BG Zero Fix October 22

lisyloo

QrizB said:

lisyloo said:

I have finally got nov 23.
also offered £50 for my complaint.

That's a good result, well done.

Thankyou, I’m grateful to all the folks here and hope I can pay it forward somehow.

Foodie_Monster

I went through their chat on my account page and requested Exclusive Fix Nov 2023 - they initially said fine, then they said "that's not the one we offered you though, right?" and I said "no, it definitely was" so they said "Fine no worries, we'll get that sorted for you" - and they said it was successful.

The account page still shows that I'm on the Variable Tariff right now, but I'm guessing it takes a few days to update? I do have the chat transcript as "evidence" for future contacts should it not go through.

How quickly was the change reflected in your account pages, guys?

ivanleo

Tempting as the Nov Fix might be, I'm sticking with Zero Fixed as it works out cheaper for now. Come the end of October, I might just jump onto the chat and ask to be moved to Exclusive Fix Nov 2023.

Foodie_Monster the account pages update can take 24 hours or several weeks, seems to be luck of the draw. If nothing has happened in two weeks, I suggest you just try again. The experience of others seems to be that if you try over and over again they will switch you eventually. The longer it takes the better the odds of a bit of compensation, I got £30 but someone else on here got £50.

Foodie_Monster

ivanleo said:

Tempting as the Nov Fix might be, I'm sticking with Zero Fixed as it works out cheaper for now. Come the end of October, I might just jump onto the chat and ask to be moved to Exclusive Fix Nov 2023.

Foodie_Monster the account pages update can take 24 hours or several weeks, seems to be luck of the draw. If nothing has happened in two weeks, I suggest you just try again. The experience of others seems to be that if you try over and over again they will switch you eventually. The longer it takes the better the odds of a bit of compensation, I got £30 but someone else on here got £50.

Cheers for that. I have written confirmation from the chat that they have switched me, though. Once you get that, does the switch usually go through or it might still not do it?

Gerry1

Foodie_Monster said:

How quickly was the change reflected in your account pages, guys?

Welcome to the forum.

TL;DR: Managed to get Zero Fixed Oct 22 but you have to be mega-persistent and it was slow.  May still be possible, some have reported success recently.  You'll probably be successful because you have the transcript, but don't expect it to be a pushover.

It took quite a while to get Zero Fixed Oct 22 for electricity, and the goalposts kept moving.  It seems if you get lucky the Chat people submit a request to people elsewhere and it doesn't get actioned.  When I complained, I was told that I would be switched to BG (I'd been with Symbio and jumped ship before being SoLR'd to E.On Next) but that I'd start on the SVT.  I was transferred to BG and requested Zero Fixed Oct 22 and was told it would take 25 days.  Didn't happen so I escalated it, threatened the Ombudsman.  Eventually it went through and it was backdated to the start.

Really strange how BG can show tariffs with such indeterminate status, it can't be hard to state 'Not available for new supply'.  Presumably it's intentional, to prevent people from saying 'your website shows that the SVT is definitely available so I insist on having it', with the welcome side effect that moneysavers may still be able to get some favourable old tariffs.

Good luck, tell us how you get on !

lisyloo

Foodie_Monster said:

Kivanleo said:

Tempting as the Nov Fix might be, I'm sticking with Zero Fixed as it works out cheaper for now. Come the end of October, I might just jump onto the chat and ask to be moved to Exclusive Fix Nov 2023.

Foodie_Monster the account pages update can take 24 hours or several weeks, seems to be luck of the draw. If nothing has happened in two weeks, I suggest you just try again. The experience of others seems to be that if you try over and over again they will switch you eventually. The longer it takes the better the odds of a bit of compensation, I got £30 but someone else on here got £50.

Cheers for that. I have written confirmation from the chat that they have switched me, though. Once you get that, does the switch usually go through or it might still not do it?

I don’t know exactly what they said to you, but IME what they have done is requested the switch, they haven’t actually done it. What often happens (again IME) it gets rejected and they don’t inform you.
I tried about 8 times and got it eventually.
I wouldn’t wait too long before chasing it especially as you can multitask whilst in their chat queue.
I spoke to the person about my complaint and he said they would not be bound by an agent giving you incorrect information and ombudsman would not hold them to it (I’m reporting what BG person dealing with my complaint said, not stating a legal fact), but FWiW I believe him, companies can not be bound by genuine errors.
I’d leave it a few days and then try again.

ivanleo

lisyloo said:

...but FWiW I believe him, companies can not be bound by genuine errors.

By this logic they could come back in 6 months and say to all of us "oh you should have never been on that tariff it was an error" and then re-bill us all on a more expensive tariff. I'm sure that senior management would take the view that all the accounts that now show Zero Fixed October 2022 as the tariff have been placed on that tariff due to a genuine error.

lisyloo

ivanleo said:

lisyloo said:

...but FWiW I believe him, companies can not be bound by genuine errors.

