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maxmiler

I've joined the MSE collective for British Gas.

I received emails (3 in all) telling me that my gas supply will be switched on 25 Feb, then 29 Feb, then 01 Mar. Ok, so they are busy with so many new people signing up and dates might slip.
However, I have not yet received any email about electricity supply.

An email arrived yesterday (24 Feb) afternoon requesting meter readings. The link sends me to a page where I need to enter "Meter Point Numbers".

It tells me that this number can be found on an earlier email, but there is no meter point number on any of the emails. Just a 10 digit Sales Order Number.

Another of the emails suggested I should create an online account. However, as I was with British Gas for a period until March 2008 there was an account already open, so I had to use that old one as a new one could not be created.

So back to trying to enter the meter readings:
If I log into my account, I can see 3 accounts. 2 for electricity, and one for gas. The gas and one of the electricity accounts have the same Sales Order Number (as above), but the other electricity account has a number which is 12 digits long. Surprisingly, this "12 long" electricity account is the only one that will allow me to enter meter readings but this number doesn't show on any emails. And as stated above, I've not received an email about the date of supply of electricity to me.
So, because of this I haven't entered any readings in case the elctricity one goes into the wrong account (which may go back to 2008) and I can't yet enter the gas reading.
The accounts which are not yet ready for readings are "being set up" so I reckon I need to wait for these.

Unfortunately, it looks like it's getting messy.
I hope not, because I had severe issues with BG in 2006 with incorrect charges which were only resolved by complaining to the regulator as all my emails over 3 months went unanswered. And I had an issue again with tariffs in 2008 at which point I switched away.

Is anyone else having problems?

MaxMiler

clive764

Just a word of warning....I was/am an existing Green Star Energy customer and I am in the process of switching to the Energy Club's recommended 3 year fixed deal, again with Green Star. Things seem to be going smoothly apart from when I received confirmation of the switch through the post from Green Star, the "new" direct debit amount quoted was exactly the same as I am paying now despite the new tariff being cheaper. When I queried this with Green Star customer services I was told that the direct debit would remain the same, unless I asked for a recalculation. Which of course I did. I was told this was standard Green Star practice. They recalculated there and then, even though it took about 11 minutes of being on hold on the telephone. The new amount was just over £11 a month cheaper, not the £16 indicated by the Energy Club figures.
So just be aware of this "scam", not sure if it applies to any other suppliers.

Former_MSE_Roxanne

maxmiler wrote: »

I've joined the MSE collective for British Gas.

I received emails (3 in all) telling me that my gas supply will be switched on 25 Feb, then 29 Feb, then 01 Mar. Ok, so they are busy with so many new people signing up and dates might slip.
However, I have not yet received any email about electricity supply.

An email arrived yesterday (24 Feb) afternoon requesting meter readings. The link sends me to a page where I need to enter "Meter Point Numbers".

It tells me that this number can be found on an earlier email, but there is no meter point number on any of the emails. Just a 10 digit Sales Order Number.

Another of the emails suggested I should create an online account. However, as I was with British Gas for a period until March 2008 there was an account already open, so I had to use that old one as a new one could not be created.

So back to trying to enter the meter readings:
If I log into my account, I can see 3 accounts. 2 for electricity, and one for gas. The gas and one of the electricity accounts have the same Sales Order Number (as above), but the other electricity account has a number which is 12 digits long. Surprisingly, this "12 long" electricity account is the only one that will allow me to enter meter readings but this number doesn't show on any emails. And as stated above, I've not received an email about the date of supply of electricity to me.
So, because of this I haven't entered any readings in case the elctricity one goes into the wrong account (which may go back to 2008) and I can't yet enter the gas reading.
The accounts which are not yet ready for readings are "being set up" so I reckon I need to wait for these.

Unfortunately, it looks like it's getting messy.
I hope not, because I had severe issues with BG in 2006 with incorrect charges which were only resolved by complaining to the regulator as all my emails over 3 months went unanswered. And I had an issue again with tariffs in 2008 at which point I switched away.

Is anyone else having problems?

MaxMiler

Hi maxmiler,

Sorry to hear about the problems you're having. Have you tried to contact British Gas' specialist collective team?

