Collective Switch

Former_MSE_Roxanne

kittykitten wrote: »

Have just spoken to BG collective team, who tell me my gas and electricity did switch on 3rd March, and I need to supply meter readings within 5 days of that date! Have submitted meter readings online as suggested above, but should I be slightly concerned I haven't had anything from EDF (previous supplier)? At what point do I cancel DD with EDF?

Sorry if I'm being dim, but I've never done this before so don't know how it's supposed to work.

Hi kittykitten,

Once you've provided your meter readings and are paying your new supplier direct debits, your new supplier should hand these meter readings over to your old supplier so that it can calculate your final bill.

Your old supplier should then give you this final bill and after paying this, your direct debits should stop. After this point, if you're concerned they haven't stopped, then you may wish to contact your bank to ensure that they've been cancelled.

Ellie2758

Nathan94 wrote: »

May I enquire as to who told you this?
What makes you believe them?

The person who gave me the "dedicated" number told me.

There was no queue, there was the automatic answering machine but not long to wait. However, when I rang a week later the phone was answered by somebody who knew nothing about the IT issue.

I have posted an update under another thread on this forum regarding the farcical state of the MSE Collective Switch to British gas. Needless to say, I will not be participating in this next year. I'll probably go back to Eon where everything went smoothly. But let's face it, if it's this difficult to JOIN British Gas, how well will leaving them go? :mad:

Ellie2758

itsj2 wrote: »

Come on MSE you should be treating this fiasco as a major news story now given the problems that so many of your members are encountering. The BG special switch line openly admits that the info shown on online accounts is incorrect and their latest advice to me is just to "sit tight". Not good enough and to make things really embarrassing the two other families I encouraged to make the collective switch are experiencing exactly the same problems - several changing switch dates, inability to submit readings, readings rejected and total confusion as to whether we have been switched or not! The gas side of things is especially problematic. Just what do we do?

I've had endless emails and texts telling me that I either haven't given my meter readings or that their system could not accept them. When I raised this with British Gas Facebook Instant messaging service I received this response:

"I've always considered the text messages to be reminders more than anything else. I assure you all is well on our side, other than a few overly keen text messages" smile emoticon Cheers, Dan

Patronising or what?!

MSE_Dan_L

BeeRay wrote: »

I know I am not alone (thankfully) but I have heard nothing at all[, despite my phoning them and being told "you will hear soon", which was 10 days ago. They were quick enough to get us to sign up but why the lack of communication? Appalling customer service - and I agree, we ain't even started with them yet. Can MSE bring some pressure to bear?

Hi Beeray

I'm sorry to hear that British Gas haven't been in touch. We've been chasing it up on this (again!) this week and British Gas have confirmed that the glitch was fixed, but it was unable to send out the update by email. An explanation should be winging its way to you through the post shortly.

From what I understand these switches will complete on 16-18 March.

If you call the specialist British Gas collective team on it should be able to help you further.
0800 975 9712

irie

I was supposed to switch Gas and Electricity from Scottish Power over to British Gas on 29th February. When asked I entered my final readings and got confirmation for one energy source but for some strange reason not the other. So I tried again and then again. Still no luck. In the end I called British Gas to give them my readings over the telephone and after a couple of attempts in getting through I finally spoke to someone who put me on hold whilst they went away to check what had happened. It turned out that they had had a big problem with their systems being able to handle the new flow of clients and their IT department had to sort out the problem which was going to take about 10 days. It appears that one of my energy supplies may now be with BG whilst the other will not move over until the middle of March. They mentioned that I was not the only customer who had had a problem with their new account!

So MSE this really is not a very good start for a collective move. I am now on Standard tariff with Scottish Power and still not moved over to the BG MSE tariff. So if anyone else has been getting several strange emails from BG asking for their readings when they have already sent them, or at least thought they had, now you know why. I have to say MSE I am really not impressed so far!!:money::mad:

MSE_Dan_L

M271 wrote: »

However I have still got the 'sorry there has been a problem', spinning circle as described above and no email thanking for meter readings yet.

Hmm, this doesn't sound good. We've asked British Gas to confirm some workarounds, but in the meantime you may wish to call its collective team on 0800 975 9712 who'll be able to key this in for you.

M271

MSE_Dan_L wrote: »

Hmm, this doesn't sound good. We've asked British Gas to confirm some workarounds, but in the meantime you may wish to call its collective team on 0800 975 9712 who'll be able to key this in for you.

I did get a thank you for inputting your meter reading after clicking the submit readings button on the website.

M271

MSE_Dan_L wrote: »

Hmm, this doesn't sound good. We've asked British Gas to confirm some workarounds, but in the meantime you may wish to call its collective team on 0800 975 9712 who'll be able to key this in for you.

I have phoned the number which you suggested and gave the meter readings over the phone, they did say that online meter readings can take a few days to update in the system. They checked my account and everything else seems to have set up OK.

Chrishazle

Well, the fun continues. A week ago a member of the switch teak said she'd call back in 2 days, she finally called at lunchtime today (apologising profusely) to say my account was now set up, gave me the account number and said the switch had been backdated to 22nd February when I gave the meter readings they asked for, and that first money will be taken 5th April at the correct amount. I'm thinking - result!

Log onto my Sainsburys account, it's showing the readings I gave on 22nd Feb - they took money on 7th March, between the 2 accounts (gas and elec) there's about £29 to come back. That looks OK.

Then try to log onto my BG account using Firefox - login page does not work. Mess around, call the online help team, I can get logged in (very slowly) using IE but not Firefox, so now something in my PC is not right. All looks correct on my BG account until I check the Nectar reg - which has the correct card, account name and BG account but shows Closed, please call CS team, which I do. He can't figure it out so wil investigate and call back on Tuesday. All told about 1 hour on the phone for little progress!

The saga continues - but at least I've escaped a week or 2 on Sainsbury's standard tariff!!

Cardew

Chrishazle wrote: »

The saga continues - but at least I've escaped a week or 2 on Sainsbury's standard tariff!!

You are quite sure about that statement!