Sorry to see you go letter from British Gas but I never requested to leave!

LadyMorticia

Hey everyone.

Today I received a letter from British Gas saying "Sorry to see you go" and a cheque for a refund attached to it.

However, I have never requested to leave as I am happy with British Gas. I believe this only relates to my Gas account (I have both Gas and Electricity with them) as Electricity is still showing on my online account.

I've emailed them but I was wondering if anyone else has had anything like this happen? I'm a bit confused as I never requested to leave!

Cardew

Yes it happens many times - called an Erroneous Transfer.

Often an innocent mistake somewhere along the line - as simple as the serial number on a meter being entered wrongly.

Could be malicious - a rogue doorstop salesman getting hold of your meter number and getting commission.

A phone call to BG will sort it out - make sure that you don't lose any dual fuel discount.

Terrylw1

Hi LadyM,

You're not in The Arms!

As Cardew says, it an ET. Its very common and always has been.

You need to contact your current supplier and tell them you have not agreed a switch.

They have a limited time to object to the new supplier taking you, but be quick.

If its too late, they should just instigate the ET process to reverse this. It will mean you never go as they bring you back and you pay nothing to the other supplier. You have no contract with the other supplier anyway. This will cause your bills to stop for maybe a couple of months so be prepared for the impact to your usage and DD.

Its common that this happens because someone needs to obtain your MPRN and if its a digit our, they get you by mistake. Aside from the example Cardew mentioned over meter number, it can also be a neighbours mistake which can sometimes be that the distributors address is incorrect t which can occur where the addresses are similar/poorly set up such as flats, especially flats in London & Glasgow.

So, if you reverse this and it happens again, you need to ask the gaining supplier who is doing it, which may mean you correcting your neighbour.

LadyMorticia

Thank you both.

I'll attempt to phone them tomorrow. I say "attempt" because I have issues using the phone, hence why email is easier for me but seeing as no-one has answered my email yet, a phone call might be in order.

Terry - I'm giving the Arms a miss for a bit. Much prefer it on the comps board. Feel more at home there.:rotfl:

I'm not sure whether to send the cheque back to them or tear it up. I'm not going to cash it obviously, because it's not money that is owed to me but not sure whether sending it back is the way to go or whether to tear it up.

Terrylw1

Let them see what they want to do, most likely they will cancel the cheque to save getting the money back again.

Its odd that they sent that cheque since they haven't generated the final bill yet.

LadyMorticia

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Let them see what they want to do, most likely they will cancel the cheque to save getting the money back again.

Its odd that they sent that cheque since they haven't generated the final bill yet.

I got an email back after I contacted the FB team (for some reason FB contact teams for companies seem to be better than the proper website contact team!). The guy said that my Gas account was closed in December 2011 (which was actually the month we set it up!) but we've been paying our Gas for the last 7 months to them and I have the bank statements to prove it.

He said that it appears that our account wasn't actually meant to be closed and that it was an error (possibly with a muddle up with plot numbers as we are a new build) but I just want it sorted out asap. I really don't want our Gas supply to get cut off because as someone who is disabled and pregnant, I need heating and hot water (like a majority of people really!).

He said that he's going to look into it further for me but ideally I'd like it sorted before the weekend, otherwise I'm just going to spend the weekend worrying!

Cardew

LadyMorticia wrote: »

I
I really don't want our Gas supply to get cut off

They don't cut off gas in your sort of case.

LadyMorticia

Cardew wrote: »

They don't cut off gas in your sort of case.

I've never been in this situation before so I didn't know.

I wasn't sure if they would because British Gas would have closed our account and we wouldn't have another account set up with anyone.

Terrylw1

This changes things, potentially in a worse way.

You really need to check that your meter number, address & MPRN match up in the distributors database. You also need to check who the supplier was back at your account closing date.

I'm just concerned that you could have a crossed meter scenario which can get very complicated in switches occur.

Ask them to check all this and if they weren't the supplier through this time, there are other suppliers involved.

Have they refunded all your payments? If so, this points to the other suppliers switching you earlier. If they have part refunded, where to? Does the meter and switch read match what you have in your property?

LadyMorticia

Terrylw1 wrote: »

This changes things, potentially in a worse way.

You really need to check that your meter number, address & MPRN match up in the distributors database. You also need to check who the supplier was back at your account closing date.

I'm just concerned that you could have a crossed meter scenario which can get very complicated in switches occur.

Ask them to check all this and if they weren't the supplier through this time, there are other suppliers involved.

Have they refunded all your payments? If so, this points to the other suppliers switching you earlier. If they have part refunded, where to? Does the meter and switch read match what you have in your property?

!!!!!!!

I'll ask my husband to check the meter serial number etc tomorrow. We do have it all written down as we were given it when we moved in by the HA as we're a new-build but I'll get him to check it matches up.

The refund seems to be all of the Gas that we have paid.

I have no idea who the supplier was. We were told that we didn't have a supplier and to sort our own out as it's a new-build and there wasn't a previous occupier.

It's all very confusing and stressful and something I could do without right now.

Terrylw1

If Bgas have never billed you but you have been ET'd away from them, it suggests that Bgas would have been the supplier up to this ET occurring. However they would have to be stupid to refund it all to you as they are legally entitled to bill you from the reading they have as the "switch to them" up to the "switch away from them", the latter would generates in the switch process.

So, there are a few possibilities to consider:

- you never were with Bgas, but both one. However, this doesn't tally with the "sorry you're leaving" letter since they would only send that if they received a notification if your switch from the ET supplier via the distributor.

- you have never been with anyone, but again it doesn't tally with the letter.

- you were with someone else due to some mix up with MPRN for your address. This wouldn't tally with the letter but would possibly explain the full refund.

- you were with Bgas, you have been ET'd, but Bgas never billed you. This would explain the letter. The refund is generated as they closed your account in error, never noticed and never looked at your DD and the ET produced a notification to them which caused them to look.

For me, the last one is the most likely. However, whoever has investigated the refund is a complete fool as they should know you should be billed up to a switch read.

There could even be some cross over issues due to the MPRN having issues, but do the check mentioned in the previous post to rule thus out. Bgas can check this for you and check the suppliers registered through this period which rules out further complications over who you should pay.

Crossed metering issues are mostly caused by new builds and the "plot-to-postal" issue is part of that hence me picking up on it.