MSE News: GB Energy goes bust, 160,000 customers affected

Jackd178

If you wish to change supplier from the allotted Ofgem selected supplier, how do you obtain your energy usage details now you can't access the GB Energy site? Needed to complete the transfer forms to ensure you obtain the best deals.

Tbaron

Guys I work in the industry, have read the full OFGEM guidelines on the process and I have no idea how this is going to work (Being honest here!). There has to be a date from which the SOLR is deemed to have taken over the supply and I wouldn't be surprised if this was done in a similar fashion to an erroneous transfer is done currently with the registration of the supply to the SOLR being done "behind the scenes".

As above, if the SOLR was forced to take on all credit and debit balances it would be a nightmare to manage, this information isn't stored outside of the accounts of GB energy.

The SOLR has to be one or more of the big six companies with the infrastructure to take on 160k customers in one go and I would imagine it will take MONTHS to get the billing sorted. However, switching away right now and not following the advice from this forum and OFGEM would be incredibly stupid.

I dont work for GB energy but I imagine work will be bedlam tomorrow. I wouldn't ring your suppliers tomorrow unless you absolutely have to!

Tbaron

Jackd178 wrote: »

If you wish to change supplier from the allotted Ofgem selected supplier, how do you obtain your energy usage details now you can't access the GB Energy site? Needed to complete the transfer forms to ensure you obtain the best deals.

If you have had any email statements from them you should be able to get the "personal projection" for gas and electricity from them. Failing that if you have meter readings recorded a set period apart do the following:

For electricity: take the days between the two sets of meter readings. Subtract the oldest reading from the latest reading, divide by number of days between the readings and multiply by 365 to give kWh per year

For gas, google a Volume to kWh converter. Work out whether your meter is metric or imperial (metric is 5 black numbers, imperial 4) and do the same thing as electric, running the readings through the Volume to kWh converter.

With this method, the more days between the readings the better as energy consumption varies between seasons. I would advise at least 6 months of consumption to be in any way accurate.

facade

Tbaron wrote: »

As above, if the SOLR was forced to take on all credit and debit balances it would be a nightmare to manage, this information isn't stored outside of the accounts of GB energy.

Forgive the naivety, but don't GBEnergy just put their account data on a DVD and hand it to Ofgem, who pass it on? There are only 160,000 accounts, it would probably fit on an excel spreadsheet. You would have thought they had to use some industry standard software that is capable of exporting data.

But judging by my life experiences, it will take months as you say :mad:

They will need to freeze the accounts as DDs will still be coming in for a couple of days.

veryintrigued

facade wrote: »

Forgive the naivety, but don't GBEnergy just put their account data on a DVD and hand it to Ofgem.

On a DVD? What are Ofgem going to do watch family videos of the GB Energy (ex) customers?

fredandwilma

Tbaron wrote: »

The SOLR has to be one or more of the big six companies with the infrastructure to take on 160k customers in one go and I would imagine it will take MONTHS to get the billing sorted. However, switching away right now and not following the advice from this forum and OFGEM would be incredibly stupid.

I dont work for GB energy but I imagine work will be bedlam tomorrow. I wouldn't ring your suppliers tomorrow unless you absolutely have to!

Imagine the knock on effect to customer service, this is going to have on the one or more of the big 6 companies chosen, (as it inevitably will be?) A massive rise in complaints as they deal with the aftermath? I feel for everyone involved.

westv

If the swap might take months, why should I not transfrer to another supplier now and know what I'll be charged for energy rather than waiting and maybe not knowing for some time?

fredandwilma

westv wrote: »

If the swap might take months, why should I not transfrer to another supplier now and know what I'll be charged for energy rather than waiting and maybe not knowing for some time?

Because you no longer have an energy company to complete your transfer, from. There are two companies involved with the switching process.

slpj

I signed with GB back in August.

I told them at the outset that I didn't want an online account, I wanted paper billing only, and told them to delete my email address, which they said they did.

Since then I have had NOTHING at all from them either by post, or Email.

I''ve been paying £45/month dd. 4 payments in total. DD cancelled now.

I've NOT had a meter reading request since the initial on sign up.

Also, I never received ANY notification of the increases either.

Seeng this on the news last night, I took meter readings. I'll do a calc to see if I'm in credit or not, -- according to the rates I was quoted on sign up.

So where does that leave me?

facade

veryintrigued wrote: »

On a DVD? What are Ofgem going to do watch family videos of the GB Energy (ex) customers?

Before you could buy a 128GB usb stick for £20 we used to get 4.7GB of data on a DVD, more than enough for all 160,000 accounts if they just sent the pdf bills in a zip file