British Gas closed our account without our knowledge due to a switching request

paulworrall

Having a nightmare with British Gas at the moment.

Our fixed tariff Gas/Electricity was coming to an end in November last year. My wife logged in to the account to sort out continuing/switching tariffs. However when logging in she found our account had been closed! We’d received no letters or calls about this. To avoid losing our supply my wife went online and set up a new account and then phoned them to find out what was happening and was told they’d had instruction to close the account. She explained we hadn’t sent an instruction to close the account and they raised a complaint thinking it was a glitch and put everything back as it was previously. 

Just after this we received letter for someone not at our address from British Gas and then a couple of weeks later, from Scottish Power. After phoning British Gas yet again it turns out someone had mistakenly put out address into a switching website and our supply was in the process of switching from British Gas to Scottish Power. Several calls later British Gas agreed to put things back to where they were (appears the lady who’d made the switch had also been in touch). Weeks later we had a letter from British Gas saying a complaint had been raised. 

The problem we are now having however is we are getting letters and texts from BG for meter readings. However we haven’t received a new account number (old one is defunct) so can’t do it online and when we phone them we first explain the situation which the call centres don’t seem to understand and when we phoned earlier this afternoon they couldn’t seem to understand the smart meter reading we gave them as our account still hadn’t switched back (even though we’ve had letters and texts to say it has). This is on top of a delay of several weeks between the gas and electricity switch dates, even though its a combined account. We’ve now paid nothing for several months due to their incompetence and have no confidence things will sort themselves. 

Where do we stand from a financial point of view? Can we refuse to pay (guessing not)? We’re not convinced that even though they BG have said we wouldn’t be charged more than we should they won’t charge us wrong tariffs or connection fees etc. We’re also getting knowhere when we call as they just don’t seem to understand what the issue is or why we don’t have account numbers and such like. Are we able to claim compensation, if nothing else for the phone calls? We’ve just had enough and frankly want to leave BG even though now isn’t a good time. Is there a UK number we can call rather than having to speak to a call centre which doesn’t seem able to understand the issue, let alone put it right?

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

I think a complaint is in order. They need to sort out their admin and clearly the front-line CS staff aren't able to do it.

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/complaints.html

dbks

paulworrall said:

Having a nightmare with British Gas at the moment.

Our fixed tariff Gas/Electricity was coming to an end in November last year. My wife logged in to the account to sort out continuing/switching tariffs. However when logging in she found our account had been closed! We’d received no letters or calls about this. To avoid losing our supply my wife went online and set up a new account and then phoned them to find out what was happening and was told they’d had instruction to close the account. She explained we hadn’t sent an instruction to close the account and they raised a complaint thinking it was a glitch and put everything back as it was previously. 

Just after this we received letter for someone not at our address from British Gas and then a couple of weeks later, from Scottish Power. After phoning British Gas yet again it turns out someone had mistakenly put out address into a switching website and our supply was in the process of switching from British Gas to Scottish Power. Several calls later British Gas agreed to put things back to where they were (appears the lady who’d made the switch had also been in touch). Weeks later we had a letter from British Gas saying a complaint had been raised. 

The problem we are now having however is we are getting letters and texts from BG for meter readings. However we haven’t received a new account number (old one is defunct) so can’t do it online and when we phone them we first explain the situation which the call centres don’t seem to understand and when we phoned earlier this afternoon they couldn’t seem to understand the smart meter reading we gave them as our account still hadn’t switched back (even though we’ve had letters and texts to say it has). This is on top of a delay of several weeks between the gas and electricity switch dates, even though its a combined account. We’ve now paid nothing for several months due to their incompetence and have no confidence things will sort themselves. 

Where do we stand from a financial point of view? Can we refuse to pay (guessing not)? We’re not convinced that even though they BG have said we wouldn’t be charged more than we should they won’t charge us wrong tariffs or connection fees etc. We’re also getting knowhere when we call as they just don’t seem to understand what the issue is or why we don’t have account numbers and such like. Are we able to claim compensation, if nothing else for the phone calls? We’ve just had enough and frankly want to leave BG even though now isn’t a good time. Is there a UK number we can call rather than having to speak to a call centre which doesn’t seem able to understand the issue, let alone put it right?

Welcome to MSE.

This sounds like a complete nightmare, but you have already made a good start in getting this resolved.

You have, what is known in the energy industry, been the victim of an erroneous transfer.

It's quite a common error, so much so that the resolution is defined.

i.e. You are to be put back into the same situation you would have been in had the erroneous transfer not occurred.

I see you have already raised this as a formal complaint with BG. Well done!
As with any formal complaint raised against an energy supplier, they have 8 weeks to resolve it to your satisfaction, else you can take it to the ombudsman. (where you can also ask for a goodwill gesture to be awared for the shortfall in customer service/care provided by the supplier; typically the ombudsman awards about £80 depending on the merits of the complaint)

You shouldn't need to contact BG again. You have told them what is wrong  and raised it as a formal complaint. The only thing they may need later is your bank details again to re-set up your direct debit, as that seems to have been closed with with closure of your account. Wait for them to contact you.

BG normally asign a dedicated complaint handler to any formal complaint, and they usually conatct the complainant. Perhaps they haven't in this case yet because they need no further information from you to return you to BG.
Otherwise BG contact details are available on their website if you really want to contact them again. Not sure why you would want to though.

In regards payment, you will be glad to learn you certainly can deny paying Scottish Power anything.
You will pay BG for all your usage after they get you back on board.
So keep hold of any direct debit money not collected, enjoy the interest as little as it is currently, but it's recently or should shortly be going up

In regards compo, sounds like you are about right to get yourself up to £120 automatically.

• When a customer reports a potential erroneous switch, the customer will receive a standard payment of £30 from each supplier if they are unable to agree within 20 working days whether an erroneous switch has occurred;
• The customer will receive £30 from the contacted supplier (in this case BG) if they fail to return the 20 Working Day Letter as required by the Erroneous Transfer Customer Charter within 20 working days;
• An erroneously switched customer will receive £30 from their old supplier (in this case BG) if they fail to re-register the customer within 21 working days.

If it gets to 8 weeks from raising the complaint and BG have not resolved it and/or you have not got the auto compensation you think you are entitled to as mentioned above, then take the matter to the ombudsman, telling them all about it.

Edit:
You may even be entitled to a doubling up of the above compo!
The supplier has 10 working days from the date the above compo falls due to pay it to you. If they don't, you are entitled to another £30 for each failure to pay.
(Only applies once per failure. i.e. if they don't pay the extra £30 within 10 working days, you cannot claim another £30 - but the ombudsman may then award you even more)

paulworrall

Thanks for the info. Fingers crossed it doesn’t need to go to the ombudsman. Most frustrating thing is the customer service. Waiting for so long to get through only to end up talking to someone who first off doesn’t understand the situation and secondly seems unable to give us any idea as to when/if it’ll be solved. I don’t think the timing helps as this started on the run up to Christmas, just at the point the energy crisis hit critical mass and when they’ll no doubt have large numbers of staff off. Fingers crossed.

wild666

The street name and number may be the same as yours and the person went onto the royal mail postcode finder and entered the wrong postcode because they clicked on the wrong city for the postcode.