British Gas - Bill Errors from New System

QrizB

@ka7e do you have your own thread? (Edit to add: ah, you have a solar power thread. That's where I recognise your screen name from.)

ka7e said:

I queried the sites inability to accept 5-digit numbers  ... A bill was issued in Sept 23 that showed readings in the 4xxx range - so not my meter.

Four digit gas meters are old analogue Imperial ones measuring gas in (hundreds of) cubic feet. If you have a five digit metric meter, you're potentially being charged for 2.83x more gas than you've actually used.

Check the meter serial number shown on your bill against the number on the meter itself. I suspect they won't match.

What's been know to happen is for database entries to be corrupted and for suppliers to think that a customer still has an old meter that was replaced years earlier. This might be part of your problem.

ka7e

QrizB - BG asked if I had a new meter installed as there is a yellow sticker on it, but it is blank and I've lived here for 4 and a half years with no meter change. My meter readings have been consistent all that time until I was migrated to the new system. This morning I have had another statement showing I owe £284 when their website says I'm £470 in credit My 8 weeks window for resolution is up today and now they are asking for yet more readings, although they had them 6 days ago.

QrizB

ka7e said:

My meter readings have been consistent all that time until I was migrated to the new system.

Have you checked any of those things - the meter serial numbers, the calculation BG are using?

hostertlady

RavingMad said:

Can I ask if everyone on BG got moved over to this new system? My elderly in laws are with them. Should we ask to see their bills from that period? They've had smart meters for a long while so mistakes should be easy to spot?

my gas and electricity got moved over but not my service plan! they kept saying it would go on but i  have my boiler  serviced by another company now

gm0

Entropy at scale and diversity of end points and customers cannot be defied.  2nd law of thermodynamics

By my reckoning - since BG were regional there have 3 or 4 data conversions and migrations of customer and billing and metering data.  (And more alongside for industrial customers and other things).

Older systems were often somewhat designed or developed custom over time around the regional metering and tariffing quirks. How they model and think about metering / tariffs especially but then migrated to "newer" ones in billing and customer service technology terms. Whatever the fashion of the age was - package software shared across many customers (SAP), cloud or AI.  New systems offered at tempting prices often being designed around the simple and lowest common denominator customer type.  And yet incapable - at the start - of dealing with all the existing situations.  

People in these organisations change and retire.  And they and their tech suppliers may not even know about all of the embedded and previously migrated mess - until they start testing migration with real customer data - when it will begin to become apparent

Large customer data migrations and conversions - with billing and cancel/rebill and billing correction going on in flight and keeping VAT happy. Testing them properly is hard and expensive - with millions of customers and a long tail of "edge" cases. 

Skimp or hurry.  You will have operational pain and angry customers.  It's that simple. 

Whether for BG more testing before migration was more or less expensive than the effort and expense of paying off aggrieved customers and ombudsmant/regulatory complaints - somewhat depends on the size of the affected group and size of the migration screw up. 

Whether this is all readily explained by competence (Ogham/Occam) or is a cynical commercial decision around a manageable size splash.  The Millwall defense. Everybody already hates us.  We don't care.  I could not possibly say.

Runriggie

Great result for you LochLomondlad and heartening to hear.  My complaint is now with the Ombudsman (no backing out of VAT when reconciling with incorrect bills and a missed meter reading that is in their favour as the tariff changed).  I’ve been very impressed with their service so far.  Very professional and personable.

Like you, I will of course be ditching BG when the complaint is resolved through the Ombudsman.  Will post again here when result known.

Runriggie

Update on complaint to Ombudsman - complaint resolved with a recommendation by the Ombudsman of a goodwill gesture for poor communication - in other words BG made no attempt to explain why they had either done or not done things I requested.  After that things get a bit complicated to explain with any benefit here but suffice it to say that the amount recommended significantly exceeds the amount I think BG owed for mis-billing so I’ve accepted it as life is too short. I’m so impressed by the Ombudsman service.  Gosh knows what customers would do without it.  As a pal pointed out, communication needs to be at the heart of what the Ombudsman does and the staff definitely exceed at that.

MumstheWord_2

RavingMad said:

Can I ask if everyone on BG got moved over to this new system? My elderly in laws are with them. Should we ask to see their bills from that period? They've had smart meters for a long while so mistakes should be easy to spot?

I've also been having ongoing problems with the new system. The email address that BG send all my E Comms to about my account is not linked to the online access platform, so I cannot access any of my account details, meter readings, statements, billing history etc online. Instead my log in links to my former closed accounts with the landing page saying 'We hope to see you back again soon. We don't supply your gas and electricity anymore'. BG refusing to see this as a systems error and tell me to reset my password and clear my browsing history. I have done this on multiple devices and attempted to log in using alternative browsers. In all cases my email address is linking to my former closed accounts. Have others encountered the same issue? I intend to raise with the Energy Ombudsmen if BG don't successfully resolve within the 8 week timeframe.