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

tomstickland

I'm now talking to another advisor (after taking none of the menu options, no wait either) and he's trying to transfer me to the requested extension to the 1st advisor from today. I'm listening to the hold music now.

tomstickland

We move on LOL. Advisor 2 put me on hold, then couldn't locate all of my details, then needed a reference number etc. I was on hold whilst he tried to contact the original advisor, then came back and said he needed my reference number. He said that only my name and address were showing, nothing else.

If then transpired that he had spoken to the original advisor. I asked to be put through, but this wasn't possible. Then he said that original advisor didn't recall the phone call from this morning. Maybe this was a different person?

Then we were back to reference number. I was pretty irate by now. I drew the conversation out for a bit longer for the Orwellian entertainment value.

So it looks like I need my reference number to make any progress.

There seems to be some information problem with my account. I can understand and forgive that. But why can't one person take some responsibility, provide me with a contact number and then do something about it? I'm doing all of the work here.

tomstickland

I'm calling 08456 070200 again since they seem to have better data. Hopefully they can provide a reference number.

Result! India have managed to locate my account via the phone number and have provided me with the reference number.

tomstickland

Right, dialling 08456 070200 again, through to a seemingly helpful woman. "how can i help you?".
Cue a 4 minute monologue of my activity today......
"so you'd like to cancel the contract then?"
lol
"no I'd just like to sort the handover"
She was very helpful, confirmed the correct meter readings and arranged for a meter dispute to be processed. She was also confused by why noeone else had been able to help. I think it might be because they were missing the reference number. So why couldn't they just tell me that? I'm left with a feeling that a good number of their people were lying to me or totally incompetant.

Oh well, maybe that's it for now.

MarkyMarkD

The problem with getting direct numbers for call centre staff is that they are not working 24/7 - so you won't necessarily get the right person at all.

Many call centre systems use virtual extension numbers to get around this - i.e. the extension number is like a sign-on number which is specific to the individual - but if so, you will often get a message saying the person isn't logged in. This is how it works at my company with the IT support service people. It's often actually less helpful than having the call pass through to someone else in the same team, for example.

tomstickland

Either way, I've been genuinely shocked at the shoddy level of customer "service" that British Gas seem to supply.

tomstickland

Another threatening letter from Npower.
However, the luck of the telephone draw has come into my favour.
Firstly British Gas have confirmed that the dispute process is going ahead. They said that it could take up to 28 days. I said that Npower were not able to stop the bill payment demands and he said "complain to Energywatch if there's a problem - they should be able to stop the demands".

I then phoned Npower collections dept and they were very helpful and said that they'd block the demands until the dispute process was sorted. I explained that I'd been told by a previous Npower employee that they couldn't stop the payment demands. "what idiot said that?" was the reply from this Npower employee.

So things are looking a lot better at the moment.

wannagobacktogreece

Just wanted to say that i agree with the poor poor level of customer service that these companies provide, and when u ring up to complain all you get is well we didnt know about that theres no notes on the system just like your past 100 phone calls ahve been erased, it has now taken n power an asstonishing 8 months to send us a payment card out for our gas (we have been sent 5) all with the wrong names on and took them to post office to pay gas and it was declined because the card was invalid. yet another fonecall to n power to complain and all i get is your bill needs paying on the 21st of august in full otherwise we will cut off your supply, I very clearly stated that we were on holiday until the 26th august and it was not possible for us to pay it on that date, she didnt seem to understand and just kept repeating the sentence you have to pay it on that date, bear in mind that i still had a card which was invalid.
got a letter today saying heres the payment dates and although we have clearly stated 1million times the card does not work we have still yet to receive the damn thing. I TELL YOU WHAT A FARSE OF A COMPANY THEY REALLY ARE
so i would recommend that u switch to another supplier just like we are planning to.

seven-day-weekend

The worst experience I have had with Customer Services is with NPower - by far!

After eight months of trying to get them to connect me with a gas supply, I gave up and switched to Powergen. Guess what? Npower decided at that time to put my gas account through and blocked the Powergen takeover! Finally got sorted. Then they sent me a final gas bill for £4.52 for the few days I'd been with them. I tried to pay it by debit card over the phone 'no, it has to be at least £5'. Tried to pay it online 'account number invalid'. In the end I just thought, blow them, they'll have to chase me for the money!

I agree with another poster who said that even after at least 1000 phone calls (from Spain, in my case!), no-one has ever heard of your problem before and has to start from scratch agin. There is nothing on your file indicating you've ever rung before, and quite often they don't seem to understand the simple request 'connect my gas'.

Absolute disaster!

tomstickland

Nice to know that I'm not alone. At the moment I seem to have finally managed to communicate to both companies and things seem to be going OK now. I've just received an offer from Powergen/Eon through the door so I'm going to compare that with BG and whatever USwitch can throw up, along with the recommendation above of Equipower/Ebico.