I contacted British Gas to ask for a refund of £81.00 so to add insult to injury they then cancelled my D/D mandate and I have to apply for a new mandate to replace the monthly one to quarterly for my gas.

 The strange thing is that my electricity D/D was altered to a quartely mandate without a problem can someone tell me why to obtain a refund of an overpayment you have to CANCEL the original D/D mandate to allow the change to a different payment plan but not for the electricity a/c?

 Obviously I had one of two things to deal with a) a totally intransigent operator or b) a system that is designed IN FAVOUR of British Gas as it is not "A" level maths to work out that if I was £80.00+ overpaid then multiply that with the amount of customers they have it suddenly becomes a nice little earner for this company,s profits at the expense of the customer.   

I think that you were very brave to let British Gas take whatever they want from your account. Personally I don't even trust them enough to have a phone conversation and I've asked that we do everything in writing.

Hi

The reason British Gas do this now is 'cos DDs and all payment plans are worked out over the year, so 12 equal payments.

When you request a refund they cancel the DD to release funds. They usually advise against it as it can put your payments up, e.g. credit built towards winter bills.

They usually cancel your DD, refund the money by cheque, and then reset your DD whilst online. You should not need to do anything. Sounds like you did not receive great service!

Hope that clears it up a bit!

Good luck

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Nikki