How to get British Gas to respond to you

number1johnw@hotmail.com

I don't know if this is news or not, but in case not....... I've been trying to resolve a fairly minor issue with British Gas (under £100 at stake) for almost a year now, don't bother writing or emailing as in my certain experience you will be ignored, if you get through on the 'phone anything agreed will not be carried through - maybe others have had better luck but this has certainly been my experience. The magic word that you need is 'Energywatch', file a complaint with them online and suddenly British Gas take an interest, I have been told that this is because they get a £50 fine for each complaint. It still doesn't mean that they sort things out correctly because this seems to be beyond them, but at least you get a response.

dc

Could not agree more, quicker if you phone Energywatch, they connect you directly to BG CS management team in Southampton. BG are given 10 days in which to sort. My long standing complaint of money owed was sorted one day before Energywatch deadline, + a phone call later from BG to see if cheque had arrived (though not yet cleared bank).

BG system is soooo flawed, AND self inflicted.

Duff/antiquated website billing causes many problems, which add to CS overload.
No managers available in call centres because they are all manning the operator phones. AND what is worst of all the operators have not been given the correct info to action the complaint.
They think think they have actioned a response to a complaint, but the System negates that without their knowledge. Leading to even greater customer angst.:rolleyes2

In my case 3 cheques have been sent and yet never received, so 3 robber postmen?, no the cheques never left the building, (unlike Elvis )

Management action, errr "Sorry" and "the operators did not do it properly" What three different CS reps in three different call centres did it wrong???
No wonder the average waiting time is 25 mins.
Ebico here I come.

cat_saving_expert

I have just sent energywatch my complaints about British Gas after 3 months and 10 phone calls to BG with no results at all, hopefully they can help me sort it all out.

Giddytimes

You have to have actually tried to contact BG first though. Energywatch are meant to give BG 10 days to acknowledge and begin to sort the problem out before they will take a complaint from a customer.

Although in BG's case they never seem to respond so all that means is writing a letter, waiting 2 weeks for no response and then ringing Energywatch.

sweetnest

couldnt agree more.

i have been trying to get replies from british gas for a year now, started with, e-mails, then letters, then recorded delivery, then special delivery...not one response, i contacted energy watch, they were useless and the only person to help with my issue was bristishgasworker (dont think he post on here anymore)

i now have another issue (i paid 10 payments in 10 months, they reckon i paid 6) they actually phoned me up !!!! shock...(after i`d e-mailed them). the nice woman told me to e-mail in my 10 bank statements and my account will be credited....yep, no response to 6 e-mails later, i have sent a letter and so it goes on and on and on

i would get hold of energy watch again but they were totally useless last time

i am tied in until 2010, but i will still leave when the time is up

stumpjumper

We're having awful problems with BG with them overcharging us for gas (charging imerial for a metric meter), they've also messed up our electricity account. We've tried contacting them and nothing ever happens. So we'll try energywatch and see what happens. We can't afford to keep paying their miscalculated bills!!

dc

Energywatch 08459 06 07 08.

And two possibly good BG contact numbers,
0845 60 60 870

02380 214000, that is the caller display of BG manager who contacted me, having a lot of 00's, so I believe it may be their Southampton switchboard, so ask for CS Mangement Team.

Somerset

Agree with OP. Have had huge incompetence from British Gas resetting a prepay visit ( two goes ) and then switching it to a credit meter ( three goes ). Accepted their offer of £20 compo re one of the wasted attempts ( there were three so not greedy ). When I chased the £20 for the fourth time only to be told 'it hadn't been actioned' again ... I thought stuff it. Wasted enough time on these jokers. Filled in a complaint online with Energywatch and five days later got a call FROM British Gas. That's a first !!!! Anyway still waiting on the cheque which the rep said would be sent immediately but .... there's no point talking to British Gas .... nothing happens. At least Energywatch got a reaction from them - I never could.

tripled

If you ever call them and are told 'the front line support team will call you back within x days', don't hold your breath. Do the minimum necessary, then call energywatch.

FLS deal with:
Wrong meter type (prepayment/credit)
Meter exchange not updatd (imperial->metric)
Account creation (acquisition) - account not set up or wrong reading (change of supplier)
Account closure (withdrawl) - account not closed or wrong reading (change of supplier)
Gas no bill (shipperless/no account)
PUG (Passing unregistered gas) - faulty meter inc blank display

FLS have cases outstanding since June 2006. Even managers can't resolve the problems. It is partly down to poor resourcing and partly down to the problems they've had with the new billing system. The FLS team don't take calls, all the frontline staff can do is promise yet another callback and send them the details (which get ignored).

david29dpo

same here. i have stopped my DD with BG for my electric until they send me the correct bill. will be interesting to see what happens!

eyesy

tripled wrote:

The FLS team don't take calls, all the frontline staff can do is promise yet another callback and send them the details (which get ignored).

Actually they do take calls, they just keep it very, very well hidden. I got a call from them a few weeks ago with a phone number direct to them. I asked why the main CC depts. lie and say that there is no number for FLS. He replied and said words to the effect of "Well, we don't like to publish it, it's only given out to customers with big problems etc." - i.e. they lie.

The number I was given was 0845 955 703. Tried to ring it for the first time today - it's an invalid number!!