Add your feedback on energy supplier Sainsbury’s Energy

vintagebrighton

Yep, same for me. Just had a letter about my gas reading but nothing yet for electricity. I signed up for the dual fuel deal otherwise the cost is higher, no cashback and fewer nectar points. Wondering if I should just wait a bit longer.......

VB x

MSE_Dan_L

Hi Vintagebrighton / Yahtzeeuk / Chordeiles

We've challenged Sainsbury's about why some users are reporting that they've only heard about one fuel. It has admitted that the correspondence around this could and should be clearer.

To confirm, the MSE Collective tariff it offered was only for dual fuels, so unless there's been a specific problem with moving across a fuel, in all cases both fuels should be transferred (i.e. it wasn't possible to apply for electric only).

Sainsbury's has suggested that where you receive notification about one fuel, when providing meter readings you may wish to provide both readings to it (using your existing MPAN/MPRN which will remain the same as before the switch).

I understand this is frustrating and not the best introduction to Sainsbury's Energy.

EdM_3

Asked to switch via MSE on 06/02/15. Received various requests to set up a web account which I eventually did. Then received a gas meter reading request on 28/02/15 and tried to enter via the web account which kept telling me to re-enter (after 24 hours) due to website problems.

On 05/03/15 I was notified by MSE to enter reading via phone which I did and sent in webform request for confirmation of receipt (no reply to date). This morning I was again asked to enter reading on the website due to website problems.

My online account now only shows me as a gas user.

Rang the help line and got the standard 25 minutes delay message (I had tried twice before with same message) but this time I held on for 30 minutes and got a rep. He said I was switched on 25th February and that I should have received a welcome pack and an electricity reading request but all had gone ahead using estimated readings which I could get corrected later (oh really?) although he did take a note of my readings. He also sent me a welcome pack which says I am an electricity customer from 26th February, no mention of gas supply at all.

The rep was pleasant and helpful but I have no confidence at all that I am going to come out of this unscathed.

My advice would be to steer clear of this supplier until they have sorted their systems.

pete7708

Martin has been very vocal regarding the problems surrounding Scottish Power customer service. When I switched to them last year I never encountered any of this mess that I am now getting with Sainsbury/BG.


Very disappointing indeed.

MSE_Dan_L

pete7708 wrote: »

Martin has been very vocal regarding the problems surrounding Scottish Power customer service. When I switched to them last year I never encountered any of this mess that I am now getting with Sainsbury/BG.

Generally feedback around Scottish Power has been pretty poor as seen by MSE's December poll results where 58% of its customers (who took part in the poll) rated it as poor.

Sainsbury's Energy fared better with 43% (rating it as great from a relatively small number of votes).

As ever, it'll be interesting to see how our users rate both of these suppliers in the next feedback poll on energy suppliers.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/02-12-2014/is-your-energy-companys-service-any-good

But absolutely, the problems that Sainsbury's is currently having are disappointing. We're continuing to escalate the issues mentioned and highlighting where our users expect improvements.

Lum

I was already a Sainsbury's Energy customer. Had only recently switched but it was working fine.

I did the Big Winter Switch II and now it's all going wrong.
My gas was switched to the new tariff correctly, but my electricity remained on the old one. I called and asked them to fix it, and then my electricity account disappeared from the website and I received a British Gas prepay meter key in the post. I do not have a prepay meter and have never had one while with Sainsbury's.
I called and complained again and now the website is showing two electricity accounts (in addition to the gas), one of which is claiming to be in the middle of a switch, but none of the graphics load to show you exactly where in the switch it is, and the other is pre-pay but has the correct meter reading from when I first switched over to Sainsburys.
A week later (now last week) I called again and was assured it would be sorted in a couple of days. As I write this it has still not been sorted.

Edit: Also when I originally switched to Sainsbury's via cheap energy club, back in December. They screwed up the electricity transfer then too, they had to re-do it over the phone as a new sale and as a result I only got half of my cashback!

Ian_X

Did the switch, seemed to take a long time to get a response or any kind of progress. Now (like others) I have a letter that only mentions gas. My previous supplier (EDF) took the DD for electricity last time, but not gas. I wonder why that could be(!) Tried to telephone Sainsbury's and got the STANDARD 30 minute wait. Not sure my batteries will last that long, and in any case I am not waiting 30 minutes for them to explain themselves.

Phoned EDF (who also have the online "chat" facility option) and got through to someone straight away. Apparently running call centres efficiently isn't impossible. He told me Sainsbury's are taking over both supplies.

Sainsbury's is like a trip back to the dark ages.

Maybe you could strongly suggest to Sainsbury's they ditch their cancellation fee for at least 3 months and then if they don't sort themselves out we can leave. It would be interesting to see if they have enough confidence in their customer service levels to risk such an idea.

And if there is a way to cancel Sainsbury's without paying the fee I would like to know. Maybe I should just switch to a new supplier and dare Sainsbury's to get legal. I wonder which side of that argument MSE would support?

Rumman

echo the comments above, only received one letter gas, not about the electricity, although i signed up for duel fuel. i received it TODAY, whilst the letter says ive been active with them since 4th march and deadline to submit readings is today..

Also, Im with scottish power, on there it says my electricity account is closed, but gas is still active. On my sainsbury's account, it has no record of an electricity account but gas is there.

What a mess, ive been switching electricity companies for years, never had problem till now. My advice, stick to the companies you know , this energy supplier is run by amateurs.

Safir308

I have to agree with everything that has been said about Sainsbury Energy. I tried to give meter readings for 3 weeks after getting daily emails telling me to resubmit. I complained on the contact page and that said it would take 5 days for a response. I finally phoned and held the required 35 minutes to be told initial readings had to be done by phone. So I gave the readings over the phone and two days later got a response to my email asking me to contact them with my meter readings !! I tried to call but the wait was going to be 50 minutes and I haven't got that much time during the day to sit around. So sent another email telling them if they couldn't sort it out then I would have to cancel. So three days ago I got an email to tell me they had cancelled my new account. Today I got an email from npower saying they have also cancelled my account, so currently no one is supplying my gas and electric. Tonight I waited an hour and 10 minutes and still Sainsburys didn't answer the phone, but apparently they "value my custom and know I was waiting" !! I phoned my previous supplier, npower to be told the account was definitely with Sainsburys and had been since 19 February. but if I wanted to go back to npower I would have to reapply. This is a complete mess and very stressful. Anyone thinking of going to Sainsbury to get a better deal, DON'T !! They are really British Gas and have the same appalling customer care as they always have done.

stevem999

So now Sainsbury's are suggesting that the single 'gas' letter many of us received was actually a dual fuel letter and we should have guessed that we then had to submit two different meter readings? Oh of course, silly me, my crystal ball was playing up that day.

I have logged back into my Sainsbury's account and it has finally registered the gas meter reading that I gave them (as per the letter about my gas) but they have also used an estimated read for my electricity because they didn't send a separate letter for that.

Now I have had an email from my previous supplier EDF saying that the electricity meter read they have had from Sainsburys (the estimated one because of their foul-up) doesn't seem right based on my usage and they are checking it out with Sainsburys and may take 6-8 weeks to resolve and close my EDF account and pay me back the credit that I think was on there. Absolutely wonderful.

Oh, and the email that they left me a voicemail about saying they were about to send 36 hours ago has still not appeared. MSE you REALLY need to get a resolution to these issues and not keep coming on here telling us it's been escalated. We need answers and resolutions, not words. Where is Martin in this? No blog or comments. Maybe something in this week's mailout to explain?