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

LadyMorticia

Thank for your help Terry.

Apparently they have a different meter serial number down for our flat than the actual one! I have no idea how that could have happened because when we moved in I gave them the correct meter serials and MPAN numbers so there's has been a screw-up somewhere.

Hopefully it will get sorted asap. The person I'm talking to is very helpful.

LadyMorticia

Another update:

I've been asked to conduct a Burns test for all the meters on our floor, but we don't live in a block of flats. We live in those kinds of flats where we all have our own door to outside and then some of us have to go up the stairs to get to our flats so our meter is actually right outside our door on the wall and we can see the pipe going to our flat.

We will conduct the test anyway though as it's possible that something has gone wrong somewhere and the meters are screwed up.

Thank goodness we get on with our neighbours. I can imagine the weird looks if we started looking at their meters!

Terrylw1

Switch everything off and see if anything still moves. If it does, either there is something you are not aware of working or the flats have been plumbed to the wrong meters.

This is all sadly common with new builds.

However, its more common for record issues to be at fault than the developer.

Suppliers don't accept meter numbers off customers, they are transmitted by data flow from their contracted agents. However, when you gave it they should have noticed a problem.

This still doesn't explain why they gave you all your money back. If the MPRN they have has a crossed meter, they can work to correct it all and rebill as well as their agents performing the same corrections.

This situation is well beyond call centre staff. They will only give average advice and could make it worse for your piece of mind.

I suggest you raise a complaint. Complaints teams know more but the best part is they will liaise with the real back office experts in their metering sections. The metering sections are the ones who pick this stuff up and correct it all anyway, call centres and complaints team bounce between specialists when faced with very complex scenarios.

LadyMorticia

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Switch everything off and see if anything still moves. If it does, either there is something you are not aware of working or the flats have been plumbed to the wrong meters.

This is all sadly common with new builds.

However, its more common for record issues to be at fault than the developer.

Suppliers don't accept meter numbers off customers, they are transmitted by data flow from their contracted agents. However, when you gave it they should have noticed a problem.

This still doesn't explain why they gave you all your money back. If the MPRN they have has a crossed meter, they can work to correct it all and rebill as well as their agents performing the same corrections.

This situation is well beyond call centre staff. They will only give average advice and could make it worse for your piece of mind.

I suggest you raise a complaint. Complaints teams know more but the best part is they will liaise with the real back office experts in their metering sections. The metering sections are the ones who pick this stuff up and correct it all anyway, call centres and complaints team bounce between specialists when faced with very complex scenarios.

Hey Terry.

DH just did that and when everything was switched off, nothing was moving. He switched all gas/heating on and our meter was moving so we definitely know that our meter is the one next to our property.

I've been asked to find my MPRN on our meter but it doesn't have one on the actual meter and all my Gas and Electricity bills were done online and seeing as they've deleted my Gas account, I can't view my Gas bill online to see if an MPRN is on it.

Terrylw1

That's good news, it eliminates crossed metering at your property and mixed appliance use.

So, this takes you back to my earlier post.

You can check your MPRN from your address, see attached link for the contact points but start with National Grid's line.

http://www.energylinx.co.uk/independent_gas_transporters.htm

Then you need to check your meter number and who has been the supplier (s) throughout your supply period. Then if that's correct to your property and the supplier is the correct one, its back to Bgas to tell them there is nothing wrong.

Sounds to me like they are making a right mess of it!

LadyMorticia

Just got an email back from British Gas.

The email says:

Thank you for your speedy reply regarding the mix up with your meters.

You spoke to my colleague on the Social Media team and we requested you do a burns test and confirm some meter information, thank you for this and I am pleased to inform you that we are now currently looking into this for you.

The first problem is the address on the national database is incorrect so I have made arrangements to get that update first, this has to be done first to ensure the correct information is used for the second part of the required process.

The second part of the process is to get a Crossed meter problem sorted as the information we have clearly shows you do have a crossed meter, please do not worry though as we know exactly what to do and will keep you informed as we go through the stages of getting your gas account corrected and updated with your details.

In the meantime you will receive some letters informing you of our complaints process which you may find useful.

We will be contacting you by email or phone in the next 5 working days to give you an update.

Thanks again for you co-operation and it was great to chat with you via Twitter, we will be in touch as above so until then have a lovely week.

Kind regards

Terrylw1

Hopefully it will get sorted.

Be aware that crossed meters can take months to fix. They often involve fixing records in agents databases and they won't always do it without a site visit.

So, be prepared for the costs that could suddenly be billed in one go.

Be very careful with what they bill. Check the reads and make sure its from your start read to now.

Get them to explain the incorrect address, they have been too vague. If a new build, it may still have held a plot number, but that's correct and is updated to the full address once its been assigned to the property. If its something else, its worth knowing...you could have your neighbours meter.