Botched energy transfer - what to do next?

bubbalicious

Hi everyone,

First time I've used the boards - I have a quandary that someone might be able to help with.

Brace yourselves for a long and boring story...
We live in one half of a (rented) barn conversion. Last October, our neighbours mentioned that they were moving their dual fuel from British Gas to First Utility, having used the USwitch site to find a better deal. I thought this was a good idea, and EON seemed like the best option for us, so I transferred to them in mid-November, in theory saving around £250/year. So far, so good.

Fast forward to late March this year, when EON are asking me for a gas meter reading. No problem, I say, and provide that. But what about the electricity? They say they don't have the electricity, and that it seems to be registered with First Utility.

So the fun begins. I call First Utility, who, after much wrangling, say it came to them erroneously, they'll transfer it back to British Gas, and there'll be no charge to us. The reason it went to them is, it turns out, because our meter serial number is registered to our neighbours' address (we're No 1, they're No 2), and their electricity meter serial number is registered to a house down the lane.

British Gas now have the electricity back, and say that I owe them for all the electricity used in the interim (November to what is now early May) - around £260. I challenged this because arguably it shouldn't have been with them anyway, and I'm not sure how they can charge me for a supply that someone else had ownership of for five months. They put a hold on the account whilst investigations take place. I've put a formal complaint in place.

I've spoken to Citizens' Advice about all of this, and they told me to contact the Meter Point Administration Service - on investigating here, it turns out my house has never had a meter registered to this address.

I've gone back to British Gas with this information, and they've finally come back to me yesterday, said 'right, we've changed the addresses round, all sorted, you owe us the £260 from earlier plus all the electricity between that point and now'. By way of 'goodwill' gesture they proposed offering £30, then pushed it to £50. Citizens' Advice say that there are no rules around goodwill gestures and that pushing them further might mean the gesture is withdrawn entirely.

Meanwhile I've put in a complaint about USwitch, who should have come straight back to me when the energy transfer didn't go through normally. They initially deny all knowledge/responsibility, and are now 'investigating'.

I've spent ages on the phone and writing letters about this over the last six weeks - apart from coming to the conclusion that British Gas are a load of unrepeatables (as are USwitch, for that matter), I feel I've lost any benefit that I might have gained when I started this whole sorry charade.

So - long story short - reckon it's worth me pushing harder for more of a 'goodwill gesture'?

(and as an addition, our neighbours are one week getting very apologetic letters from British Gas, the next week getting massive bills, the next week an apology, the next week a threat of court action - and their transfer went through seemingly without a hitch!)

Nada666

Uhm, and your question is?

You don't think you should have to pay anything? To whom were you making payments for electricity? I assume to no-one but you assumed your gas payments were dual? Have you asked for the payments back to give to British Gas? Is the difference in price much more than £30 or £50 in the first place? You still have the credit of the payments in your gas account so it is not lost. Did the communications you received about changeover dates include both fuels or just one?

I am not sure why you want more than £50 in compensation. It is up to you to check a couple of weeks after each expected changeover date that the switch has gone through and the starting reads match the end reads.

bubbalicious

It's not about the starting reads and end reads - we had communication from EON saying 'welcome, we've sorted your direct debit, we have your details' which to me is a reasonable assumption that it's all fine...

The electricity payment wasn't taken by EON - this glitch apparently transpired after the direct debits were set up, readings were given, it seemed that everything had gone through, etc - so that's still in my own bank. We haven't paid anything to anyone yet - and I agree that we've used the electricity, so paying for it isn't the issue. The issue is the complete runaround we've been given and the fact that I've had to sort it all out, with everyone saying of their role that 'it's not my fault' then conceding that it is.

No worries if people think 'what's the issue, it's all sorted out' - I just thought it worth running by some other consumers.