52 Days to get my £200+ credit back, FU

System

MothballsWallet wrote: »

As long as the OP doesn't expect Ofgem to care.

A fair point - but if people don’t bother telling Ofgem what does and doesn’t work, then they will never put the consumer first. Energy industry procedures are in my opinion similar to what I would expect to see in a third-World country. They are no longer fit for purpose. There is no point in Ofgem pushing for one day switching if it leaves the underpinning industry procedures unchanged.

HDRW

Hengus, Thanks for your reply, but I'm a little confused...

Hengus wrote: »

The industry third party (Data Collectors) that verifies all meter readings on a switch has been in existence for years. It doesn’t take 28 days: 5 to 10 days is the norm. Gas transfer meter reading validation involving an IGT used to take a little longer than electricity but the process was automated earlier this year (Project NEXUS).

So if it only takes up to 10 days, why did the "old" supplier say they've had the gas, but not the electrical readings, at 28 days? They also said "they" send them to both old and new suppliers, and the new supplier said they hadn't had them back either, at 28 days from switchover (and presumably not yet, at 31).

Hengus wrote: »

If your losing supplier hasn’t received industry validated meter readings within 6 weeks of the transfer, it will usually contact the gaining supplier on your behalf. That said, this forum is full of complaints about suppliers taking 6 weeks to raise a Final Bill. I will leave it to you to work out why this might be the case.

Six weeks??? How does this fit with your "5 to 10 days" above? When speaking to the old supplier I asked how much time it takes to produce the closing bill when they have the readings - he said: "It takes no time at all - I could do it for you now if I had the readings".
What annoys me is that if this was properly computerised, once the data is entered it would take a fraction of a second to do the calculations and produce a Go/No Go result. I know this because in another life I wrote a program to do meter-reading validations for a gas shipper, and that's much more complicated as you have the calculation of kWh from cubic feet or metres, and also that some "corrector meters" give two readings, one raw volume, and another corrected for pressure and temperature, so validating that they make sense in relation to each other has to be done as well. Electricity has no such issues!

System

HDRW wrote: »

Hengus, Thanks for your reply, but I'm a little confused...
So if it only takes up to 10 days, why did the "old" supplier say they've had the gas, but not the electrical readings, at 28 days? They also said "they" send them to both old and new suppliers, and the new supplier said they hadn't had them back either, at 28 days from switchover (and presumably not yet, at 31).

Six weeks??? How does this fit with your "5 to 10 days" above? When speaking to the old supplier I asked how much time it takes to produce the closing bill when they have the readings - he said: "It takes no time at all - I could do it for you now if I had the readings".
What annoys me is that if this was properly computerised, once the data is entered it would take a fraction of a second to do the calculations and produce a Go/No Go result. I know this because in another life I wrote a program to do meter-reading validations for a gas shipper, and that's much more complicated as you have the calculation of kWh from cubic feet or metres, and also that some "corrector meters" give two readings, one raw volume, and another corrected for pressure and temperature, so validating that they make sense in relation to each other has to be done as well. Electricity has no such issues!

Six weeks is the period allowed for by Ofgem. To their credit, most losing suppliers do Bill and repay final credit as soon as they receive validated meter readings. A lot of the smaller suppliers play the regulation to the day for cash flow reasons. They will no doubt argue that if they do not have to borrow as much money then this can be reflected in terms of lower prices to customers. Gas meter readings can take longer to validate as there are more parties involved; eg, independent gas transporters.