british gas online billing

doctor_benway

greetings

couldnt find anything in the archives.

I was an exisitng BG, gas customer, on a standard tarriff, paper billing. [npower for elec]

I signed up for online account access with BG, for the existing gas account. then, I signed up to change to BG dual fuel click energy tarriff, for both gas and electric

this was in sep 08.

as of [nearly] feb 09, nearly 5 months later, BG are still unable to provide online access [to my online only!] electric account.

they are sending paper bills, for my online only elec account. :T

I do have online access to the gas account.

BG email periodically, from ever escalating account specialists, saying that their online billing system has a known issue, and they are still unable to associate the new online electric account with an existing online BG gas account.

they then ask for more time to fix it. they started by asking for a couple of days, and we're now up to another 28 days, to fix it.

however, they are managing to successfully deduct the monthly direct debit, for the elec account :rotfl:

so 2 questions please?

is anyone else experiencing this?

is there a known fix?

thanks!

kjsmith7

It may be because you are using the same E-Mail address, perhaps provide them with another E-Mail address?

Cardew

doctor_benway wrote: »

so 2 questions please?

is anyone else experiencing this?

is there a known fix?

thanks!

You expect a fix from a computer system that only cost £450Million - whatever next!;)

It seems the system just cannot cope with the 'Unusual'!

I expect the solution will be to give you 2 new account numbers and treat you as a new customer.

1carminestocky

(just to be safe here, sarcasm mode engaged) Aye, privatising the energy industry really did lead to increased efficiency, didn't it? Half a billion smackeroos and a punter is waiting five months (and still waiting) to access his/her online electric account.

doctor_benway

thanks all, for the replies

to clarify a bit

I didnt have an existing gas "click energy" online tarriff and then sometime later went dual fuel and added the electric.

the transfer to click/dual fuel online was all done at the same time, using the same info/email.

this was on Sep 2 , the gas was changed to "click energy" almost immediately, but the electric didnt get transferred 'til oct 17.

BG told me they have many thousands of customers in the same boat. they said it is taking so long because they are working through their 15 million accounts to identify which customers are affected.

this sounds "unrealistic." My account has been "identified" and they still havent fixed it after 5 months :T

thanks

blossom30

Hi Dr Benway, I too experienced exactly the same problem as you and it went on for a year, sending e-mails back and forth with numerous calls made. Eventually the problem was, they still had me registered at an old e-mail address (although they had been sending e-mails to my new e-mail address). They had to cancel my gas and electricity account numbers and issue me with new numbers to enable me to access my online account and it appears to be working fine although I have not had a bill since the 8th October, so I will be keeping an eye on that. I hope you have a speedier result than I did. shrewdal

Cardew

I have 4 accounts with BG and have had so for years - 2 are in an annex at the same address.

All was fine until they migrated to the new computer system. It appears(apparently) that the new system was confused by 2 gas and 2 electricity accounts at the same address.

Even though all were registered for paperless billing, it reverted to sending me paper bills - lots of paper bills! - together with requests that I go on line and enter my meter readings - lots of requests!



Eventually it allowed one gas and one electricity bill to be paperless, but they closed the other two accounts and gave me new account numbers.

savemoney

I can log in for 2 accounts with BG but I cant not access online billing for 5 or more days now. I emailed them 2 days ago but no reply it just says (just logged in again)



Access to your online bill is temporarily unavailable. If the time is between 7am - 11pm Monday to Saturday, please try again in a few minutes. Otherwise, please try again between 7am - 11pm Monday to Saturday. You can still enter meter reads and make payments.

doctor_benway

heres my latest update-- after 6 months, they've stoppped giving a timeframe for it to be fixed now.


Dear Mr


We’re emailing you again to update you on the fault you’ve had online at www.britishgas.co.uk.

Unfortunately, we’re still investigating the problem. We know how inconvenient this must be for you, but you can be sure that we’ll continue to work on the issue and aim to have it resolved as soon as possible.

Once the problem has been sorted out, we’ll let you know.

Thank you for choosing British Gas. We’re delighted you’re one of our customers.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Copper
Director of Online

Rusty!

That's weird, when I went from BG gas only to BG duel fuel, the electric account appeared in my online billing instantly, and that was at the end of Jan.

doctor_benway

further update

problem , online account access, still not fixed

got 2 letters from BG today. One actual letter in the mail and an email.

the email from, accountmanagement [sic] said that the problem had been fixed and that if they didnt hear from us in 14 days they would close the "complaint." :T

the letter, from the head of the "complaints dept" [seriously, complaints? is it still 1954?] said that the problem had still not been fixed due to lack of information from a 3rd [un-named]party. :rotfl:

he suggested arbitration might be necessary... :T

clearly senior mangement is involved as they are now seeking to blame someone else altogether.

it's Fawlty Towers over there...