British Gas Reviews: Give your feedback

Michaelw

Sararen wrote: »

Warning with British Gas they do full credit check and may ask you for huge deposit.

Thet did with me switching to credit mode with their smart meters but not the deposite.My bills actually increased under credit billing and after a long battle eventually had the meters' remotely switched back to prepayment which smart meters are of slightly more use paying online and the credit automatically sent to the meter.

With British Gas the service is all important and are quite happy to pay a little more for that but under prepayment which is around £40 a year more then their cheapest direct debit tariff they claim but my credit rating is free from any risk of huge variations' in direct debit demands'.Prepayment prevent's huge bills all at once and offers fast gas meter repairs in under four hours when needed.

David981

Does anyone else have problems with submitting readings to BG online? Their online systems accepts the readings ok and sends me an automated email confirming them, but a day or two later I get a further email saying there was a problem with their system and they could not use them, so I then get an estimated statement. So when this drifts away from actual usage I have to go through the time consuming process of giving readings by phone. This has been going on for the past year since I switched back to them, and was also the same when I was with them before in 2016/17!! If I complain on the phone they just brush it off. I complained on Trust Pilot and got the usual invitation to follow it up privately, which I did, but again got nowhere.

Benmango

Can I ask a "moving into a new build house, where the existing supplier is BG" question?

As above!

Moving in on Mon 2nd Dec, ideally I'd like to be put on a duel fuel tariff recommended by price comparison websites, rather than the default tariff we'd likely be put on. Any advice whether to "queue" this up in advance with British Gas or just ring them up on the 2nd? IE would a switch to themselves (just a different tariff) be instant/on the same day?

Oceana8

Horrendous experience. So far had to be in for 18 hours of appointments and still no progress in finalising move from 3 months ago. Got stuck with a text complaints service, at no point can you talk by phone to anyone. Been offered £ 10 compensation for:
a) Wasted time and stress
b) inconsistent and incorrect information (multiple times)
c) no homecare cover (free included with tarriff - checked twice before moving that my paid for agreement could be cancelled and free one taken)
d) paying for a gas meter in another county
e) having direct debits taken from two providers as british gas would not agree final reading. This was a huge issue for me financially.
f) heating broken down twice directly after smart meter visits
Nightmare - I need to make time between british gas appointments (still ongoing) to put everything in writing to the ombudsman. Obviously not received my cashback yet from mse energy club.

seanhb

I've switched 3 times in the last year, no charge just cheaper deals and a switch bonus... no brainer!
Never had any customer service issues.

Zanzib

Having been moved to British Gas by the regulator when Breeze went out of business I can sympathise.

Submitted energy readings online on the days Elec and Gas changed over but have received two letters asking for our meter readings.

Used the chat option and confirmed they did have the readings- gave them again. But it's 28 days for the account to be set up.

Now just waiting for the date to come round so I can start the switch away.

LittleJo

Hi
I am switching to British Gas
Had an email from them on 29th November asking for meter readings.
No account set up online so I rang them.
35 minutes later I spoke to a call centre who listened to what I had to say and hung up.
Called again and complained, that seemed much easier as the person I spoke to appeared to carre.
Nothing has happened since. No communication whatsoever
I am probably expecting too much.
I will leave BG as soon as possible.
Jo

smileypiley

Firstly, let me apologise for the long rant, secondly, that we have never had a problem with BG....until December last year. We eventually had a smart meter fitted just under a year ago (we were previously told that we couldn’t have one as we had solar panels). Anyway, 18th December last year, our smart meter displayed an error message “network connection lost, please contact customer services if problem persists”. After disconnecting and reconnecting several times, the meter displayed a ⚠️ with the message “connecting to smart meter”. It’s been like that ever. Have you ever tried contacting BG customer services? Their operating hours are Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm! We both work these hours and have struggled for the past month to speak to someone during our lunch breaks. Finally today, I managed to speak with someone, who kindly was trying to arrange for an engineer to visit. Unfortunately they could give me a week day, but not guarantee a time. This was not acceptable, as again we both work full time and can not get time off work. I explained that as I work in a school, half term is nearly upon us and could we have an appointment for that week 😕 I was told that they have nothing available that week and I was given a phone number, asking me to phone daily to see if they had any cancellations for that day 😡. Please someone help, before my husband throws the smart meter in the bin

bodell2020

I have just switched My 96 year old Mother's BG account to another supplier. Like a lot of older people she thought that customer loyalty meant something so kept with them for many years. She is very hard of hearing and so unable to make/receive phone calls. She is now saving at least £330 per year for gas and electric with the new supplier. If that isn't bad enough then how about the fact that BG allowed her to accumulate £54 credit on electricity and a massive £797.71 credit on gas without ever once advising her to claim it back or alter her DD. Disgusting and immoral are two of the milder terms I can say about British Gas and their treatment of customers. They say they have sent out a cheque for the £54 credit but haven't yet for the £797 credit. When I asked them about it the call adviser said "BECAUSE IT WAS SUCH A LARGE AMOUNT I WILL NEED TO CONSULT WITH MY SUPERVISOR". What a farce! When I asked why they hadn't sent out both cheques together she did not have an answer for me. We can all guess why can't we? They even had the cheek to call her a few days ago to offer her a discount because she was leaving. Trouble was they asked to speak to her late husband who has been dead 8 years which they do have on record and the account is not in his name but her's since then anyway! What a shambles! When they send out the end of supply statements they do not tell you how to claim it back and do not disclose their telephone contact number either. Very helpful Company.

SalveForOldSores

Why do BG take so long to produce an electronic bill ? ( Usually takes about  at least three days after submission of an on-line meter reading) and when does the "Grace" period as regards payment of the bill, run  -  from the date of the meter reading submission or the date of the formal bill  production ?
BG do render a figure for each bill immediately after you submit a meter reading on-line, but its just a total amount figure, un-supported by any further detail and, personally, I'm loath to pay a bill where there isn't a formal bill (Showing the calculations) .
Is BG another of these companies that operates on-line but continues to use out-of-date back-office systems, with no to little inter-operability with their web presence, for proper account management ? There appear to be so many of them doing this i.e. under investing in up-to-date, top-to-toe, customer management systems. 
Why doesn't the Regulator haul them up for a good talking to ?
N