Npower to British Gas, are they as bad as each other?

tomstickland

I recently bought my first place and decided to swith electricity supplier.

The outgoing supplier, NPower sent me an estimated bill for £24 which, after reading the meter, should have been more like £6. I've made numerous phone calls to both suppliers and instigated a handover "dispute", a common practice. British Gas lost my meter readings, so I had to start again on that.

Just before I went on holiday I phoned NPower and explained the situation and asked them to put a stop on any payment demand letters whilst I was away.

Back from holiday, I checked my post last night. NPower have sent me a Red last warning demand letter. I'm hopping mad now.

Every time I phone either of these muppet organisations it's as if all my previous calls have been forgotten about. Oh well, I'll see what happens when I phone them up tomorrow.

MarkyMarkD

British Gas are the most expensive supplier everywhere! Why on earth would you want to switch to BG?

tomstickland

Because USwitch listed them as the cheapest for my usage/setup. It showed a 40% saving over NPower.

MarkyMarkD

Hmm - I presume you don't have gas, as NPower state that they are cheaper for dual fuel than BG anywhere in the country?

espresso

Must be talking about electricity!

masonic

I would give up trying to deal with these companies directly and go to Energywatch or the Energy Ombudsman. If I was asked to name two companies with lousy customer service records...

Good luck with your switch to BG - I did the same a couple of months ago, but am now in the middle of switching back as they put me on the wrong tariff and repeated phonecalls/e-mails about this failed to produce any sort of action on their part.

tomstickland

Yes, it's Econ7 electricity, no gas.

MarkyMarkD

Aha, thanks for clarifying.

tomstickland

Monday morning update: I phoned NPower and after a long wait finally spoke to someone who explained that they couldn't stop sending me demands until British Gas sorted their lives out and put the handover dispute through.

So I phoned British Gas and after another long wait finally got to speak to someone who was very helpful. After a long discussion they promised that they'd sort the problem out and leave me a voicemail message telling me what had happened. They also gave me their direct dial number, which was useful.

By 1pm I'd not had any reply so I phoned British gas again. After a 10 minute wait I spoke to someone and asked to be put through to the direct dial number. I only had the last 6 digits and they couldn't tell me what the full number was. Once we'd identified the correct person then they said that they couldn't put me through but they'd email the person's manager who'd get back to me. I asked for the manager's number and was given that, but only the last 6 digits. I aksed how this was of any use to me and they said "we don't give out the first numbers, only the extension". They then pretty much cut me off.

I'm starting to wonder whether I should bin this and move to another provider. I'll keep this thread updated as the tortuous process moves on.

tomstickland

Out of boredom and frustration I've called the account transfer freephone number, found via saynoto0870.com 0800300100. They put me through to account transfers 08456 070200. I'm now trying to give them my meter readings.

Noone so far has given me a direct dial number.
The meter reading woman (in India by the sound of it) has finally provided me with the original readings that I posted to them! So far noone else at BG has managed to find these!

She also gave me a general enquiry number 08456 091 122 after not being able to help with the extension number that I already have.

Voyager2002

tomstickland wrote:

Because USwitch listed them as the cheapest for my usage/setup. It showed a 40% saving over NPower.

For most people, the cheapest supplier is Equipower (Ebico). They are not included in Uswitch because they don't pay any commission -- another reason why they are cheapest for the consumer. As for customer service, I switched to them in 2004 and up to now have no complaints. In the past I used British Gas, and had lots of complaints.