British Gas moved dual fuel account to a new billing platform - account in limbo and D/D cancelled

Greying_Pilgrim

Hi,  

We have been with BG on a dual fuel tariff for all the time we've been renting this house (approaching 3 years).  We are on a smart meter.

Everything was ticking along nicely - we were worried about price rises as anyone else, but our D/D was covering our use and we were in a small surplus.  Out of the blue on 11th May, we received an email from BG imploring us to have a look at our 'new and improved' online account.  Following the link I found that whilst I could access the account - there was no detail about energy use, no DD details, nothing.  It also stated that the gas 'switch' had been successful, but the electricity 'switch' had failed and I was to get in touch.  We had at no time requested to switch tariff or billing type or any other payment method.  We were in credit at the time BG made the switch.

Cue numerous online chats, and telephone calls - which now have consumed over 4 hours of my life - and BG have variously said that it will be sorted, or it's only a handful of customers affected.  But last week, I discovered that my DD (which formerly paid for both fuels) had been cancelled.  So in addition to being 'in limbo' with account details for electricity - BG was taking NO money off me for supply of any fuel that I am using.  After further exhaustive online conversations, BG have finally managed to reinstate my DD - but it will ONLY be used to cover my gas costs (and won't now be taken until July).  My electricity is still in limbo - and BG cannot say when they will have migrated me back - although they claim that is what they are doing.  Even though we are in the summer months, we, like most people, have to pay more in electricity costs than gas costs - so by definition, our electricity debt is mounting - through no fault of ours!

I can't contemplate a move to another company - as I can't access up to date useage records - and I have been told that my smart meter display may not be accurate!  Even if there were a plethora of other companies to choose from - I now, technically, due to BG's errors, am probably in arrears.  They haven't taken any money for electricity useage, and they cancelled my exisitng DD, without activating a new one.  I don't think you can move companies if you are in arrears? 

Please tell me that there is light at the end of the tunnel with this, as BG keep on keeping me in the dark, claiming they will email me when my electricity account is back to where it was - but this has already been going on for over a month.  But the more I read into it, the more I find people have  been affected by the same problems for over a year now.  BG was supposed to have paused the transfer process to the evolve platform (someone mentioned in January), and yet they were still trying to move people in May. 

Can anyone give me confidence this mess will be sorted - BG cannot. 

Greying X

Mstty

It may not give you confidence but it appears you know how much your energy costs you and what you use so just make sure you put those payments away in a separate account or safe so that when BG do get your account back in order you have the money waiting to deposit to take away any debit.

No harm raising a complaint with BG to keep them on their toes👍

EssexHebridean

When you make the complaint Greying, also made clear to them that you do not expect to be charged at a higher rate tariff because THEY cancelled your DD! (Not paying by DD through choice means a higher cap)

Greying_Pilgrim

Thank you Mstty and Essex Hebridean for your replies, which are appreciated.

I have a slight update to share - which makes me wonder who is reading.........

Anyhoo, in a slight development, although I had no communication from BG, it would appear that something has changed on the account, which gives the appearance that the account is returning to a dual fuel account.  Whilst there is no history available (as stated, we've been with the company for nearly 3 years), I have now been able to manually enter meter readings (yes, I know we're smart metered, but.....) and they have recorded both for gas and now the electric. Previously there was only information pertaining to the gas account.

In addition, because we had gone into arrears (not by a huge amount, but still.....), I have made a payment onto the account, and again, that has recorded, and amended our account status (now back in credit).  So I am hopeful (wish there was more explicit data), that both E & G are now funnelled through this account and any payments to the account manual or DD will pay for the supply of both fuels.  The key test will be to see if the re-instated DD goes through in July.

Good point EH - I hadn't considered the variable charges according to payment method.  So I will now look into this to double check that we are not paying more. I have to say, looking at the standing charge, I think we may be, which would indicate why our meter has been whizzing around since all this fandango started.  Even a few pence makes a difference when accumulated over a week/month/year.

As for complaint.  When I 'spoke' with operatives on the chat/telephone, they were quick to 'open' a complaint, but it had to be resolved (even though the issue clearly hadn't been sorted out), before the call/chat could be terminated.  It would appear that large organisations can do what the heck they want and there is absolutely no redress.  They also clearly don't care about the impact their incompetence has on people's wellbeing.  Mental or physical.  Personally it irks me that these errors trying to migrate customers to a different payment platform have been going on for over a year - and that despite saying that they have suspended the practice, clearly they haven't.  Compounding their incompetence.

Again, thank you for responding to my post.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Hi,

I had hoped that an update on my saga would be that all was peachy, and my account had been restored and I was ticking along on SVT, paying for my useage by DD, and making plans to store up sufficient credit for winter.

Alas not.

My electricity account still hasn't been reconciled with my gas account, to make it a dual fuel account, paid by DD - as it was up until May.  We have now reached a period in excess of 28 (working) days that BG reckoned they would have restored our account back to normal, needless to say, that has not happened..........  So my electricity account is still in limbo, the IHD is showing my daily charge as 54p (my account should be 48p), and my direct debit is still not paying anything towards electricity useage.   

