British Gas new system - customer ping pong

fedupwithbadCS

Hi folks,

Having an absolute nightmare with BG after this so called migration onto their 'new system'. The smart meter readings for the electric are totally wacky. They bear no resemblance to my actual meter reads (took a photo) to prove it. I have tried chat and they bounce me around between old and new system teams. Same for when I phone them. My electric bill should  be around 200 (Smart meter) and my gas 67 (non smart meter) and currently the bill is around 800. The so called electric meter readings are completely wrong, where on earth are they getting them from and how have they gone live with a system that is so wrong. I have raised a complaint and an escalation (with the one agent out of maybe 10 before who 'got it') but it looks like they will take my money before they will give any back. I used to deal with complaints for a blue chip CEO so don't normally get tearful, but this has nearly broke me 😢 Anyone had similar and if so how did you get on?
 

MultiFuelBurner

What do customers put up with British Gas?

There appear to be woeful from the number of posts on here.

MikeJXE

MultiFuelBurner said:

What do customers put up with British Gas?

There appear to be woeful from the number of posts on here.

Why do customers put up with anything when they can switch so easily 

fedupwithbadCS

As soon as the bill is sorted we will be leaving them. However, is there really any company who gets it right both in billing and in customer service? Any recommendations welcome 🤗

TheMilkmansDad

fedupwithbadCS said:

As soon as the bill is sorted we will be leaving them. However, is there really any company who gets it right both in billing and in customer service? Any recommendations welcome 🤗

No company gets it right every time.

The best one would be Octopus judging by the numerous posts on here. One could argue that their service are deteriorating slightly due to increased customer levels but I'd expect that to be a short term blip. Even with that into account - they're still "market leading" in the energy customer service world....

EssexHebridean

If you do decide to change to Octopus then do chat with family and friends beforehand - you will almost certainly find someone you know is with them, and if they give you their referral code and you use that when you switch, you will both earn £50 credit on your energy bill.

have you checked back to your bills from the old system to be sure the readings were being received correctly then, and are you sure that the more recent bills are using smart readings rather than estimates? 

Netexporter

fedupwithbadCS said:

As soon as the bill is sorted we will be leaving them. However, is there really any company who gets it right both in billing and in customer service? Any recommendations welcome 🤗

Octopus. Easily the best supplier.

fedupwithbadCS

EssexHebridean said:

If you do decide to change to Octopus then do chat with family and friends beforehand - you will almost certainly find someone you know is with them, and if they give you their referral code and you use that when you switch, you will both earn £50 credit on your energy bill.

have you checked back to your bills from the old system to be sure the readings were being received correctly then, and are you sure that the more recent bills are using smart readings rather than estimates? 

Hi there, thanks for getting back. Yes got the old bills and proved they were hundreds of units out. The new bills are estimates but bear no relationship to previous smart meter readings. I moved a year ago, so my assumption is that the are using readings from old address.  From all the feedback received it defo looks like Octopus is the way to go. Appreciated 👍

fedupwithbadCS

Just a quick update to say that I was waiting for BG to provide a correct bill so I could leave them. Three months on, many calls/chats/emails and my latest quarterly bill uses the same incorrect smart meter electric readings that was credited. So I am back to square one. Looking at other forums users are saying the only way to get out of the issue is to leave and the new company will read the meters correctly so that a final bill can be created. So that's what I will do. 

There is a petition about it,  'Change.org - investigate British gas account anomalies that are causing hardship' if anyone else would like to sign up.

Complaint raised, CEO contacted, complaint lodged with ombudsman but don't expect much from anyone tbh.

Thanks for reading folks it really helps 🤗