Solar energy - Feed-in Tariff payment delays - your experiences?

The_Green_Hornet

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

Latest experience with Eon.

Friday 10th January - Telephoned quarterly meter reading
Thursday 16th January - Money received in bank account
Friday 17th January - FiT statement received in post

:beer::T:j

Friday 11th April - Telephoned quarterly meter readings
Thursday 17th April - Money received in bank account

If Eon can do it, why can't they all do it?

jimjames

Having said in the past how great British Gas have been I'm having to eat humble pie.

3 weeks after the reading was submitted they have come back saying that they don't believe it is correct so I have to submit a photo of the meter. Quite why it has taken them 3 weeks to realise I'm not sure.

I've been impressed with the generation from them but clearly our panels have just been TOO good!

We are now 30 months from installation, I understood that FIT providers were meant to read the meter every 2 years but we've not had that yet. I wonder if their version is reading a photo of it instead:)

EricMears

jimjames wrote: »

3 weeks after the reading was submitted they have come back saying that they don't believe it is correct so I have to submit a photo of the meter. Quite why it has taken them 3 weeks to realise I'm not sure. [ /QUOTE]

Scottish Power did the same to me - except that it only took them 8 hrs to realise and telephone me.


I took great delight in telling the caller that the results were absolutely normal & well within range of 2012's figures for same quarter; it was 2013 that was the odd result ! Went on to suggest that they might care to link their 'fraud detection software' to a reliable source of weather statistics. (I didn't tell them where to find one )

peachespeaches

I have had excessive delays with British Gas following my application for FIT. I applied on 13 Feb, have made many phone calls, some of them suggested my application was lost, others blamed us because my husband couldnt find the tracking reference for the special delivery we sent the application under. I put in a complaint, and got the usual delay email, we will respond in 28 days etc. Last week I finally got an email sending us a a registration form which we senIt back by email. We have an acknowledgement, no request for a meter reading (I sent one anyway) and I think its all a bit of a joke. I will post when my cheque arrives and work out exactly how many weeks it has taken, then put in another complaint to British gas, who havent responded to the first complaint yet. If I had known how much hassle this was, I wouldnt have bothered.

crucian

I might be being a bit thick here but why are you expecting a cheque so soon after registering.Its paid every quarter so its going to be probably June before you are asked for your meter reading.We registered at the beginning of Feb with Npower and don't expect to be contacted until June as we have missed the last quarter.Hope this makes sense.

zeupater

peachespeaches wrote: »

I have had excessive delays with British Gas following my application for FIT. I applied on 13 Feb, have made many phone calls, some of them suggested my application was lost, others blamed us because my husband couldnt find the tracking reference for the special delivery we sent the application under. I put in a complaint, and got the usual delay email, we will respond in 28 days etc. Last week I finally got an email sending us a a registration form which we senIt back by email. We have an acknowledgement, no request for a meter reading (I sent one anyway) and I think its all a bit of a joke. I will post when my cheque arrives and work out exactly how many weeks it has taken, then put in another complaint to British gas, who havent responded to the first complaint yet. If I had known how much hassle this was, I wouldnt have bothered.

Hi

If I've read that correctly, you've only just registered for FiT, in which case you shouldn't be expecting a cheque any time soon. You'll need to provide quarterly TGM readings for your FiT partner to process, the first being due around three months after registration, with the payment being made a number of days (/weeks) later ... I'd guess that a welcome/acknowledgement letter will give you the first reading due date ....

HTH
Z

groovyf

I've registered with British Gas...
Forms filled-in and emailed 26th Feb... didn't hear from them (other than auto-email in response to my forms stating around 28 days is the turnaround time), until 4 weeks later, with which I received another form to fill in and mail/email back to them. I emailed this one back also.
Had nothing since, so phoned up yesterday to query my application and ask if all was well. The helpful lady on the phone must've pushed a few buttons as within a few minutes I got an email stating I'd been fully signed up and all I had to do was send in my first reading on May 26th (3 months after initial registration).
Plain sailing for me in some respects - though wonder what would've happened had I not called this last time. I think they just needed prodding.

peachespeaches

crucian wrote: »

I might be being a bit thick here but why are you expecting a cheque so soon after registering.Its paid every quarter so its going to be probably June before you are asked for your meter reading.We registered at the beginning of Feb with Npower and don't expect to be contacted until June as we have missed the last quarter.Hope this makes sense.

I sent off all the forms on 13 February. I was told it would take a month to 6 weeks, this is why I have been chasing it up. I was not informed that you were not registered until you had waited 2 months for them to send you the registration to sign. Does that make sense?

peachespeaches

Funnily enough, after my first post 885 above, I rechecked my email and a reply had been sent to my complaint.
" I am emailing you in response to a complaint you registered with us on 3 April 2014, firstly I apologise for the delay in responding to your complaint. From looking at the notes on your account and also the emails you have sent to us I can see that the complaint is regarding delays with your Feed in tariff application. I apologise for the delays in processing your application we have had large backlogs due to recent tariff changes and an influx of applications coming in. Our call centre agents however could have been more helpful in searching for your application. Please be assured we are putting contingency plans in place to bring the backlog down You have recently sent us your Terms and Conditions and this was the final part of the application process. Your Feed in Tariff account is now fully active and there is nothing further you need to do. Your next meter reading will be due on or after 14 may 2014, you should receive an email reminder for this and there will be a link on the email for you to leave your reading.

Once again I sincerely apologise for the delays and the service you have received, I have passed on your feedback to my manager, please let me know of any further questions or concerns you have and also please let me know that you have received this email "


Before I received this email, I had not been informed WHEN a meter reading would be due. I have been reading and submitting my normal meter readings more frequently than required as I wanted to keep track of my consumption of power. I have recently changed from monthly DD to quarterly billing.


I think the application process with British Gas is badly administered and the delays are unacceptable. The delays extend beyond their promised response times.

jimjames

British Gas have now replied and promised cheque will be sent asap.

Also told me it will be based on the current reading from the photo not the one I submitted at the start of the month so it'll be around £140 more!