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BG On-line accounts - and high consumption.

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Cardew
Cardew Posts: 29,060 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Rampant Recycler
For those, like myself, who run their British Gas accounts on-line(https://www.House.co.uk) the last year or so has been really frustrating.

The site has been inoperative for longer than it has been up and running; and when it is running it is really slow.

That is compounded by the main bill having sub-accounts for payments, consumption etc.

From talking to BG it appears that they have finished the ‘improvements’ on the gas accounting software – which has involved wiping much of the previous history of your account. They are soon to do the same on electricity.

Well today I had 4 emails saying my 4 accounts were ready(I have separate gas and electricity in an annex). All my meters were read by a meter reader on 13 Oct 06 and again on 08 Jan 07(i.e. no estimated readings – is this a record?)

I was therefore somewhat surprised to find that for a period of 88 days, in a little used annex, the consumption of gas was 1,124,252.00kWh(yes 1 million+) which it informs me is a daily average of 12,775.59kWh. The next 87 days were at a rather more modest daily average of 10.29kWh – presumably because I turned down the pilot light a little!

All sorted now, but aghhhhhh!!

Comments

  • elektra
    elektra Posts: 1,361 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker Cashback Cashier
    Yes, I think that probably is a record.

    I not sure about the 'improvements'. How can it be an improvement not being able to see the history. Just nakes it harder for people to do switch comparisons so you can see why they would do that.


    I can't access payment history at the moment.

    Online bill does not reflect paper bill. eg Mum's bill does not show winter benefit discount although the total is correct.
  • tripled
    tripled Posts: 2,883 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I'm afraid they haven't quite finished the 'improvements' on the billing system Cardew, but performance is improving ;)
  • Mulson
    Mulson Posts: 19 Forumite
    British Gas have been the most expensive and worst performing company complaints wise in the UK for 4 years so I am not surprised by any of the above!
  • moonrakerz
    moonrakerz Posts: 8,650 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Cardew wrote:
    I was therefore somewhat surprised to find that for a period of 88 days, in a little used annex, the consumption of gas was 1,124,252.00kWh(yes 1 million+) which it informs me is a daily average of 12,775.59kWh. The next 87 days were at a rather more modest daily average of 10.29kWh – presumably because I turned down the pilot light a little!

    Gosh ! No wonder President Putin was cutting supplies to other countries ....
  • PParka
    PParka Posts: 268 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper Academoney Grad
    I've been waiting a year for BG to get my online account working :mad:
    They also signed me up for paperless billing, so I haven't seen a bill for a year either.

    Amazing how they can sort out the direct debit without any problem :rolleyes:
  • Mercenary
    Mercenary Posts: 627 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    Before we switched away (O Happy Day partytime.gif) the House billing site was driving us up the wall. Emailing them with any problems was a waste of synapse and muscle use as they never replied. Phone calls were no better.

    By around Aug 2006 we could actually view most of our gas bill...but, as Cardew says, with no history available to find out what had been going on.
    Our DDs for gas and electricity had been increased twice by then, with the notifications being put on the billing site which, of course, we had been unable to access :mad: .

    We finally got to view our electricity bill the week before we switched :rolleyes: (again with no history) and we found the meter readings were incorrect. So I had to get the final bill and the previous bill sent to us in paper form in order to make certain of the correct amount to pay.

    Paying BG off was another farce, but that's a different story :eek: .
  • dc
    dc Posts: 2,547 Forumite
    "Nice" to know others have had similar problems to me. :rolleyes2 :rolleyes2
    "House" .......Billing never available, lost history, payment problems, emails not replied to, and on...........

    I am suprised they have any customers left, especially added to the way they load consumption onto post price-hikes, and "Adjust" leaving readings in their favour. :mad:

    My gripe is still that when I tried to pay the Nov bill, the site collapsed and a few days later found out that though the payment "failed" they had actually taken 2 payments....They said they did a refund by cheque 3 days later, BUT I have not received YET, supposedly posted on 14 Nov, many phone calls later I am still waiting, and they have just issued the Next quarter bill.

    Any ideas tripled?
    ac's lovechild
  • tripled
    tripled Posts: 2,883 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    A refund should take 14 days to get to you. This is the mse forums, demand to speak to a manager and get some compo on your account for calls, interest and goodwill! Failing that, why not report them for card fraud to your bank, as you never authorized them to take two payments.
  • dc
    dc Posts: 2,547 Forumite
    tripled wrote:
    A refund should take 14 days to get to you. This is the mse forums, demand to speak to a manager and get some compo on your account for calls, interest and goodwill! Failing that, why not report them for card fraud to your bank, as you never authorized them to take two payments.

    That I have done, (£10, so far) , but they make you go 28 days before they will re-issue, but still no cheque. I have even asked for it to be credited back to my account, and still not there. Their staff AND systems are so flawed, and I am totally fed up of hanging on the phone and angry, they know that and don't care either.
    ac's lovechild
  • Jeannine
    Jeannine Posts: 342 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    I was quite cheered to read about other people having problems with the BG online billing - I thought I was alone!! I'm fed up with my bills being "unavailable" and worse, incorrect. Emails are unanswered etc etc etc. So I have at last decided to move and have just signed up with Ebico, purely because of BG customer service, but I should save some money as well!:j
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