British Gas - grumble (RANT)

[Tay]

/rant on

So...as you may know I've had some issues with British Gas over the years, its pityful story.

I'm at a loose end with them now. As soon as

I've been getting fobbed off by support and social media for 6-8 months. There has been NO improvements, its just got worse and worse.

I have SMETS1 smart meters...originally when I was with BG they were working but there was so many other issues I just had to leave. I then switched away to various providers over the last 5-10 years nobody ever able to read the so called smart meters, but they were at least cheaper.

My provider went bust 2-3ish (The first one to go) years ago, low and behold I'm back with BG as they were the provider of last resort

Since then, I've had numerous issues with billing, over charging, under charging, inability to read meters, incorrect bills, refunds, more over charges, it took a year!! to get me on to monthly direct debit billing (i'm, happy to pay for what I use, but I dont want to give them extra for them to speculate with)

This year, things were almost working, they could read my electricity meter but they have been estimating Gas usage since Feb/Mar 23. Now and again I submit a gas reading (although its getting harder to find the option to do that as it is disappearing from their webpages).

i then moved to an EV tariff based on cost again. The view was we would start to move non essential stuff on to cheaper power, stuff got put on to Apple Home kit plugs and battery based gear got charged during off peak. Washing machine, dishwasher were turned on after midnight and all started looking good.

Then they broke the reporting webpages and there was no way to discern peak and off peak and I simply gave up recording my usage (life is wayyy to short).
I then bought my emonCMS solution, CT clamped the main inbound connection and for the last few months, I can see my realtime usage, historical data, peak and off peak usage - I could do more but fed up putting more effort into doing BG's job.

Now BG's website has stopped showing me any electrical usage whatsoever, I can see GAS, but ONLY after I tell them the meter reading. otherwise everything just looks like this. Can you tell when I submitted a gas meter reading?.



I cant believe that I'm the only one having these issues, I've just heard back from BG:

"Thanks Steve. I see you're on the Electric Drivers tariff and this currently isn't compatible with the My Energy Report online. I have checked the meter and we are receiving readings through so you will be charged correctly though I do apologise you're not able to monitor the usage through the app. I have also checked your gas meter and it does look like readings were coming through intermittently but they do seem to be coming through more consistently now". The Gas meter readings are me providing them, and the website WAS at least partially working last month.

If it wasnt for this I'd go a little insane (thanks balcony Solar !!).
So much for a significant portion of the daily charge going to manage their websites, data recording etc




/rant off

I had some Solar chap come in yesterday talking about batteries and roofs, PV etc, he did tell me that they really like to get at least 8 panels up to justify the cost of the scaffolding, so looks like primary roof mount PV isnt going to happen anytime soon, at least until the density gets better to justify the cost.

Now to wade through old bills and my spreadsheets to provide him electrical usage for his program, as I've just checked the webpage again and BG have me showing as no electrical use at all...sigh.

The sooner I get batteries and reduce dependancy on BG the better.

[nowty]

What brand is your SMETS 1 meter ?

If its a "Secure" brand then Octopus Energy should be able to read it, if you want out of BG.

[Tay]

What brand is your SMETS 1 meter ?

If its a "Secure" brand then Octopus Energy should be able to read it, if you want out of BG.

I'll have a word with Octopus and see what they say, I wont be feeding in to the grid until the "Fence "PV solution is in place anyway, well, aside from my relatively little panels which I suspect will just do a small top up job.

I recall seeing something recently about the SMETS1 meters where they have to sort them by the end of 2023 or replace them if thats the case then I'll let BG replace them at their cost then clear off, I'm sure Octopus would like that

[MrPablo]

What brand is your SMETS 1 meter ?

If its a "Secure" brand then Octopus Energy should be able to read it, if you want out of BG.

Yep, Secure SMETS1 meters should have already been migrated to the DCC so definitely check the manufacturer of your meter.
I moved post migration and it was a painless experience.

[dan_b]

When you switch to octopus, be sure to ask someone on here for their referral codes - we all have them!

But seriously, just switch to Octopus. British Gas are terrible, and Octopus are not. In fact they're very good.

