British Gas :new system lack of communication

JIL

Out of the blue British gas have sent me an email to say it's time to submit your meter reading.

All very well but I have got a smart meter.

So I went onto online chat, which then said it's a known fault since the swap to their new system. They are working to correct it but in the interim to submit meter readings.

Why on earth couldn't the email asking me to submit my reading, have a one line to say that they are experiencing some difficulties since the swap to the new system. They are working to correct this and please could I submit a reading in the interim. Or words to that effect?

I'm posting this in case others are affected.

BellaBlondykeTheThird

Good thinking as those on a smart meter with BG may think they don't have to submit the Jan 1st reading but in reality BG are shocking during this move to their new IT system from posts I have read here.

Gerry1

The new BG system is hopeless.  Any competent organisation would have populated each new account with the customer's data before going live but BG didn't.

The home page on my new account says 'You are paying by Direct Debit on the 1st of the month' and this is confirmed on the billing page which says 'Your Direct Debit varies depending on your current usage and is based on your latest bill'.

However, scroll down the same page and it then says 'Your Direct Debit plan means you pay a fixed amount of money every month however much energy you use.  If you've used more energy than you've paid for, your account balance will be in debit'.  That's describing Fixed DD !

Apart from being the wrong type of DD, it wrongly implies that FDDs are All You Can Eat.  There's a vague reference that 'We regularly review your Direct Debit payments to make sure they match your expected usage' but it fails to spell out that if you do use more your DD will increase twice, firstly to match the higher consumption and then to claw back the underpayment.

Worse follows.  Click on 'Manage Direct Debit' and it says 'Direct Debit is not configured for your account'.  Click on 'Setup Direct Debit' and it says 'We cannot setup a new Direct Debit right now as you already have an active Direct Debit in place'.  You really couldn't make it up !

I haven't been notified of any DD going out, so it'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.