Southern Electric rep. question please

flossie217

A question for the SE rep please if you are about.
I called 2 weeks ago to change from another supplier to SE as my tariff ends this month. The cs lady took my name and number to call me back 1st of May to take my payment details and confirm the start of the transfer process. As I hadn't had the expected call I phoned again today to become a new customer. I am slightly niggled as I was told that because changes to the system are in progress you now cannot handle my request until the 21st at the earliest.
If I enter my details on the Southern Electric website will my request to transfer actually begin now or will it sit in no mans land for 2 weeks and possibly get lost?

Wywth

flossie217 wrote: »

A question for the SE rep please if you are about.
I called 2 weeks ago to change from another supplier to SE as my tariff ends this month. The cs lady took my name and number to call me back 1st of May to take my payment details and confirm the start of the transfer process. As I hadn't had the expected call I phoned again today to become a new customer. I am slightly niggled as I was told that because changes to the system are in progress you now cannot handle my request until the 21st at the earliest.
If I enter my details on the Southern Electric website will my request to transfer actually begin now or will it sit in no mans land for 2 weeks and possibly get lost?

This all seems very strange.

I don't understand why they said they would call you back in 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks (the cooling off period), SE should send you a post card confirming the switch is now in progress. It will take another 1-2 weeks for the switch to actually happen - you will be advised of the date and they will request a meter reading on that date. (they call this their 'welcome pack' which will be sent to you)

You don't start paying SE until after the switch goes live. If paying by DD, they will need to give at least 2 weeks notice of the amout to be collected and when.

Southern_Electric_company_representative

Hello, thank you for your question.

Due to the misselling fine we incurred our validation process has been tightened to ensure that every new customer we sign up has 100% agreed. This does mean that there are less staff dealing with new sales to ensure that all sales calls are listened to by a manager for validation purposes.

Due to this, it does mean that any calls coming into the call centre that would normally be processed straight away are being added to a database for call backs and the average contact time for sign up is unfortunately 2 weeks at the moment.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and I am happy to discuss this further should you wish to do so offline. You can contact me directly using the email address on our profile. I hope this information helps.

Many thanks, Holly.

flossie217

Thanks for your replies. It's all sorted now. The original cs rep I spoke to has now called me back and my transfer has started.
SE - I am sure that you know that a 2 week wait will lose you customers and this needs to be fixed as soon as. The £100 account credit was the winning deal for me otherwise I would have changed my mind and not waited for you.
Apart from this hiccup I hope that the transfer process will be plain sailing from here on.

Southern_Electric_company_representative

Hello @flossie217,

Thank you for coming back to us with that good news, I'm very pleased to hear that it's all sorted now. Thanks also for the feedback, we're improving and speeding up the validation purposes every day now.

I'm sure the transfer process will run smoothly for you from here, although please do let us know if you need any further help at all.

Many thanks again, Simon.