[Tay]

What brand is your SMETS 1 meter ?

If its a "Secure" brand then Octopus Energy should be able to read it, if you want out of BG.

Yep, Secure SMETS1 meters should have already been migrated to the DCC so definitely check the manufacturer of your meter.
I moved post migration and it was a painless experience.

I checked last week and still had not been moved. Assuming I was reading the response correctly.

Just checked again:
Electricity - Landis+Gyr E470

Your electricity meter's working in smart mode
Supplier: British Gas Trading Limited

It's still worth checking with the new supplier if they can support your meter in smart mode before you switch. We can't guarantee the list of suppliers is accurate.
British Gas Trading LimitedTariff restrictions
Electricity Plus Supply LimitedTariff restrictions
Gas Plus Supply LimitedTariff restrictions
Octopus Energy Ltd
Shell Energy Retail Limited
Shell Energy UK Limited

Still not moved, although looking at the small list of suppliers, it looks like Octopus could actually read my meter in its current state.
I'll call them tomorrow and see what options I have, I 'presume' they would need to add a profile or something to it to detect and record exported electricity?

[Tay]

When you switch to octopus, be sure to ask someone on here for their referral codes - we all have them!

But seriously, just switch to Octopus. British Gas are terrible, and Octopus are not. In fact they're very good.

Will do, and yup, I know..

[Tay]

Turns out my sister got moved to Octopus from Bulb a while back and she has a code fwiw..

I saw FWIW because I cant even leave British Gas now because they have the meter (more their backend systems) incorrectly set up, Octopus have confirmed all the details I have given them but British Gas have not updated the database on their side to show the second rate listed on the smart meter.

Because both rates are updating (as you would expect for Peak and Off peak), Octopus cant move me to them as the service(s) they are looking to move doesn't match what the almighty database shows.

This might explain why British Gas isn't showing half the usage data they should for me, for the first 75% of the year I had no Gas readings but Electric was working fine, in the last few weeks they have totally killed any electric readings from showing on the usage website at all.

I cant stay (because they are rubbish) I cant go because they are rubbish. Now I have to try and convince them to update some industry database before I can move.

When it rains it pours.

[Tay]

so, explaining to them that they have failed up date some industry DB has proven harder than I thought, I knew they were crap...but utterly inept.

So, 3 outstanding issues with BG this week

1. Account still not showing any detailed electricity usage for a month now - soem social media person said my tariff doesnt allow you to have detailed view on the website.
2. Free (well, part of a £288 a year homecare solution) Boiler inspection showed a leak that the engineer claimed to have fixed, roll on 3 months later and boiler dropping all pressure over 18-24hrs, had to call out engineer, turns out issue was the same leak that engineer claimed to have fixed several months back. got hit with a £60 excess charge for the call out.. not happy !
3. This database thing where BG have not updated this 'database' with both rates as per the EV tariff I'm on, therefore Octopus cant move me until they can Rate0 and Rate1 in this database.

All discussed today in 2 calls to BG, bit of a row regarding the excess, I ended the conversation saying they had reneged in their contractual obligations to adequately maintain my boiler, they ended on 'well, if you read the contract terms we didnt charge you on the 1st visit but you were on the second'. I just "grrrrrrdddd" and hung up.

Still deciding whether I can be arsed to follow through and take it to small claims or file all the paperwork with credit card company and let them sort it out. Excess was paid with cc

Bob from India or wherever he happened to be, assured me no less than 5 times that the webpage and detailed electricity usage would be fixed with 5-7days. I heard that at least 3 times since March and twice since a coupla tariff changes ago. captured the transcript this time for a laugh

Hate them.

Cant stay cant leave sigh

[Tay]

And just like clockwork, British Gas have done nothing to resolve my issues

1. Still no electrical usage on their website or app.
2. Nothing on the Homecare front, so auto renewal is cancelled - But I bet they still take the cash ^^
3. No change on the database thing.

Only thing left to do is raise a complaint with Ofgem, as my last complaint got this response. So OFGEM and/or the financial ombudsman now. We'll see what they say.


They've not even bothered doing anything about the complaint. well, aside from close it.