or spending on headline projects. The problem is of course that councils now have no housing stock, so we have massive waiting lists, and when someone needs housing urgently the councils end up paying extortionate rents to private landlords. And when I say extortionate I really mean it. Some friends of mine were recently put in emergency housing in dartford, a crappy 2 up 2 down terraced cottage near the railway line. It was in terrible condition, cold, damp, dirty. The council were paying £1200 a month for that property. If the landlord was just doing a standard private let they would be very very lucky to get much over £500 a month. We're paying that, every one of us through higher taxes, hence council tax keeps going up whilst services get cut. Everything we owned was sold off to offer tax cuts in the late 80s/early 90s. It's gone now and we'll never get it back as no politician will every spend what is necessary to buy back what we once had, even if it would save us a fortune in the long run.

    There you go though, democracy, where anything beyond the next election is largely meaningless and short term thinking prevails. The house of lords was supposed to be the counter-balance to this short-termism, but then they stuffed it full of political party members, driving the very short term agendas they were supposed to balance out.
  • It's to subsidise us BG workers that get £200 per year off our dual fuel.
  • PaulCAFC said:

    Gas, electric, petrol - its all the same and we are all being done in the arse by profiteering companies and the government who benefit from the taxes we pay on the fuel and the increases.

    Yeah, not like we benefit from those taxes.
    Not looking forward to delivering our baby in the cellar with a couple of towels and some hot water because there are no free hospitals in this country.
  • Petrol is different and is legitimately governed by market forces - although the tax the government takes from it really hikes up the price.

    Try and find the whole sale price of petrol, I dont think you are able to do so in Europe. The oil companys act very much like a cartel.
  • Yes, to a degree. Of course the biggest cartel are the oil producers and there is little or nothing we can do to stop that. Petrol companies do operate using market forces- where there are lots of petrol stations in close proximity - the price will be lower than if there is only one. But they will charge as much as they can get away with of course - that is business.
Sign In or Register to comment.

Roland Out Forever!