British Gas - Economy 7 scam warning

alanjones60

When i was with neon reef,i was single rate with my economy 7 meter. When they went bust i was moved 2 britsh gas.
They put me on economy 7. I told them i dont use enough off peak,and they said they will move me to single rate. It was up to me what i wanted to do. No pressure with them at all

molerat

What are the first 2 digits of your MPAN ?

It is not up to them to decide what tariff you are on.  If they won't budge then raise a complaint.

markin

How did they find out you didn't have them?

EssexHebridean

A._Badger said:

EssexHebridean said:

You don't by any chance have a smart meter, do you? 

Good heavens, no. 

OK - the reason for asking is that there are issues around British Gas and smart meters with Economy 7. As you were, then!  

A._Badger

alanjones60 said:

When i was with neon reef,i was single rate with my economy 7 meter. When they went bust i was moved 2 britsh gas.
They put me on economy 7. I told them i dont use enough off peak,and they said they will move me to single rate. It was up to me what i wanted to do. No pressure with them at all

I simply don't understand, in that case. I spent 45 minutes on the phone to them today and they refused to budge. 

A._Badger

markin said:

How did they find out you didn't have them?

I was stupid enough to tell them when they asked. Never having encountered this sort of nonsense before I saw no treason to lie.

alanjones60

It must be the person you get on the other end. I found using facebook messenger better than live chat

OldScientist

A._Badger said:

I'm one of the electricity only customers transferred to British Gas when Together/Bristol Energy collapsed. For over a decade, across various energy suppliers, I have been on an Economy 7 tariff, which has worked well enough for me, despite not using storage heaters. British Gas however, has just informed me that because I don't have storage radiators, it is refusing to supply me on an Economy 7 tariff and that the bill it sent me yesterday, calculated on a single rate, will not be revised.

There are a few issues here. The first is that no previous supplier has ever asked me whether I have storage radiators - it's a time based tariff. not appliance dependent, so why would they? And how would they know, anyway? All they see is how much electricity I use during the relevant 7 hour period. 

Moreover, BG told me I would be switched to Economy 7 when I contacted them in February asking why my new account showed only a single rate. Why adopt an account already operating  a split tariff, refuse to honour the arrangement and not inform the customer?

Naturally, I'll be switching supplier and making an official complaint about this peculiar ruling but if you happen to have been transferred to British Gas and you are an Economy 7 customer, be warned. British Gas is living down to its reputation.

 

It appears that they (or at least their customer support) are making 'reasons' up as they go along - I too was on economy 7 prior to Neon Reef going bust and have so far had a nearly 4 month battle to get British Gas to switch me back to economy 7 and backdate it to the SoLR (and I do have storage heaters) - the initial responses were positive, it would be fixed soon, then there were 'technical' reasons why there was going to be a delay (I do not have a smart meter and was on economy 7 with them only a few years ago), then it swung back to a statement that it would be fixed very soon (within days) and finally one where they said it wasn't going to happen at all. I currently have a complaint in progress and will hopefully hear soon.

A._Badger

molerat said:

What are the first 2 digits of your MPAN ?

It is not up to them to decide what tariff you are on.  If they won't budge then raise a complaint.

It's 02. And yes, I have told them to write confirming what they have told me and that I will raise an official complaint.

Incidentally, I checked with Ofgem, in the hope there was a ruling from them on the operating conditions of Economy 7 and they claimed it was up to the companies individually. Whether that is true, or not, I have no way of knowing

jrawle

I had the opposite problem, admittedly around 20 years ago, where the property I lived in had an E7 meter, but we were on a standard tariff. British Gas seemed to be the only supplier who offered this facility. Every other company insisted you had to be on E7 if you had an E7 meter. I wanted to switch from British Gas to a cheaper supplier, but British gas wouldn't change the meter as they didn't require a non-E7 meter for a standard tariff. In the end, I had to switch to E7 with a different supplier, then request to move to a standard tariff. (Suppliers were in those days required to switch the meter if necessary for the tariff you wanted to be on.)

Are things different these days? Will any suppliers other than British Gas allow you to give two readings and sum them for a standard, non-E7 tariff?

Is it just one or two call centre operatives who insist this? Is it worth playing call centre roulette and trying again? Could you tell whoever is on the phone that you misunderstood and do actually have storage heaters - you didn't realise that's what they were called? Surely they have no right to come and search your property to see whether you have storage heaters or not.