Changing from British Gas to Southern Electric

fznuk

Up until last November (2007) My Gas and Electric was with British Gas, direct debit and on fix or Fall V2.

Last September there was an error created by them when they upgraded their computer system which left me with a huge rise in my DD payment with my gas...going from £45 to £135! Even after phoning them and they reassuring me it was their error and be corrected they still took the first payment...so i quickly stopped BG DD future payments and got HSBC (my Bank) to chase my payment (which i got back in full - good old HSBC!!).

I again notified BG but their operators could only apologise drop my DD payment to £80 a month when they clearly could see i wasnt going to use that much gas?! All because their computer said 'No' (yep they are like the series Little Britain!) and i would have to write to their HQ :mad:

I decided to change instead, and go to Southern Electric, i dont know if that was a good choice or not since even though they sorted out taking on my electric they too cocked up my Gas account even before it was opened :mad: - I live in a converted Magistrates court split into 3 flats, we dont have flat numbers..only names. The operator from SE decited to take the serial number from a database assuming it was mine and setup my gas account from that only for it to be a neighbours (she not only got her account transfered to SE from Scottish power but also got it completely closed when they realised they made the mistake when i phoned them back...poor neighbour!)

Now, after sorting it out again they finally took my meter serial number (something they should have done in the first place) i have to wait another 28 days for my account to come over to SE and my new account setup... :rolleyes:

I really hope i have made the right choice?

Comparing prices on the phone SE are a lot cheaper in comparisen to the Fixed price from BG!

Only time will tell. :rolleyes:

kotka4

fznuk, I have been with SE for over 5 years now and I am very very pleased! I have never had to weight more than 5 mins to get through to their customer service and for couple of minor errors they've made they have always refunded me plus giving me £20 good will discount for their error. I have made a rush (stupid) switch to scot power 3 years ago - this lasted for a month only (thank god) - they were sending me electricity bill based on an estimated meter reading, although I had no meter, but pre-paid key (supplied by them?!). I am sticking with SE, since I've had nothing but hassle with other providers I've had the misfortune to be with in the past. In my opinion you've made a good choice. The only advice I can give you is try not to let them setup the direct debit to unrealistically big amount. They tried that with me in the beginning and I asked to reduce by a third (from 75 to about 30) which is exactly as much as I use! This is because you will not get money back if you've overpaid, unless you switch or perhaps move house. HTH