British Gas problem

mumsthe

:)I have changed over to a fixed rate today (through advise on this site). Went downstairs to take my meter reading for my Gas and was very confused as my last bill said 1 amount but my currant reading said 1 that is nearly 600 units less! checked with my neighbour downstairs and her meter is near my reading on the bill. Found meter serial number on my bill and BG have had me paying for my neighbours gas.
We were all electric until 18 months ago then the HA had gas put in so we all had our meters put in at the same time.
I have phoned BG and they are delaying resolving this, saying that they have to talk to an expert first before they can deal with this. I have asked that they send somebody out to have a look at the meters which clearly show pipes going into the different properties, but they cant just send somebody out as an appointment needs to be made. I have to wait up to 48 hours for them to contact me back to tell me how they are going to resolve this. She also said that she could not find details of my proper meter on the national grid.:(
I phoned npower to let them know that they had the wrong meter details and she found my details on the national grid linked to my neighbours meter and my neighbours meter linked to mine.
I am really upset that proffesional people who are trained to do a job have messed the meter details up, I never really checked the meter because all of the bills apart from 1 near the begining have been read by the meter reader so there was no reason to dispute his readings.
The lady at npower has said that I have been overcharged by about £300, the reason I am changing from BG is because I couldnt afford them but if they had registered the right meter then I might not have had to move companies.:(
Sorry it is long winded but very difficult to condense all what has happened.

dogshome

Hi mumsthe - To be fair this problem is not BG's fault, but down to the service company who installed the meters.

With readings on your meter being less than those on the bill, you are obviously due money back from BG, and the best advice is to make sure n'power do not process your Switch

BG have to go through a set procedure to get the meter locations sorted out with the Central Registry which will take a bit of time - Meanwhile push for the name and phone number of a dedicated member of the management team dealing with the problem, so you can check progress

grimsalve

Good luck. I had a similar problem a few years ago and it took a long time to sort out (around 6 months). The problem is that your MPAN/MPRN tends to be tied to the meter serial number by the distributor and not by your chosen supplier.

If there's a discrepancy then you have to persuade your supplier to raise this with the distributor (AFAIK, you can't contact the distributor direct), and then wait for the distributor to investigate and sort out the problem.... and then wait again for your supplier to decide what to do. This can take a while.

Of course, the other problem - if you've overpaid by £300 then your neighbour has underpaid by the same amount - they may not be too happy when they here this news!

mumsthe

Thank you for your replies, yes my neighbour already knows about the rough amount that I have overpaid by and shes says that she will argue that it is not her fault.

I am just annoyed that I have struggled to pay the bills yet if somebody had done their job properly in the first place I wouldnt have been put in the financial position to have to change suppliers, somebody has to take responsibility for making the mistake.:(

The first time that they read the wrong meter was 23rd August 2010, the gas was only fitted in the February and I read the meter that I knew was mine (it was pointed out to me by the fitters) and gave them a reading in the May, I didnt realise that they were reading the wrong meter for a year.

I have phoned npower and given them all the correct information so I will be billed by them from today, they have said that my 'meter point reference number' details are correct just a cross over with the wrong meter.:(