How do British Gas stay in business?.... 3 months and Im still not on the contract I signed up for.

DonC

Xbigman said:

It's not enough said. The OP tried to switch before sorting out an account with the deemed supplier AND they tried to switch to a tariff for a credit meter despite having PAYG meters. BG's only real mistake was in allowing the switch to go through. Sorting this mess out must be a nightmare for BG when you are short of staff and you have a customer who got it so wrong they are demanding their mistakes be identified and fixed without seemingly knowing just what mistakes they've made. 
Hence the title of this thread, 

3 months and Im still not on the contract I signed up for.

Because you signed up for the wrong tariff for your meters.

Darren

So according to you people are only allowed to sign up for tariffs that their meters permit? How do consumers \ people not in the utility industry go about finding out that sort of information?

Im a first time buyer, I even mentioned it on the phone to BG.
While signing up with them over the phone, the BG rep asked a LOT of questions. At no point did he ask if I was the current account holder for the property. Being a first time buyer I had no clue that I had to be. That simple question would have saved only 8 days though.
Even ignoring that particular cockup there's been a whole other series of cockups I've had to put up with.  Over the last 3 months I've spent 20 - 30 hours on the phone to them trying to get this resolved. 

I find it comical that you assume the consumer must know all the ins and outs of providing utilities to consumers. Im not the one who is in the business of providing utilities. Allegedly British Gas is supposed to be. If I were in the business, I'd be a damn sight more competent at it than BG has been.

Your comment about BG only making one mistake is laughable. These clowns have SO FAR taken 3 months to get me on the correct tariff AND IM STILL NOT ON IT. .
They've sent 3 separate engineers out during this time only for them to put the wrong meters in.
I'm sure the pandemic isn't helping, but if they've got to take several attempts to get the job done correctly, then it appears the pandemic is the least of their worries. 

jbuchanangb

A homeowner, even a first time homeowner, is expected to know or find out about all the ins and outs of owning a home, such as buildings insurance, contents insurance, council tax, energy supply, water supply and so forth. One of those many things is that on taking over a property as an owner or tenant, there is a deemed contract between you and the existing energy supplier(s), either as a arranged by the builder (if a new build) or the previous occupier, or maybe the landlord. As the new occupier, the first thing to do is read the meters and to establish an account with the existing energy supplier, on their best tariff without exit fees. It would seem that omitting this essential action was the OP's first mistake. Instead they called their chosen alternative energy supplier, which has led to a catalogue of further errors.
I suggest the best course of action is to stablilise the situation with both the original supplier, if they still have one or other of the supplies (gas or electricity), and the new supplier (BG) if they have actually taken any over. The important things will be the meter readings on the day moved in, and any further readings taken since then, including, most importantly the readings on both old and new meters when any meter changes have taken place. Using the account with the original supplier, settle the account up to switchover date to the alternative supplier, if a switch has happened. Then deal with bills from that date to now with the new supplier.

_Jem_

BG are terrible, lucky enough my switch is going fine so far, but they couldn't even get my address right.