British Gas again

brovahelpa

Does anyone know how long a complainant should have to wait before BG "looks" at the complaint ?
After some delay my brova finally got his smart meters commissioned and he then went on his account to claim the Saturday Freetime, since when he can not get his online account up. It just says "oops there's a problem."
The advisers at BG have told him it will be 5 days before they even look at his complaint, and can't tell him why this has happened.
Any advise please.

System

Ask for a copy of BG's complaints handling procedure. It can take some time for the meter database to be updated but BG has been known (from reports on this forum) to make a credit to any accounts affected by an undue delay.

footyguy

brovahelpa wrote: »

Does anyone know how long a complainant should have to wait before BG "looks" at the complaint ?
After some delay my brova finally got his smart meters commissioned and he then went on his account to claim the Saturday Freetime, since when he can not get his online account up. It just says "oops there's a problem."
The advisers at BG have told him it will be 5 days before they even look at his complaint, and can't tell him why this has happened.
Any advise please.

The BG complaint process is available here:
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/help-and-advice/contactus-personal-details/complaints/gas-electricity.html?

Whilst there are various time-frames specified, the bottom line is that they (like any energy supplier) have up to 8 weeks to resolve a customer complaint before the customer can then ask the ombudsman to assist.

SammenForLivet2

When did the Smart Meters become commissioned/installed? There is industry required paperwork involved (or dataflows if we're being technical) and industry databases to be updated, which don't work in real time regardless of the supplier.

BG are normally very good at this side, and I believe on average for a meter exchange it takes normally less than 21 days for everything to be updated, because from what I know, they've invested heavily in automation (compared to small suppliers where MEX's can be fun ), so are normally very quick at getting everything updated.

Scatty

Mine were finally commissioned on 6 December (installed 31 August) and my Sunday freetime started 11 December. The in house display "froze" at 84p at 9am and then started up again, still at 84p, at 5pm. Is he sure the freetime hasn't automatically started?

System

Scatty wrote: »

Mine were finally commissioned on 6 December (installed 31 August) and my Sunday freetime started 11 December. The in house display "froze" at 84p at 9am and then started up again, still at 84p, at 5pm. Is he sure the freetime hasn't automatically started?

I would urge you to do a full comparison to see how llittle 8 hours of free electricity is saving you in a 168 hour week on BG's high cost standard tariff compared to 168 hours on a much cheaper fixed tariff.

Scatty

Hengus wrote: »

I would urge you to do a full comparison to see how llittle 8 hours of free electricity is saving you in a 168 hour week on BG's high cost standard tariff compared to 168 hours on a much cheaper fixed tariff.

Will do now that everything has been sorted, although as I'm a 99% electric house, I'm finding it useful at the moment as it's the only day I'm home to do all of my washing, tumbling, ironing, hoovering etc. I am keeping an eye on their tariffs, however. Thank you.