British Gas - Your FIT payments are being suspended

jimjames

Just received this in an email from British Gas today with no previous contact despite submitting FIT readings and receiving payment in Oct. Seems absolutely crazy that they immediately go to suspend FIT payments if they can't access on a single visit and make no further attempt at contact or visiting to verify. Photos now sent but thought others might want to be aware of the way they are operating for FIT payments.

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Every two years, as part of the Feed in Tariff (FIT) regulations, we need to verify the meter reading(s) used to record the electricity you generate and export to the grid.

We visited the property on 28/09/2023 and we still haven't been able to access your meter(s) so now we're suspending your payments.

What to do to get your payments started again. Please send us a photograph of your meter which clearly shows the meter reading and the meter serial number. You can email it to us
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Having sent the photos I then get this reply. No wonder they're busy if they're sending out such messages to their customers!
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Thanks for getting in touch. We’re on the case but our team is much busier than usual right now. So it could take longer to get back to you

Netexporter

Possibly something to do with the migration to the new billing system.

Coastalwatch

Netexporter said:

Possibly something to do with the migration to the new billing system.

I hope it's not Horizon.

Waywardmike

I've been through this twice with SSE, the first time was rectified quickly, the second time took ages.  

That being said, now they're part of OVO it takes 3 months from reading submission to get my payments so SSE now seemed great in comparison.

paul991

I would advise anyone having problems with FIT payments to transfer to octopus payments within a few hours to a couple days max  

QrizB

Coincidentally, I had a meter reader around last week to read the PV generation meter.

I was at work but Mrs QrizB let him in and showed him the meter.

jimjames

Coastalwatch said:

Netexporter said:

Possibly something to do with the migration to the new billing system.

I hope it's not Horizon.

I'll end up paying them if it is!

paul991 said:

I would advise anyone having problems with FIT payments to transfer to octopus payments within a few hours to a couple days max  

Ironically I've had no issues with payments. Last FIT in October was paid within a few days and that was after they'd supposedly tried to read the meter

CarolWHerts

British Gas recently sent around a meter reader who seemed puzzled by our 2011 meter and pressed lots of buttons that I've never touched. He said he wasn't sure which reading to submit, so I showed him the record that I keep of my weekly readings and asked him to make sure it was consistent with that (same number of digits, for a start). Of course I then get a standard email from the BG FIT team saying that the reading was not what they expected and would I send a photo, which I did, explaining that it was their meter reader who got it wrong. No reply to that. Haven't heard anything since, although the regular email asking for a quarterly reading has just arrived, so hopefully all now back on track. Generally happy till now with BG, especially since they stopped insisting on sending cheques. 

jimjames

CarolWHerts said:

 although the regular email asking for a quarterly reading has just arrived, so hopefully all now back on track. Generally happy till now with BG, especially since they stopped insisting on sending cheques. 

Same here, reading request and given now, payment notification received so hopefully money will be in bank shortly. As you say generally a smooth process without the cheques and when they don't send out scary emails like this one!

pete-20-11

My meter was recently read for British Gas. They found the serial number on their database didn't match what was on the meter.

Seems it's been that way for some time (I assume?!)

He tried to change it three times. 

He gave up and continued using the wrong data. 

When IT systems don't let you fix things, things don't get fixed. 🤣