British Gas won't accept complaint

Marksfish

Thanks for your comment. what should have been something simple has now been drawn out for months. I know it is boring for most people, but updating here now and again is my chance to vent 

vic_sf49

It may help people in the future, to understand that what is going wrong with their billing, so it's all useful information. 

Keep at it! 

Marksfish

So the ombudsman has found in my favour with the following comments:

"I’ve checked on the electricity national database ECOES (run by National Grid’s partners) and that now shows your new electricity meter, installed on 5 April 2024. BG hasn’t updated the Energy Ombudsman though with whether it’s corrected its’ own records yet.

For the meter and billing, I am going to propose the following remedy actions for BG to: - Ensure the new electricity meter details are registered on the account.

- Correct the billing (it can do this by a rebill or an applied credit) from when the meter became faulty until the meter exchange date.

- *Bill the new meter from meter exchange date, up-to-date upon receipt of actual reads from you or received automated from the meter. - Attempt to commission the meter.

- Attempt to pair the IHD. Please note the Energy Ombudsman has to put “attempt” for commissioning and pairing, as this can’t be 100% guaranteed as it’s dependent on network connectivity.

Whilst obviously you wish to have the meter communicating as Smart so that it can provide automated reads, you may want to provide actual reads now to the company (you can provide them through me if you prefer) for the above billing remedy*, whilst you’re waiting for the commissioning attempt.

You’ve also asked in your required resolutions for BG to ensure the meter is reporting accurately to the DCC in accordance with Smart metering protocols. This isn’t something the Energy Ombudsman would require an energy supplier to do – our proposed remedy for BG to attempt commissioning does cover this though, as successful commissioning ensures the meter is communicating via the DCC Smart meter network."

Not overly impressed with the response. A meter that was communicating perfectly before replacement (only issue was not changing tariff overnight, so being overcharged) has been replaced with an identical meter which BG can't/ won't enable to be smart and the engineer "forgot" to pair the IHD. Without the IHD or the meter reporting, I cannot use IHD or Hugo to monitor my usage.  Some 12 days after the closing date for evidence submission, BG have done naff all except enable manual reads on my account. Not sure they are taking this seriously and it seems as though I am being held hostage, as cannot move to another new smart tariff until this meter is reporting.

Marksfish

Todays update.

Not only did British Gas originally not accept my complaint, they have appealed the ombudsman decision. So instead of getting on with sorting out my correct billing and metering, they are using delaying tactics to prevent their responsibilities for correct metering to their customers. Annoyed is an understatement.

Marksfish

Last night my meter usage information finally appeared on Hugo, almost 2 months after meter installation. It shows usage back to the installation date, so it has been working fine all along, just BG were too incompetent to open it to the network.

I am now 5 months into not having received a correct bill, so hopefully that will be following soon. With Hugo to check my usage, it is a lot easier than taking a photo of my meter readings every day to compare their results.

It still seems the simple issue of pairing the IHD remotely is beyond BG. Not a deal breaker now I can see usage, but would be nice if they could support their equipment.

Marksfish

The ombudsman have told me BG are appealing Remedy 1.

Remedy 1

Remedy: Action Comment: Correct the previous electricity meter billing through a rebill or credit, from when the meter became faulty until the meter exchange date of 5 April 2024

So BG want to keep the incorrect readings where they overbilled me by a couple of hundred pounds? How can this be a genuine appeal? They know they have overcharged me, they have admitted overcharging me, they have been found my the ombudsman to be overcharging me, but they don't want to correct the error? Hopefully the ombudsman throws this appeal out, but I have to wait up to another 10 days for a decision 

Marksfish

So I have finally seen the BG objection to the resolution:

Remedy 1

Remedy: Action

Comment:

Correct the previous electricity meter billing through a rebill or credit, from when the meter became faulty until the meter exchange date of 5 April 2024

Why does the factual error make a difference?

We cant complete this remedy because without a meter accuracy test there is no way of telling how faulty the meter was, and the fact the meter reading was not registering from January till April, it means customer may have benefited from any energy used at night within that period as it was passing unregistered energy.

Just how incompetent are this shower? I have provided daily readings from the Hugo app showing the off peak usage used. I can also now access the 3nergy website and can see the spreadsheets of usage from there. How is it British Gas are unable to access their records? The meter was constantly reporting all usage, albeit at ToU1 and not moving to ToU2. How can they say I was benefitting from unregistered energy?

I hope the ombudsman sees through these delaying tactics as I can't currently appeal their appeal.

MeteredOut

Marksfish said:

So I have finally seen the BG objection to the resolution:

Remedy 1

Remedy: Action

Comment:

Correct the previous electricity meter billing through a rebill or credit, from when the meter became faulty until the meter exchange date of 5 April 2024

Why does the factual error make a difference?

We cant complete this remedy because without a meter accuracy test there is no way of telling how faulty the meter was, and the fact the meter reading was not registering from January till April, it means customer may have benefited from any energy used at night within that period as it was passing unregistered energy.

Just how incompetent are this shower? I have provided daily readings from the Hugo app showing the off peak usage used. I can also now access the 3nergy website and can see the spreadsheets of usage from there. How is it British Gas are unable to access their records? The meter was constantly reporting all usage, albeit at ToU1 and not moving to ToU2. How can they say I was benefitting from unregistered energy?

I hope the ombudsman sees through these delaying tactics as I can't currently appeal their appeal.

They're stalling. EDF did the same with me. I had provided video's showing my broken gas meter incrementing when it was isolated from the mains gas, and they still objected to the ombudsman decision for it to be tested, stating there was no issue with the meter.

Marksfish

I have appealed to the ombudsman about the appeal. They have said faulty meters are usually discarded, really, even when in dispute? The decision was due tomorrow, but has been extended by another week so I can add my new 3nergy spreadsheet showing consumption now as well.

MeteredOut

Marksfish said:

I have appealed to the ombudsman about the appeal. They have said faulty meters are usually discarded, really, even when in dispute? The decision was due tomorrow, but has been extended by another week so I can add my new 3nergy spreadsheet showing consumption now as well.

Yes, unless you specifically got confirmation that the old meter was to be sent for testing, it will have been discarded. EDF tried for months to have mine replaced without committing to a test, which I refused, as I knew there would then be no proof of the issue and therefore no way to get back what I had been overcharged. I made it clear as part of my complaint to the ombudsman that I was looking to have the meter tested to show its fault, and that was written into their ruling.