Messy collective switch to British Gas?

martyp

Just curious to know how everyone else is getting on that did the British Gas collective Switch from the Energy Savings Club?
I went from Scottish Power and my electricity went over a few weeks ago but my gas has had problems due to a 'technical glitch' that happened the evening I signed up.
The actual switch dates seem to keep changing and getting delayed and I have just been asked for my gas opening read about 2 weeks or so since the electric one yet they said it would be backdated? I gave the opening gas read a few weeks ago and my account shows two new Gas accounts at the moment with different sales order numbers. The app seems to crash a lot as well and a lot of options on there seem unavailable. Scottish Power show both my electric and gas as closed.
Now I've been told that the gas will be transferred by the 1st April.
I've never changed supplier before, been with Scottish Power since buying the house in 2005. Is it normal for it to seem this complicated?
I have had better customer service from them than Scottish Power though so far but still wondering what's actually happening and if it'll all go through smoothly in the end or if it'll involve a lot of messing around to settle things and be billed correctly.

martyp

Sorry I missed the thread with the other issues, please can someone move this onto there:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5415092

British_Gas_Rep_Matt

martyp wrote: »

Just curious to know how everyone else is getting on that did the British Gas collective Switch from the Energy Savings Club?
I went from Scottish Power and my electricity went over a few weeks ago but my gas has had problems due to a 'technical glitch' that happened the evening I signed up.
The actual switch dates seem to keep changing and getting delayed and I have just been asked for my gas opening read about 2 weeks or so since the electric one yet they said it would be backdated? I gave the opening gas read a few weeks ago and my account shows two new Gas accounts at the moment with different sales order numbers. The app seems to crash a lot as well and a lot of options on there seem unavailable. Scottish Power show both my electric and gas as closed.
Now I've been told that the gas will be transferred by the 1st April.
I've never changed supplier before, been with Scottish Power since buying the house in 2005. Is it normal for it to seem this complicated?
I have had better customer service from them than Scottish Power though so far but still wondering what's actually happening and if it'll all go through smoothly in the end or if it'll involve a lot of messing around to settle things and be billed correctly.

Hi martyp, sorry I'd not seen your post earlier and I trust everything's since been resolved.

Just so you know, once you switch to us it usually takes a couple of weeks to get your account fully up & running after which time you'll find all the online services will be available.
If you've any questions, please give our Collective Tariff Team a call on 0800 975 9712 and they'll be happy to lend a hand. Alternatively you can pop your details on an email to talktous@britishgas.co.uk, including your MSE Username in the subject heading. Cheers, Matt

Oldsoldier

Messy? Tell me about it!!!

Switch (from OVO) initiated 4 Feb for both Gas and Electricity and since then have had 10 emails from British Gas giving different start dates including one canceling the Gas switch which meant I had to initiate a re-start of the process - they simply emailed me telling me it was cancelled! I wasn't the only one as a subsequent general email from the MSE Energy Club confirmed.

Gas meter reading requested 16 Mar which was given - Electricity meter reading has never been requested.

I registered my on-line account weeks ago, but as at today's date neither switch was shown as complete so I tried to phone and check - very long waiting times so I gave up and phoned OVO to ask if I'd left them.............:) !! Very helpful young lady checked the national database accessed by all utility companies and she told me my Electricity Supply transferred on 18 Mar (without a meter reading) and Gas was transferring today - I wonder if anyone at British Gas knows? Anyway, to be helpful I logged in again and gave both up-to-date readings for today - perhaps someone will pick them up!

Oh and I apparently have 2 Gas Accounts and 2 Electricity Accounts, all with different numbers - be interesting to see how they sort that one out over the coming weeks.

martyp

British_Gas_Rep_Matt wrote: »

Hi martyp, sorry I'd not seen your post earlier and I trust everything's since been resolved.

Just so you know, once you switch to us it usually takes a couple of weeks to get your account fully up & running after which time you'll find all the online services will be available.
If you've any questions, please give our Collective Tariff Team a call on 0800 975 9712 and they'll be happy to lend a hand. Alternatively you can pop your details on an email to [EMAIL="talktous@britishgas.co.uk"]talktous@britishgas.co.uk[/EMAIL], including your MSE Username in the subject heading. Cheers, Matt

Thanks Matt, it does seem to all be falling into place more now, the account details are more up to date etc. I was a bit confused about the transfer dates as they said they would be backdated but it seems as though the electric went over a few weeks before the gas still according to the dates I was given (electric on 24th Feb and gas on 15th March or around those times). I have had positive customer service so far, a lot more responsive than Scottish Power.

martyp

Oldsoldier wrote: »

Messy? Tell me about it!!!

Oh and I apparently have 2 Gas Accounts and 2 Electricity Accounts, all with different numbers - be interesting to see how they sort that one out over the coming weeks.

