British Gas 🤬🤬🤬🤬

kelly78

Just moved into a property and have had to go with British Gas as that was the current supplier. Joined them on 18/08/22. Had to have an engineer out yesterday as the gas meter wasn’t working who told me there was debt on the meter it is a pre payment one which we had already figured out. I’m trying to get it cleared but not getting much joy. The engineer said they could come back out to clear but would need a new authorisation. Have called today and here useless they couldn’t get what I was trying to do. Is there any way to speak to a UK call centre as they were just reading of a script. Anything I put on will go towards the debt and I’m a a put to runout of gas. Also do I get a cooling off period as I don’t think I can stay with them and would rather go with OVO old Swalec.

pochase

You can just initiate a switch today, no need for any cool off if you did not take a fixed tariff which is unlikely on prepaid, only problem is nobody wants you a customer.

You can try to call Octopus and EDF, they are  the two suppliers who still take on new customers, but you might need to call repeatedly until you find an agent who will accept you.

As far as I know at least Octopus might have a problem with prepaid and debt.

Do you know how much the debt on the meter is? If it is more than £500 a supplier does not need to allow you to leave. 

Did you get new keys or do you use those left behind?

When you called BG to open an account did you give meter readings?

born_again

If you only moved in 5 days ago can't be much of a debt... We take it that you read the meter when you moved in & supplied BG with that reading. So anything prior to that is not your debt.

pochase

born_again said:

If you only moved in 5 days ago can't be much of a debt... We take it that you read the meter when you moved in & supplied BG with that reading. So anything prior to that is not your debt.

It is a prepaid meter with debt from the previous occupier. Yes not their debt, but you still need to get it sorted.

You might need to raise a formal complaint to get this to a different support level, and you will need to do this even if you are going to switch suppliers, otherwise the debt will switch with you. This would make the problem even more complicated to resolve.