Just switched provider, what now?

bigmaz

Hi

I have just switched from British Gas to Sainsbury's Online S@ver Version 6. I am just wondering, do I have to do anything else? Or do I have to let British Gas know? Or does my account with them automatically cancel now I have switched?

Cheers
Martin

dogshome

Hi bigmaz - With the 'system' working as it should, you will get a phone call or letter from Sainsbury asking for your Meter readings and telling you the Switch date. These will be the End reading for the old suppliers Final Bill and the Start reading for the new suppliers First Bill - You may get contacted twice, once for Elec and again for gas

But sometimes it doesn't work as it should The Final Bill from your Old supplier and First Bill from the New have different readings !
The new supplier assigns the wrong meter number(s) to you
If either of these, or anything else goes wrong it's hell on wheels for you the customer, to sort out.

So cover your tail by writing a joint letter to both the Old & New suppliers, confirming the meter readin(s), your meter number(s), the date the Switch took place and your type of gas meter - Metric or Imperial

Lars7

I just changed and got this email.


What will happen next:

1. Soon Sainsbury's Energy will send you an acknowledgement pack, which will contain information about your new contract, complete with their detailed terms and conditions of the contract.

2. If you DO NOT cancel within 7 days, Sainsbury's Energy will begin registering your request and will contact your existing gas/electricity supplier(s) to arrange a transfer date.

3. Within 4 - 6 weeks once the transfer date has been confirmed, Sainsbury's Energy will inform you about this, and will simply ask you to provide a meter reading(s) on that date.

bigmaz

Brilliant, thanks guys for your help :)looks like i can sit back while they work it all out for me. But will keep a record of readings dogshome.

Thanks again

Martin

JasX

bigmaz wrote: »

Brilliant, thanks guys for your help :)looks like i can sit back while they work it all out for me. But will keep a record of readings dogshome.

Thanks again

Martin

after you're setup with sainsbury's and have been confirmed switched over you should get a FINAL british gas bill come thru within about a month billing you up to your final meter readings, if it doesn't appear chase it and worth filing away somewhere as there is nothing like a stray energy account being left open to cause a headache in future...

Don't cancel your DD with BG until you have your final bill and its setteled -moderate risk of them taking an extra payment and you needing to get it back from them (2 weeks max usuallyy) but alot easier doing that than fighting to get your acccount and possibly credit record straightened out if they start thinking you missed a payment.

deshepherd

In an ideal world it all should be simple. However as others have pointed out:

- there's a cooling off period to allow you the chance to change your mind before your new company will request to take over supply
- there's then a delay before this actually happens of something like 4-6 weeks

then, as happenned when I switched last year there's the additional possibility that something goes wrong between the 2 companies (and probably a couple of meter reading services as well) when then attempt to confirm the final reading which meant I ended up having 2 months where I was still paying a dual fuel DD to Npower and the gas DD to Eon while they chased up confirmation of the electricity reading at transfer (though once this happened I got a sizeable refund cheque from Npower when they eventually closed my account).

So sit back and hope it all goes ok but definitely make a note of meter readings (taking a photo of meters may be a good idea) and be prepared to start phoning if it looks like something is taking too long!