And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse.......... this morning, my DH noticed that the IHD was only displaying a cost of 80p.  The IHD hasn't shown such a low amount since April. Investigation found that now the Gas account has been messed up - and no standing charge has been taken today.  The IHD is saying that the gas tariff is CSLSGAS, which is not the tariff name that it had been displaying.  Anyone any idea what CSLSGAS means?

Whilst I gird my loins to deal with the excruciating experience that is dealing with BG customer services, and set aside the necessary morning or afternoon of my precious life to enter into dialogue with them, can anyone offer any hope that BG will (ever) sort this mess out?  We have been with BG for nearly 3 years at this address, always been on a smart meter and always paid by DD.  We have never been in arrears.

We can't seem to move forwards - with a fully functioning dual fuel account paid by DD with BG, and presumably we can't move to another supplier, because our account is now a complete mess thanks to BG.  

Who should I ask to speak to - as customer service personnel don't seem to have the authorisation to set accounts straight.  The migration team haven't migrated my electricity account back to join my gas account, and now my gas account is loused up.  I get the impression that BG has put their complaints section out to grass......

I am screen shotting everything and downloading transcripts.  I have sent in meter readings (checked the actual meters, not relied on IHD, although they do still display the same figures), and covered this month's uncollected DD with a direct payment onto my account.

What else can we do?

Greying X

EssexHebridean

Absolutely right that when you are doing live chats you are ensuring that you screenshot the dialogue and request a transcript at the end of each conversation.

Another thing on that front that occurs to me - you say that they are expected to resolve any complaint  before finishing a call/chat - that could work in your favour to a degree perhaps. If it were me I would be clearly saying/typing "that does not resolve my complaint" or "my complaint is not resolved until the accounts show correctly" on a regular basis if the operator tries to imply that in their view they can now terminate. (I'd have it written on a notepad doc so I could easily copy&paste it into the chat whenever needed, personally!) If they then insist that it IS resolved, you perhaps have a good justifiction for immediately requesting a deadlock letter to allow an Ombudsman referral. In my experience energy companies REALLY don't like the suggestion that this could happen! (Also - make a diary note of when you first raised the complaint and a further note for the 8 week point as I believe that is when you can go to the Ombudsman without the deadlock letter being needed - someone else will be able to confirm.). The thing to watch here is for them claiming that because they have "resolved" the complaint in previous conversation, the clock starts ticking again each time. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Excellent advice and help EH and one which I was following to the letter, until I mysteriously got chucked out of my online chat.   Thank heavens I'd saved a transcript a few moments before...........

Greying X

crashedandcool

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Excellent advice and help EH and one which I was following to the letter, until I mysteriously got chucked out of my online chat.   Thank heavens I'd saved a transcript a few moments before...........

Greying X

Hello. This has just started with me with my gas moved to a blank new online account with the electric left behind. Did it all get resolved in the end?

crashedandcool

Thought I'd update this thread and another for completeness.

So I consider my migration to the new BG system complete with no problems other than the drip feed nature of it with bits of the account going over at different times. You will get a new account number for each fuel and a bill will be issued on the old system to close it down. New system accounts start from the date of that bill + meter read. Seemed to take 2-3 weeks per fuel to transfer over and 2 months I feel overall to see the DD + goverment money going in correctly. I was able to access the old system to view bills and transaction history and you still can with the bills, but that will disappear eventually along with meter read history.

New system is simpler, but the interface bloated it out rather than condensing the small amount of difference options into one space. In fact it was better, but mid way through the migraton they changed the new systems interface and I now have to scroll more and click more to see things and this is on a desktop PC. They also don't label the accounts Gas or electric just by the account number and infact each fuel is a seperate page so annoying you have to switch between accounts. Before this was an issue, but in some areas you could quickly click between gas and electric. Not now, more clicking. Most annoying is the new transaction history which doesn't show the balance at the end of the transaction and get this doesn't show outputs from the account. I queried why the goverment payment DD refund didn't show and was told it would only show on bills. So sometimes you'll look at your live balance and transactions and it won't add up.

Didn't change my DD, but clicked on it to see. The electric said I could not change it as payment is due soon(its 13 days before it's due, err what). Gas I could, but the 1st step sks how much you want to pay and instead of stating minium states a maximum you can set it to(err of £218)

For me the new system and overall Useability is worse not better. A lot of bloated layout is gone, but none of the core functionality has been improved upon.

crashedandcool

Thought I'd update with more nonense from this new system. I got a request for a gas meter read the other week which was strange since the smart meter has always taken reads plus I'm not due a bill. Anyway an estimated bill got produced so when I queried why the bill and why the smart meter didn't work they blamed it all on the migration. The smart meters take longer to work with the migration. Hmmm don't quite believe that one as they've taken reads since the migration.

Also on the new system it's quarterly bills not every 6 months. You can't change the billing frequency and can't change the months it bills and it gets better as it seems they are not synching the bills to both fuels. My gas migration then a month later the electric migrated so I every 3 months I'll get a gas bill then the month after an electric bill.

Truely rubbish company and I'll be off when I can. 8 months now problems with them and their rubbish systems.