Switched to British Gas recently as cheapest on CEC

Amgard

i switched to BG recently as it was showing as the cheapest fixed tariff of the big 6.
The changeover ‘seems’ to be progressing, but I emphasise ‘seems’ because neither their website nor their app has worked at all in the time since I switched and still doesn’t now.

They email me regularly with things like supply a meter reading, seems reasonable, but I cannot supply them online, and the telephone system they employ is similarly useless.
I ended up by supplying the readings by going through their telephone system and selecting ‘complaints’!

Btw they realised I had the early type of smart meters, which they cannot read, but they were actually installed by BG themselves :-)

I’ve now had an email request to join ‘Rewards’ their loyalty programme, but still their website is down.

i can log in successfully and see my profile, so part of it is working, but the app simply crashes, and the website just gives a different error message every time.

This is now 3 weeks solid with no access to their online services. I’m beginning to think I made a BiG mistake!!!

boo_star

Amgard wrote: »

i switched to BG recently as it was showing as the cheapest fixed tariff of the big 6.
The changeover ‘seems’ to be progressing, but I emphasise ‘seems’ because neither their website nor their app has worked at all in the time since I switched and still doesn’t now.

They email me regularly with things like supply a meter reading, seems reasonable, but I cannot supply them online, and the telephone system they employ is similarly useless.
I ended up by supplying the readings by going through their telephone system and selecting ‘complaints’!

Btw they realised I had the early type of smart meters, which they cannot read, but they were actually installed by BG themselves :-)

I’ve now had an email request to join ‘Rewards’ their loyalty programme, but still their website is down.

I can log in successfully and see my profile, so part of it is working, but the app simply crashes, and the website just gives a different error message every time.

This is now 3 weeks solid with no access to their online services. I’m beginning to think I made a BiG mistake!!!

If it's cheap, or at least cheap enough, I'd say wait it out.

I was with British Gas at a previous property as a "deemed supplier" and that made things more difficult for some reason. Either way they're now my supplier at my current address and I'm happy with the service.

They were not the fastest to switch me over, admittedly, but that's not the worst thing in the world.

BooJewels

Amgard wrote: »

i can log in successfully and see my profile, so part of it is working, but the app simply crashes, and the website just gives a different error message every time.

This is now 3 weeks solid with no access to their online services. I’m beginning to think I made a BiG mistake!!!

I had reason to ring BG this week and I told them at the time that theirs is the worst web site I have the misfortune to need to use.

It's totally unpredictable - one day, for example, you'll click a particular link to get to your Direct Debit settings and you'll return a day or two later to revisit the same thing and the same combo of links will send you round in circles and back to the page you started from (or tell you the service is unavailable and to try later). Or the page you started from won't even have the same links showing. It's like the entire site is generated at random and you've no idea what you'll get each time you visit.

It was this unpredictability that led me to ring them in the first place, as I couldn't undertake the action they'd sent me an email asking me to do - the initial link in the email sent me to entirely the wrong place in the first instance and it went further wrong from there. I've tried different computers and a tablet and experience the same issues with all of them.

The woman I spoke to said it wasn't possible that I was seeing what I was when logged in, so I repeated the process, told her what I was seeing after each click, so she tried it herself (they can seemingly see the site as the customer, if you're logged in) and admitted that she was seeing the same as me, but it really shouldn't be possible.

So you might be experiencing the same web site gremlins that I do. And don't even get me started on the glitch over my predicted usage numbers and them regularly telling me that I'm overpaying and reducing my DD to a preposterously low level. I just built up a nice credit over summer for my winter usage and they refunded every penny back to me (I've put it in a savings account and will make an extra manual payment when I get a debit).

Welcome to the world of a British Gas customer!

boo_star

BooJewels wrote: »

I had reason to ring BG this week and I told them at the time that theirs is the worst web site I have the misfortune to need to use.

It's totally unpredictable - one day, for example, you'll click a particular link to get to your Direct Debit settings and you'll return a day or two later to revisit the same thing and the same combo of links will send you round in circles and back to the page you started from (or tell you the service is unavailable and to try later). Or the page you started from won't even have the same links showing. It's like the entire site is generated at random and you've no idea what you'll get each time you visit.

It was this unpredictability that led me to ring them in the first place, as I couldn't undertake the action they'd sent me an email asking me to do - the initial link in the email sent me to entirely the wrong place in the first instance and it went further wrong from there. I've tried different computers and a tablet and experience the same issues with all of them.

The woman I spoke to said it wasn't possible that I was seeing what I was when logged in, so I repeated the process, told her what I was seeing after each click, so she tried it herself (they can seemingly see the site as the customer, if you're logged in) and admitted that she was seeing the same as me, but it really shouldn't be possible.

So you might be experiencing the same web site gremlins that I do. And don't even get me started on the glitch over my predicted usage numbers and them regularly telling me that I'm overpaying and reducing my DD to a preposterously low level. I just built up a nice credit over summer for my winter usage and they refunded every penny back to me (I've put it in a savings account and will make an extra manual payment when I get a debit).

Welcome to the world of a British Gas customer!

Can't say I've ever had a problem with links not taking me where they're supposed to.

The back button on the other hand, takes me all the way back the the "My Account" homepage, which is an endless source of frustration...

BooJewels

boo_star wrote: »

The back button on the other hand, takes me all the way back the the "My Account" homepage, which is an endless source of frustration...

Can you right click the back button and then choose the page you want from the drop down list? I've found that helps with some sites that don't want you going backwards.

RelievedSheff

When we switched to BG earlier this year we could not access our online account until the switch had fully gone through which did take a while.

I suspect this is what is happening in your case as well.

Once the switch went through we could access the online account but as others have said it can be a bit hit and miss.

We joined the rewards scheme. So far we have claimed 12 free days of electricity. Wont amount to a great deal in monetary terms but every little helps I suppose.

boo_star

BooJewels wrote: »

Can you right click the back button and then choose the page you want from the drop down list? I've found that helps with some sites that don't want you going backwards.

No, that doesn't work.

It's just bad web design, sacrificing usability for a shiny interface.

Gerry1

If you ask the BG website for an E7 quotation you are likely to be overcharged significantly if your night usage is not high.

Unlike their honest competitors, BG don't ask for your day and night readings, only the total. They then make an entirely arbitrary assumption about the percentage used at night, so their so-called quotation cannot be accurate.

Ofgem has known about this scam for over three years but just keeps dozing... :mad:

Amgard

To supply meter readings from the previous supplier I had no option to call BG’s customer service number and select ‘complaints’ from the options. It was the only way to speak to a human.
She did say they had had problems with their website and had no idea of an e.t.a. for a fix.

Btw. Its still u/s !

RelievedSheff

We have had problems logging onto our account for a couple of days now.

Amgard

I’ve been unable to log in since 28th Sept, when I signed up.