It does sound a lot like my transfer although my electric went through fairly quick and I had about 4 services showing under my account in places, two new gas sales orders, a gas account and a combined account. It was all quite confusing to try and work out what was happening. Even more confusing when Scottish Power called me to try and get me back and then British Gas told me the gas had been cancelled and I started to believe that Scottish Power had somehow interfered with the switch based on my phone conversation.

Hope yours gets sorted out soon.

rockin_plumber

This has been above and beyond my worst switching experience EVER. I normally change every 12-18 months depending on when my deal ends so I am quite a regular switcher.


I entered my opening readings and two weeks later I logged in to check progress and it appears my electric reading was lost; this was entered on the same form as the gas reading!

British gas didn’t seem to think it would be necessary to chase this up, so delaying the closing of my First Utility account.


Now I am faced with maybe having two direct debits coming out of my bank account tomorrow as I haven’t cancelled my First Utility direct debit as they tell me that is how they refund any credit.


Also I have been a British Gas customer for nearly a month now and still no proper online access to my account.


It is quite a mess really!

martyp

It seems to be close to getting sorted for me now I think, I did give readings several times as well so did wonder what was happening but Scottish Power have agreed the closing readings ok. I also asked for my direct debit to be on the 23rd as with my last supplier but also now have one tomorrow as well so paying twice in one month.

bob_j

Mine was messy too - good job I made the move for the price and not the customer services!
The gas went through fine, but the electricity has been diabolical. Firstly, they said they couldn't identify my electricity meter access point. I had to ring (the usual 15 min delay while they picked up but at least it was an 0800 number) and provide my meter serial number, they then gave me this EMAP. I suggested it might be a good idea to hand over my meter readings - which were taken - and I confirmed they now had all the info they need.
The service from the woman who answered the phone was shoddy to say the least, and I thought a new customer would have been given a warmer welcome. So I emailed British Gas and told them so... this unfortunately was treated as a complaint! So, about two weeks later I received an email from a woman saying she was dealing with my complaint, and a separate letter from BG saying they could not take over my electricity supply because they didn't have my EMAP. I sent an email asking what was going on. I received an email from the complaints department woman which just about amounted to an apology, but definitely included a guarantee of brilliant service from now on. She spelt my name wrong in the very next sentence! She asked for my EMAP, which I provided.... remember I was giving them the number they'd previously given me. About two weeks later I received another email from the complaints department... from the woman who couldn't get my name right. She explained that they simply couldn't transfer the supply because they didn't have the EMAP, and she suggested I should ring customer services to try to sort out the problem. This I did, providing the EMAP number that had been originally provided by British Gas to me in a call that was now a month ago. Once again I checked that they now had everything they required, and this time the number was put into their systems and I have had confirmation that my electricity supply has been transferred. I've also received another email from the complaints department woman which appears to celebrate the fact that the situation has now been resolved thanks to the lady - the one who couldn't get my name right - suggesting I call customer services.
They was no apology for the problems, there was no effort to compensate me for my time or the fact that I've missed out on cheaper electricity for a few weeks.
And all this from a company I'm actually trying to join!
I would like to point out that the company I was with - NPower - has handled its side of the transfer with unblemished efficiency.

Former_MSE_Roxanne

rockin_plumber wrote: »

This has been above and beyond my worst switching experience EVER. I normally change every 12-18 months depending on when my deal ends so I am quite a regular switcher.


I entered my opening readings and two weeks later I logged in to check progress and it appears my electric reading was lost; this was entered on the same form as the gas reading!

British gas didn’t seem to think it would be necessary to chase this up, so delaying the closing of my First Utility account.


Now I am faced with maybe having two direct debits coming out of my bank account tomorrow as I haven’t cancelled my First Utility direct debit as they tell me that is how they refund any credit.


Also I have been a British Gas customer for nearly a month now and still no proper online access to my account.


It is quite a mess really!

Hi rockin_plumber,

I'm sorry that you've had issues with this. If this hasn't been resolved for you, I'd suggest contacting the specialist collective team at British Gas about this. This is a team that has been specially trained to handle queries relating to the collective tariff and has additional access compared to its normal customer service teams.

You can contact the team by calling 0800 975 9712.​​ They should be able to help you resolve the issue.

Former_MSE_Roxanne

martyp wrote: »

It seems to be close to getting sorted for me now I think, I did give readings several times as well so did wonder what was happening but Scottish Power have agreed the closing readings ok. I also asked for my direct debit to be on the 23rd as with my last supplier but also now have one tomorrow as well so paying twice in one month.

Hi martyp,

You should never pay for the same energy twice. If you’re in credit with your supplier you should automatically receive a refund for the full amount once your final bill has been calculated.

For more information on this you can refer to our guide:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/reclaim-energy-bill-refunds