By this logic they could come back in 6 months and say to all of us "oh you should have never been on that tariff it was an error" and then re-bill us all on a more expensive tariff. I'm sure that senior management would take the view that all the accounts that now show Zero Fixed October 2022 as the tariff have been placed on that tariff due to a genuine error.

You are misunderstanding what I meant (apologies if that was my fault).
if a call center operative says “yes you can have it, I’ll request a switch” and the switch does not get implemented because the tariff is not available, then I don’t believe you have any grounds to have that tariff. You have grounds for £30-£50 for them not informing you.

if you actually get switched to the tariff then I agree with you - I would expect them to honour it.

I was referring to the first scenario.

MWT

ivanleo said:

lisyloo said:

...but FWiW I believe him, companies can not be bound by genuine errors.

By this logic they could come back in 6 months and say to all of us "oh you should have never been on that tariff it was an error" and then re-bill us all on a more expensive tariff.

Unlikely, and there would be consequences and compensation due, but there was a similar case recently with a single individual and a different provider.

What BG should be doing is dealing with these issues before someone gets put onto the tariff if they want to shut this down...

If as an existing customer, you request a tariff and the CS chat log confirms that they are making the request to move you to the tariff, then there is nothing you can legitimately complain about if the move is denied. ... doesn't stop people trying though and it doesn't mean you can't be successful in protesting.

Ultimately they should be making it impossible to actually put people onto that tariff if they really want to end this, so you have to assume that either they lack the technical ability to shut it down, not they just don't care enough to do it...

Foodie_Monster

lisyloo said:

Foodie_Monster said:

Kivanleo said:

Tempting as the Nov Fix might be, I'm sticking with Zero Fixed as it works out cheaper for now. Come the end of October, I might just jump onto the chat and ask to be moved to Exclusive Fix Nov 2023.

Foodie_Monster the account pages update can take 24 hours or several weeks, seems to be luck of the draw. If nothing has happened in two weeks, I suggest you just try again. The experience of others seems to be that if you try over and over again they will switch you eventually. The longer it takes the better the odds of a bit of compensation, I got £30 but someone else on here got £50.

Cheers for that. I have written confirmation from the chat that they have switched me, though. Once you get that, does the switch usually go through or it might still not do it?

I don’t know exactly what they said to you, but IME what they have done is requested the switch, they haven’t actually done it. What often happens (again IME) it gets rejected and they don’t inform you.
I tried about 8 times and got it eventually.
I wouldn’t wait too long before chasing it especially as you can multitask whilst in their chat queue.
I spoke to the person about my complaint and he said they would not be bound by an agent giving you incorrect information and ombudsman would not hold them to it (I’m reporting what BG person dealing with my complaint said, not stating a legal fact), but FWiW I believe him, companies can not be bound by genuine errors.
I’d leave it a few days and then try again.

Got it. How does it get rejected? In the transcript I have, the person on the other end said "the tariff is now applied effective immediatly, it will take 48 hours to reflect on your account page". It wasn't a "we'll process your request" type of deal. Also, FWIW, I was already with a BG fix that ended Jan 2022, am now on SVT with them. Seems most issues tend to happen when switching from another provider to BG, right?

Gerry1 said:

Foodie_Monster said:

How quickly was the change reflected in your account pages, guys?

Welcome to the forum.

TL;DR: Managed to get Zero Fixed Oct 22 but you have to be mega-persistent and it was slow.  May still be possible, some have reported success recently.  You'll probably be successful because you have the transcript, but don't expect it to be a pushover.

It took quite a while to get Zero Fixed Oct 22 for electricity, and the goalposts kept moving.  It seems if you get lucky the Chat people submit a request to people elsewhere and it doesn't get actioned.  When I complained, I was told that I would be switched to BG (I'd been with Symbio and jumped ship before being SoLR'd to E.On Next) but that I'd start on the SVT.  I was transferred to BG and requested Zero Fixed Oct 22 and was told it would take 25 days.  Didn't happen so I escalated it, threatened the Ombudsman.  Eventually it went through and it was backdated to the start.

Really strange how BG can show tariffs with such indeterminate status, it can't be hard to state 'Not available for new supply'.  Presumably it's intentional, to prevent people from saying 'your website shows that the SVT is definitely available so I insist on having it', with the welcome side effect that moneysavers may still be able to get some favourable old tariffs.

Good luck, tell us how you get on !

Thank you for the welcome! Been lurking for a bit

It seems to me that most people have issues when switching from different providers, and when going for that Zero Fixed Oct 22 golden rate - hence why I went with a different one. In my case, I was also with BG already, just my current fix ended and am now on SVT - but I just can't deal with price uncertainty, I'm too anxious!

As I mentioned above, the person on the chat confirmed to me that the tariff switch was sucessful, effective immediatly, and that it would be reflected on my account page within 48hrs. Is this the usual messaging that then gets backpedalled later? Or were most people getting a "we received your request and we'll process it" and then they never do? Trying to figure out if I'm on firmer ground or not haha