Deal ending THIS MONTH - when to switch?

4$£&*(£$&*(!

My deal with British Gas ends at the end of this month - just over 3 weeks time.

When is the earliest I can switch whilst guaranteeing the switch will not take place before 1 January 2010, to ensure I am not hit by me leaving a tariff which has penalties if I leave on or before 31 December?

Thanks.

Capistan

It normall take ages to switch, but no doubt they can speed up the process massively if it costs you money

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Hehe that's usually true.

I know there is a cooling off period of 14 days, so if I switched on 17 December I can still pull the plug. That is only 9 days away but I am an impatient bugg'r.

macman

My mother just switched to Scottish Power, it took only 20 days from application to the switching date, although they initially advised 4-6 weeks.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

macman wrote: »

My mother just switched to Scottish Power, it took only 20 days from application to the switching date, although they initially advised 4-6 weeks.

Thank you, that is very useful to know. I think I will leave it until next week before making the switch then, for the sake of £50 if I go a couple of days early it isn't worth the worry.

KimYeovil

One thing to be careful about is that they do not by default switch you to a new tariff that also has a penalty. You should contact British Gas and tell them which penalty-free tariff you wish to switch to when the current tariff expires. (Scottish Power are notorious for bumping you on to a new penalty-carrying tariff.)

Capistan

The only competition in the energy industry is to confuse and rip off customers.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

I made the switch today using a cashback site to get money off with my new supplier.

Discovered in the process, British Gas did not fill in the top three boxes of the 'S' meter reference number. I called them to get these numbers, which apparently the first one is the type of meter (ie domestic unrestricted, pre-pay meter, two tier tariff meter etc), the second number is your supplier region (eg 12 for London, 19 for Seeboard), and the third number is line loss (which I didn't have a clue about and needed this from British Gas as it is the only one of the three numbers I could not work out myself).

Off I went to call British Gas, I had a few minutes before I had to leave the house this morning. I told them the new supplier wanted the top three box numbers and can I have them since the boxes are blank. Spoke to a woman who insisted the new supplier did not need these numbers, with me sat at a screen flashing red around the empty boxes telling me I cannot complete the switch without filling in all fields.

Went round in circles for five minutes with the woman telling me how good British Gas are, have I considered Websaver 5, who am I going to, did I know all the price comparison websites are inaccurate, and me telling her I did not have time for a sales talk, I just want my MPAN reference.

I got to the point of almost hanging up when she said my personal reference number is the ones in the bottom boxes, it would be 01, 12, 100 for me anyway and I thought thank goodness, she has finally given me that last number I could not work out for myself. It was as if she was saying 'duh' to me as that number is the same number for thousands of customers in my area.

The sales patter then continued before I had to say enough, she was making me late for work at this point and I was fed up, it was like pulling teeth and I already informed them of my intention to leave weeks ago when they asked if I wanted to go onto a new capped rate (with leaving penalties) or onto their standard tariff - if I did nothing I would be capped, so when I phoned why didn't they do their sales patter then as I made it clear of my intentions?

Crikey, rant over, can some companies (mostly the energy companies, and increasingly insurers) realise once we have looked at the overall product and it is what we want, the only other factor for many - including me - is the bottom line of cost? And when will they realise people do use comparison sites, mocking them all the time will not persuade me to stay with a more expensive supplier.

Gerrard_8_lfc

The lady is only doing her job.

Why should it be a rant if it was that bad just say I have to go sorry ?

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Gerrard_8_lfc wrote: »

The lady is only doing her job.

Why should it be a rant if it was that bad just say I have to go sorry ?

I might have expected that from another BG employee. If you read my post again, you will see she was running around in circles trying to do her utmost to sell BG products and took at least five minutes before I managed to coax out the missing part of my MPAN.

Therefore, on the basis this woman was not doing what I needed to, and my request was reasonable, polite, and BG are obliged to provide it, why on earth do you think it is justifiable I have been kept on the phone for an excessive amount of time just to get something BG should have been printing on my bills ANYWAY?

(I would be interested to know if other BG customers have their meter references in full - no missing boxes on the electric bill particularly - as I have kept all my bills since joining them, the reference is not mentioned in full on any of them).

smidgey

CitySlicker wrote: »

(I would be interested to know if other BG customers have their meter references in full - no missing boxes on the electric bill particularly - as I have kept all my bills since joining them, the reference is not mentioned in full on any of them).

The reference is not on page 2 of your bill under the header "Your electricity supply number"?