British Gas Issue - Wrong Tariff on account - Billing errors - no staff to actually fix issue

CrazyHorse019

I am having a problem with British Gas at the moment. 

For the record I have a dual rate meter - the estate is all on dual rate and have been paying dual rate since 2019. 

I signed up to British Gas on the 08th August 2024 under the following terms (Dual rate): 

However since I migrated from my previous provider I have had issues with my account thinking I'm on a single tariff meter. At first I raised a ticket as I only had one meter reading input field on my account. This eventually got sorted in September.

Then I noticed that my night rate meter wasn't moving at all when I was making record of the meter readings. I noticed that my Day rate meter was sky high so it looks like all my kWh has been going through single rate. Looking at my account more closely I see I've been put on a single rate tariff under the following conditions:

Not what I signed up for!

Since October I have raised a ticket with British Gas to resolve, the persons on the line are unhelpful. They say that my meter is reading as a single rate meter in the system and that I need an engineer out.

Engineers in my area are scarce it seems (Norfolk) and so I have to call up every week on a Wed/Thurs as that's when the 2 week schedules are renewed and I have to compete to get a space.

I did this twice before complaining that this process is insane and that they should be able to put a request on the account and it would automatically assign engineering resource as soon as it became available.

Anyway early last month I complained and managed to speak to someone who booked me an engineer for the 10th Dec (breaking the supposed 2 week rule).  

Now its December my engineering appointment has mysteriously been cancelled and my complaints case handler is a ghost. No one on the phone or online chat can get me to a person who can explain what has gone on, what the fix is and what the time to resolution is. 

I have solar/batteries so can wing my usage to be on the cheaper rate 95% of the time.

I am worried however because the way my meter is recording all my usage against 1 rate - the day rate, the billing is then wrong and somewhere down the line British Gas will come after me for some unpaid bill and slap some random debt which then affects my credit file (as seen with what happened with one of martin lewis's guest on his money show). 

Does anyone know how to get around British Gas's idle customer service to a team or a person who can actually resolve an issue? 

I have this week raised a complaint with the Energy Ombudsman and have a case handler assigned to the case. 

Does anyone have experience with the escalation path/teams within BG so that I can resolve this quicker? Or is this the shitification we can now all expect when public services are privatised and run for profit by foreign entities?

Effectively I want to pay my dues and move to another provider. 

QrizB

I take it that you have a smart meter? Otherwise BG wouldn't have ben able to remotely disable your off-peak meter.

Somewhere on the first page of your bill will be your supply MPAN, looking something like this:

What profile type do you have, the first two numbers on the top row? In the example, it's 01 for a domestic single-rate supply.

Then check the same detail on the bill from your old supplier.

More detail here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter_Point_Administration_Number

CrazyHorse019

I can confirm that both bills of my previous supplier Scottish Power and British Gas show 02 as the profile type. Every other digit on that supply number is exactly the same. I have a SMETS2 smart meter installed. 

MeteredOut

I suspect the Energy Ombudsman is the way to get this fixed - though probably not till into January. With your evidence of the tariff, this is a bread-and-butter case for them - they'll tell BG to get it fixed, and probably get you an additional £50+ credit too.

QrizB

CrazyHorse019 said:

I can confirm that both bills of my previous supplier Scottish Power and British Gas show 02 as the profile type. Every other digit on that supply number is exactly the same. I have a SMETS2 smart meter installed. 

If you have profile 02, you should have been put on a dual-rate tariff and BG know it. It's BG's rooster-up.
Time for a formal complaint. If they don't fix it within 8 weeks, you can escalate to the Energy Ombudsman.
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/complaints.html

Ildhund

Just to add that the next bit of the MPAN after the Profile Class is interesting, too. If you know where to look, the three digits (111 in the screenshot) give the Meter Time-switch Code, (MTC) which can be translated into specific SSCs with their associated TPRs giving the peak/offpeak timings. What a particular MTC means varies, e.g, with distributor and/or supplier, so it takes an enormous database to relate MTC to Time Pattern Regime in an individual case - but it is possible.