I’ve just received a bill from British Gas.  We’re on paperless billing, so it’s all done online.  I logged into their web site, checked the bill, and noticed that the bill was based on an estimate rather than a direct meter reading.  So I took a reading from our meter, fed it into their web site, and the web site told me that because the reading I had given was lower than their estimate I would have to phone them to confirm it.  At this point I began to wonder whether I was going to have the same problems I’d had with BT.

After a few minutes in the queue (incidentally, I was impressed to note that they told me how long I was likely to be in the queue) I was put through to an operator, who was British, and who dealt with the information swiftly and effectively, updating the information on my account there and then.  I then had the option of either paying the bill on the phone, or doing it online immediately.  I chose to pay on the phone, and all was perfectly straightforward.  After the phone call I checked online, and the details had already been updated.

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Avid readers will know that I have been involved in an ongoing saga with BT since December.  Basically, they screwed up and tried to charge us for it, and I’ve been kicking up a fuss ever since.  Well, my next bill came through recently, showing a late payment charge on it that really shouldn’t have been there.  If indeed the payment was late, it was down to the problems their end rather than me not wanting to pay them.  So I e-mailed in my complain and had a phone call back from them that afternoon – which was reassuringly impressive – and they said it would all be taken care of.

Now, it all gets a little confusing here, because we start dealing with the actual numbers.  The original late payment and reconnection fee that was incorrectly charged to us in February following their problems in December meant that my February bill had around £20 more than it should have done.  When I phoned up to complain they said they couldn’t take that £20 off the bill, so I had to pay it, and they would offset it against my next bill.  Not an ideal solution, but one I had to live with.  So I paid that £20, on top of the cost of line rental and calls, and kept my eyes peeled for refund on my subsequent bill.  It never appeared.

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