British Gas - another frustrated rant

JCR

In my opinion they are totally valid, I will simplify for you - BG run a company, customers try and get hold of said company in order that they can clarify both their position and your own with respect to the account (I put my hands up to the fact that I misunderstood the procedure). In order to try and understand the procedure you ring (but you haven't got the time to hang on the line for 40mins plus), so you write, you receive correspondence back which shows that they have received your letters etc. as they now have your name, but what was said in the correspondence has not been acknowledged. I admit that my current supplier is also at fault therefore I think this proves that I do not have a lack of objectivity on this matter - it is hardgoing dealing with any of them. This is the last I am going to write on the matter - thanks for the help/answers from some of you.

gotnobread

JCR, while I think BG are blameless in this particular case, I do think you've touched on a wider point...

Namely, whilst I like the idea of cheaper prices for my commodities and utilities, I don't actually care where they come from... in other words, I don't care about choice.

Giving customers choice in utilities has led to complexity... whereas in the past one company found and extracted the gas, processed it, transported it to your property using their own transmission system, metered it, billed it and (cough) "served" the customers, now you've got a situation where all that is unbundled and customers have to navigate their own way through the mess, relying on competing organisations to be customer (not shareholder) centric and give them advice... you don't have to think about this for long to realise this is never going to happen...

Nice to see New Labour applying the idea of choice to hospital treatment as well... do you want to choose which hospital you attend for your appointment (courtesy of the National Programme for IT which is costing billions and is years behind schedule), or would you have preffered the government to invest all that cash in making sure your local hospital had the resources it needed and was up to scratch?

Choice seems to be the mantra everywhere... I'd rather have value, any day.

Cheers,
Gotnobread

saxmund

I think some posters are being a bit hard on the OP. I had the same issue when I moved into my current house. The previous occupiers used BG and Southern Electric but I wanted to use PowerGen who I had used in my previous place. I had no contract or, indeed, any relationship with BG and SE so I can't think why they would assume they should continue to supply me. A final meter reading had been provided by the previous occupiers. I think that when you move house, the regulations should allow you to change suppliers immediately. The OP did try to buck the system - but IMO that system is unjust and unfair.

Cardew

saxmund wrote: »

I think some posters are being a bit hard on the OP. I had the same issue when I moved into my current house. The previous occupiers used BG and Southern Electric but I wanted to use PowerGen who I had used in my previous place. I had no contract or, indeed, any relationship with BG and SE so I can't think why they would assume they should continue to supply me. A final meter reading had been provided by the previous occupiers. I think that when you move house, the regulations should allow you to change suppliers immediately. The OP did try to buck the system - but IMO that system is unjust and unfair.

Surely the only solution, if the current system was not in place, would be for the gas and electricity to be immediately cut off when the old occupier left, and not turned on again until the new supplier could arrange for them to be reconnected - and they might want to run credit checks etc before accepting the customer on a contract.

This is what often happens with the BT telephone service, but of course reconnection is simply a matter of a switch in the exchange.

Even accepting your point that the system is unfair, the point people were making in this thread is that the OP was unjustly slating BG for a situation over which they have no control.

BG, as the existing supplier, are required to supply the new occupier when they move in. They, as you rightly point out, do that without a contract. The new supplier - not BG - is responsible for the change of gas and untility.

tripled

gotnobread wrote: »

Tripled, I'm pretty sure this is not a legal requirement, I believe it's more of a regulatory requirement.

True, I didn't word that properly - I doubt the CSA who failed to give the OP the required information will be going to prison!

Daisies

saxmund wrote: »

I had no contract or, indeed, any relationship with BG and SE so I can't think why they would assume they should continue to supply me. A final meter reading had been provided by the previous occupiers. I think that when you move house, the regulations should allow you to change suppliers immediately. The OP did try to buck the system - but IMO that system is unjust and unfair.

But, unless the supply is disconnected as someone has already suggested, this would be totally illogical. What if the person moving in did nothing about contacting a utility company - who would supply their gas/electricity but the previous supplier?

I've moved house umpteen times in the last decade and have always received a "to the occupier" letter from the existing supplier(s) within a few days of moving in. The information about the 4-6 week transfer period is widely available on websites - USwitch, this one, the energy companies websites etc and I've also read seen information about it in the weekend newspapers.

gotnobread

Daisies wrote: »

But, unless the supply is disconnected as someone has already suggested, this would be totally illogical.

Agreed... and who would be paying the supplier's costs in sending out the Meter Operator to disconnect and then re-connect the supply? This job involves an actual trained person with a van going out twice (at least twice, assuming the customers are in both times, which they quite often are not). Maybe the person moving out would be happy to pay that cost? Or maybe we should pass it on to the person moving in? And would you be ok to hang around on the day you were trying to move homes to have your gas disconnected at the old place while your helper hung around at your new place? The processes to support that would be a nightmare at best.

Goes back to the same issue - the company is not supplying you, so much as supplying your gas meterpoint... In effect you are using their meterpoint.