gas meter removed by British Gas

spacemates_2

Hi every one, please help
I moved into a building last november and asked Npower to supply me with the gas, over the past 10 month I have used very little so my bills have only been under £100 in total, in the past few months I started receiving demand letters from British gas for over £800, I called them to say I moved in in November and Npower were my suppliers so go away, many more letters landed on the door step saying the same thing so I called one more time for it to fall on deaf ears with BG, finally a chap came to the door and said he was going to court to get a warrent to take the meter out at 10:30am that day and what would I be like if they took it out, as in would he need the police to attend or would I allow it and step aside, I was not pleased about it at all so I called npower and BG Npower said tell him so go away and show him our bill, BG asked for the money and refused to listen.
The chap returned with his court order and asked again if I would put a fight or allow it, I called BG six times and on the telephone for over five hours with the bloke and his waiting, I wanted to say my bit to the highest person I could at BG, the first person I spoke to understood there was an error somewhere and if I would provide then with a scanned copy of the lease they would tell him to walk away, so that is what I did BG then told him over my phone to leave, the bloke refused, they then asked for another form of id from me and they would tell him to leave all parites agreed and i sent the id via email to them, he was asked to leave again by BG and he again refused, they then requested a third form of id from me a photo id and if I sent that straight away, again he was told to leave by BG over my phone he refused again, he would not leave until he got the word from someone called Ahmed who is a boss at centrica british gas, I had been on the phone to that blokes team for hours and hours talking to Ahmeds team, even his team told the bloke to go over and over, Ahmed was on the bailiffs phone saying no and to take the meter out, so everything I did was a waste of time the people at BG were shown up by there boss he allowed them to go through hours of phone calls with me wasting all our time for no reason, or so I thought the chap on the phone said he was sorry but the meter would still be taken out, and my account was being opened and I would get a confirmation letter within days, at that point I went mad and asked what account? I was a npower customer I did not want an account with them, they had tricked me all along in order to gain my personal details and proof to put the debt to me, at no point were they going to tell the bailiff to leave, they just wanted a win win situation and tricked me foolishly I thought they were listening and were genuine (idiot) the meter was taken out a letter left with me saying what was owed I showed the chap the door with a couple of fingers.

Three days later five bills arrived from BG each demanding different sum of money £557 is the highest, it turns out through my investigations afterwards the computer system that all the gas companies to locate the meters use has two meters listed at my address? there is only one (none now) and Npower picked the wrong one to charge me for, knowone knows where the phantom meter is? it has never been in the building there has only ever been the one meter fitted, BG are saying they are going to take me to court and to be honest I fancy going and saying my bit, I feel I have been punished for a industry error, I have wasted a lot of my time and phone calls with Npower and BG, my credit score is at risk with them having my personal details, I feel very poorly treated by BG and tricked,
so after all that (sorry) has anyone one come across this type of situation and what options do I have stand up and fight the big boys or take it on the chin, and do Npower have any questions to answer? please help, thanks.

Terrylw1

OK, forget about the meter.

The important issue is your MPRN as this is what the supplier registers against to supply you. The meter and your address are attached to this.

So, first use this link and check if Bgas or Npower are registered against your property.

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

If its Npower, Bgas cannot execute any warrant as they are not the current supplier. At this point, raised a complaint and take it to the ombudsman 8 weeks later.

If its Bgas, you need to find out what Npower have registered as it will be in your name.

Until you do this, its difficult to advise. There could be an incorrect property registered in your name, crossed meters, 2 properties sharing the same address in error, etc. These are more complex issues to explain so if you resolve it from the above check, its not worth going into these further.

[Deleted User]

contact these people;

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Pages/OfgemHome.aspx

pooch

woodbine wrote: »

contact these people;

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Pages/OfgemHome.aspx

Ofgem does not play a role in investigating individual consumer complaints against energy companies.