You can do this either by calling 0800 975 9712 or by emailing msecollectiveswitch@contactus.britishgas.co.uk.​​

Someone there should be able to help resolve this for you.

maxmiler

MSE_Roxanne wrote: »

Hi maxmiler,

Sorry to hear about the problems you're having. Have you tried to contact British Gas' specialist collective team?

You can do this either by calling 0800 975 9712 or by emailing [EMAIL="msecollectiveswitch@contactus.britishgas.co.uk"]msecollectiveswitch@contactus.britishgas.co.uk[/EMAIL].​​

Someone there should be able to help resolve this for you.

I haven't yet because the latest email says that the call centres are busy; so I will call them when I can set aside an hour or so.

maxmiler

maxmiler wrote: »

I haven't yet because the latest email says that the call centres are busy; so I will call them when I can set aside an hour or so.

An email arrived overnight asking for my electricity reading. It also shows the Meter Point Number. However, the link sends me to a page where I can't progress until I enter the Gas Meter Point Number, but I haven't got that yet.

So I logged in and entered my electricity reading on the account with the customer number beginning 85. The other 2 accounts with the Sales Order Number still show as being set up.

I called BG this morning and have been told that my electricity account is all set up and ready for my reading (which I've entered).

However, I was told that there has been a problem with switching gas for thousands of customers, and is being dealt with.

The fact that I've got 3 accounts showing is because of the way it's being set up. The 2 accounts with my Sales Order Number should disappear after the switch has completed.

Max

MSE_Dan_L

maxmiler wrote: »

However, I was told that there has been a problem with switching gas for thousands of customers, and is being dealt with.

Hi Maxmiler

Oh dear - that does sound rather frustrating. British Gas has told us that this issue impacts about 4% of switches, where on a particular day it had a technical problem meaning some switches were automatically treated as 'industry declines'. It has told us that it has picked this incident up and fixed the issue so that the switch should complete inside the next 10 days.

BG will be writing to those who are impacted by this to explain the issue and pass on this update.

Hope this helps.

Nathan94

So there were problems in the past with Sainsburys (which is supplied by BG), and now the issues with the latest British Gas offering are coming out of the woodwork.

A reason, if anyone was in any doubt, not to touch this bunch of cowboys with a Barge Pole!

maxmiler

Today (28th) I received an email from BG saying that because of "technical problems with our website", my meter reading (for electricity) that I entered on the 26th could not be processed. But I could "try to resubmit your reading in 24 hours" or "call our automated phone line".

So I called the automated line, and entered my customer reference number and stated my name as requested.
However, then the voice told me that there were no staff available and I should call Monday to Saturday within certian times. So much for an automated service.

Looks like I'll be on the phone to them again tomorrow.


Max

Doc_N

maxmiler wrote: »

Today (28th) I received an email from BG saying that because of "technical problems with our website", my meter reading (for electricity) that I entered on the 26th could not be processed. But I could "try to resubmit your reading in 24 hours" or "call our automated phone line".

So I called the automated line, and entered my customer reference number and stated my name as requested.
However, then the voice told me that there were no staff available and I should call Monday to Saturday within certian times. So much for an automated service.

Looks like I'll be on the phone to them again tomorrow.


Max

Funnily enough I had exactly the same problem after switching to BG a few months back. It went on like that for some time until I escalated the complaint - a nightmare to sort out, but they did pay out a bit of compensation for the time wasted.

British_Gas_Rep_Matt

maxmiler wrote: »

Today (28th) I received an email from BG saying that because of "technical problems with our website", my meter reading (for electricity) that I entered on the 26th could not be processed. But I could "try to resubmit your reading in 24 hours" or "call our automated phone line".

So I called the automated line, and entered my customer reference number and stated my name as requested.
However, then the voice told me that there were no staff available and I should call Monday to Saturday within certian times. So much for an automated service.

Looks like I'll be on the phone to them again tomorrow.


Max

Hi maxmiler, I see you've already been chatting with our Collective Tariff Team and I'm sorry to hear you're still having trouble submitting readings. I'm sure we can sort this out. Please pop your details on an email to talktous@britishgas.co.uk, including your MSE username & MSE Forums in the subject heading, I'll chase this up. Cheers, Matt