Getting bills from 2 gas companies

lemontart

charlie555 wrote: »

I had a similar situation when we changed from BG to Powergen.

BG and Transco had the meter of another property recorded as if it was at our address which caused confusion. BG were hopeless at sorting it out. It got to the point where neither BG nor Powergen would do anything until the other company did something first! Very frustrating.

I told Powergen what our meter number was but they needed a computer record from BG (or was it Transco?) to confirm this before they could update their records. But BG could not or would not get their computer to do this.

In the end I had to get the person I had been speaking to at Powergen to ring the person I had been speaking to at BG and agree with each other that Powergen was now my supplier and what my meter number was.

I got £20 compensation from BG which hardly covered the months of hassle they caused. I will never ever go back to BG - their customer service is useless.

The data that National grid formerly known as transco hold is supplied to them by the suppliers so if that info is inaccurate for what ever reason it is down to the suppliers to sort it out but you just have to read this section of the forum to know how effective that is,

Also the mprn numbers are actually generated by the suppliers and NOT the gas transporters i.e National Grid, to start with one generated that usually carries through from supplier to supplier unless for some reason the supply is stopped for a long period of time or possibly some other reasons, also you can find that the supplier for some obscure reason has failed to register the supply with National Grid or the relevant distribution network which causes an issue or two.

With regards of transferring supply it would be the previous or old supplier that would have to provide the info to the new company Not National grid or any of the independent distribution networks.


In cases of the wrong meter being attributed to a property what you need to do as arrange for your supplier to come out and do what is known as a Trace and Label which basically means they check the pipes from meters and actual meters to get the correct info then they should technically amend their records and inform either National Grid or the idns so they can up date their data bases.

SwanJon

When you phone National Gird (Hmm, need to find number), ask them to confirm the serial number as well as the supply number (MPRN).
The suppliers do have acces to NG's database so they should be able to sort it out.
The issue is that for example BG has MPR 1 down as 1 High Street Anytown, so when they look up the MPR they see that they supply it.
Npower have MPR 2 down as 1 High Street Anytown, so when they look up the MPR they see they supply it.
One answer is to put it all in writing, (both MPRs & MSNs from bills; MSN from your meter & anything else you think is relevant, and send it to both companies.
One of them will be right (unless there is a third supplier waiting in the wings), and one of them will be wrong. It'll probably end up that another house somewhere else is complaining that they are getting no bills at all.

Trace and labels are quite rare and only used if there is a physical issue (often if houses are split into flats). Most other issues can be solved with info from the customer and a little time and common sense. (if only)

MilkyJoe

Just had a phone call from British Gas telling me, according to Transco, they are the supplier. Now I have a £2,500 gas bill :eek:
That's an estimate though and I know it's nowhere near that much.
I've emailed nPower, waiting to hear what they say, and I've asked British Gas to send someone round to check which meter is for my flat and who supplies it and I'm waiting to hear from them as well.
It's been mentioned that there are different numbers for the meter, which is the number that should show who does supply my flat? British Gas have the correct meter number but I'm not sure which number nPower has, but it's a much shorter number.

MilkyJoe

Just some more info: British Gas had recently said they had messed up and they would close my account. Then I received a bill for 0p. All good... Then I got a bill addressed to "The Occupier". Emailed them again to say I thought it had been sorted. That's when they phoned to say they are the suppliers.