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Domestic-consumers/Pages/index.aspx

The page also has advice on what consumers should do where they have a complaint against an energy company

spacemates_2

Thank you for your replies, I will take a look into the MPRN when I am near a bill, I have a feeling Npower and BG have looked into this using that system, both have confirmed that the building has two gas meters listed on some system, british gas say they are listed as the supplier for that meter, Npower said they would investigate the fact two meters were listed as being there but not heard a thing from them since, I have no idea who has that supply or where it is, with a bit of luck that site will help,
So am I correct in thinking it is the actual supply I am looking into, not who owns the meter, BG say they own the meter Npower now agree the actual meter BG walked away with was listed as belonging to BG, I hope that makes sense.
be back soon after I have looked into the MPRN

Terrylw1

Meters are owned by Meter Asset Providers (MAP), not suppliers although they may be part of the same group but they are compliant to their licence.

When you switch, the new supplier registers against the MPRN or MPAN for elec and appoints the agents to this. The MAP may remain as the previous one or assets (meters) can be sold to the new suppliers contracted MAP if required.

Meter numbers exist in distribution systems, for elec though this is a more recent thing.

So, you need to determine which supplier is registered against the MPRN/MPAN for your properties address. This is the first action.

Addresses are from the Royal Mail. However, there can be mistakes that cause 2 addresses to be transposed in error.

The meter number is not enough proof that X MPRN/MPAN belongs to X address.

Meter numbers are often incorrectly set up to a MPRN/MPAN. In the case of 2 properties with the same supplier, these can be corrected. However, in your case there are 2 suppliers involved which seriously complicates matters and 1 supplier can't simply reverse data without the agreement of the other unless they share the same agents, who agree its the correct action.

Its unclear if this is the case or whether Bgas were your previous supplier and Npower have gained an incorrect address. It seems unlikely that Npower would make that mistake unless both addresses are very similar.

spacemates_2

HI! just called the number on the website you mentioned and talked them through what has roughly happened so far, they asked for the MPRN, after a little confusion the lady mantioned the number on BG's bill was linked to this address but Npower were listed as the supplier, I also told the lady the MPRN number that was on the Npower bill because it is different to Bg's number, she told me the number npower had on the bill was linked to an address with the same number and postcode but listed as "road" and not "street" so that could be the start of the errors.

Terrylw1

spacemates wrote: »

HI! just called the number on the website you mentioned and talked them through what has roughly happened so far, they asked for the MPRN, after a little confusion the lady mantioned the number on BG's bill was linked to this address but Npower were listed as the supplier, I also told the lady the MPRN number that was on the Npower bill because it is different to Bg's number, she told me the number npower had on the bill was linked to an address with the same number and postcode but listed as "road" and not "street" so that could be the start of the errors.

Are Npower the registered supplier to both? If so, there is an issue with addresses, but Bgas obtained a warrant under false pretences as you are not their customer as they are not the registered supplier.

If Bgas are the registered supplier to the MPRN on the Npower bill, is that your meter number? This would need a bit more thought so not worth going into until the above is answered.

chirpchirp

I had an issue with British Gas where they had confused account numbers and name and tied it to my address. My ex-husband's name was the same as the customer that the account should have been registered to. How on earth they did this I don't know!

spacemates_2

Hi right i have spoken again to the people on the website above just to be sure what is what so her goes,

both the meter and mpr BG had listed on the bill are correct for this location, the mpr number on npowers bill and meter number are for another address listed as ++++++ Road not my address of ++++++ street, so it looks as if an input wrror by Npower has caused all this trouble for me, the bills from npower do have my correct address on them so I do receive them but back at the start who ever opened my account must have looked up the wrong address name and entered the mpr and meter number from that one.

any ideas what do I do now?

Terrylw1

That does mean Bgas are your supplier.

It also means that Npower owe you all your money back as they registered someone else's address but put your address on the account.

Npower have also done something called an Erroneous Transfer (ET) where they register someone without their consent. So, at some point whoever lives at that address will be complaining at them.

I suggest you raise complaints to both. You really need to get your case across to Bgas to get them to understand its an error. If they won't, take it to the ombudsman.