British Gas phone calls

pubsboy

I have just taken a phone call from what I thought was a Gloucester number only to find it was from a British Gas call center in India reminding me that I haven't paid my gas bill yet. I have no problem with receiving reminders but I do object to British Gas ringing me at work and dishonestly pretending to be ringing from the UK instead of from a foreign call centre. Not surprisingly the lady I complained to at British Gas did not think it was deceitful to pretend to be calling from one place when the call was actually coming from a different country but to me this is just another example of the contempt with which large companies seem to treat their customers. To make matters worse, the original caller from India started off the call by asking if I could answer some security questions - in the days of phishing calls and scams why would anyone hand out personal information to any unsolicited caller and why would a FTSE 100 company think it good practice to do so?

jbuchanangb

If I receive a call purporting to be from any utility supplier I ask THEM to answer my security questions.
Things like 1st 3rd and last digit of my account number with them, or the last 2 letters of my postcode.

Caller ID spoofing seems to be common practice for call centres of all sorts.

You did exactly the right thing by refusing to talk to them, and then calling a genuine number for the company obtained from your bill or from their web site.

Eric_Disley

If it's annoyed you that much, you should leave.

SammenForLivet2

I can understand why British Gas don't use an international number to call from, can you imagine if someone tried to call-back to discuss there bill only to find out that the call will be charged at international rates. Furthermore, until a few months back, if they called on an 0800 number, this would be chargeable from mobiles.

British Gas don't tend to charge late/active fees as much as some energy suppliers (for instance, I used to work for a small supplier at one point that charged £12 for simply returning a direct debit payment), so if you concern is that the call centre is located around the world, perhaps bear this in mind.

I don't think British Gas are alone here, most international companies (e.g: HSBC, Barclaycard, o2, ShopDirect, American Express) all use local, UK telephone numbers for outbound calls, when there contact centres may be located around the world.

Sparx

Do you not have anything better to do? Like maybe pay the gas bill... :rotfl:

Seriously though, seeing an international number ringing? First off you aren't going to answer it. Secondly you would not want to ring it back All companies 'spoof' and have the caller ID set to their own generic 08/03 number. So it's free for you to bloody call back on and you can tell who it is! Crikey there is just no winning with some people.

Nothing to do with bad practise, next troll please...

:money:

Hedgehog99

Don't give them your work phone number!