U-Switch figures are incorrect - confirmed by BG

property.advert

Well, I was off to switch my electricity from E-on to British Gas. Luckily I telephoned them to confirm the figures that U-Switch (and other comparison sites) gave me. Very glad I did because the figures U-Switch gave me are wrong. British Gas have confirmed this.

Based upon my postcode, U-Switch says I am in London (which I am) but British Gas says I am in Eastern. The different prices for supplying Eastern versus London wipe out any savings over the latest E-on prices.

I was expecting a saving of £100 or so and this has just disappeared. Had I used U-Switch to move my account and potentially lost money, then I'd be inclined to go after U-Switch.

It would seem that the cost comparison sites do not necessarily give you the right numbers because their postcode searcher is not aligned to the one used by British Gas at least. This is a serious flaw in their system and needs addressing.

Now how can I believe any of the figures given by U-Switch ? Simply I cannot.

If there is a U-Switch person on here please get in touch as I have already spoken to your company on the telephone and they have no clue, it is over their heads.

For the rest of you, double check your figures with your proposed company, based upon your postcode, because you cannot trust U-Switch.

Cardew

Have you checked with the other comparison websites to see if they have the same discrepancy?

property.advert

Yes, at least one other has the same problem. Whether it is just with BG or with all I do not know.

SwanJon

Part of the issue here is that the old electricity supply regions don't always tally up with regions people expect (remember they were set up in the 1940s).
You can double check your region by looking at the first two digits of your Mpan (supply number). If it begins 10 then you are in Eastern, can't quite remember London, but could be 12 (it's alphabetical).

You could argue that where you are now wasn't 'in London' 70 years ago, but that doesn't explain why York isn't in the Yorkshire electricity region...


(PS I work for British Gas)

property.advert

I guessed it was some historic anomaly but the greater issue is that the comparison sites are obviously not using the same databases as BG. On U-Switch it comes up with figures for London which would save me around £100 a year over E-on and so I might as well switch.

Now imagine I do that and I get my bill from BG and they are charging me Eastern prices which does not save me £100. In fact, it is about the same as E-on but what if it was actually costing me £100 a year ?

Now I'm guessing that U-Switch and BD have contracts between themselves and it is about time they sorted this out as I'll happily work on the legal team if someone wants to sue either BG or U-Switch for misrepresentation.

Cardew

I suspect that the 'small print' covers U-switch against errors, and BG have done nothing wrong.

In any case, it will be interesting to see if a court would award damages for information provided for nothing on the internet!

Ken68

Well,Property, what can you expect from a site that pays commission in booze.