British Gas Review

Overall Rating

None

British Gas has serious problems.

This is a long story which I will attempt to shorten. We received a surprise electricity bill for £1500 following having a meter change which we were horrified by. British Gas claimed that estimates were wrong despite me giving them meter readings. This was for a 12 month period. Living with my wife in a mid terrace with an empty house most of the day I was convinced this was wrong. In summary it took us months to fight this bill and get a simple and accurate breakdown of how my bill was calculated and what I owed! I handed all my bills to my accountant who forwarded all correspondence to Energy Watch.
After several months of not paying anything and being very hard nosed, insisting that we wanted a breakdown of the situation on paper before paying, we finally received a simple spreadsheet detailing what we had spent. It came to £300! There is a big difference between £1500 and £300 - and only after receiving several threatening letters and being told we were about to have debt collectors, court summons, electricity cutoff etc. As you can imagine, it is difficult not to feel intimidated and stressed about this.
But they had got it wrong, and it took us over six months to get them to admit it. I bet thousands of customers have actually agreed to pay off rather than going through the hassle of finding out the truth. There is something very wrong and I bet British Gas are making money. I have only just found that my next door neighbour had exactly the same scenario, but instead she elected to pay the amount.

Members' Comments onpetercollings's Review

• smashie22 on 9th Oct 2008

  I found this review helpful because thats what i am now going to do ... cheers

• thescottgallery on 24th Jan 2009

  I had a similar experience with BG, I was told that I owe them £4,000 because of miss estimated readings over a period of three years, during this time i had been paying £40-£50 per month. There was no way in the world that this could have been correct and I insisted that the meter must have been faulty or something. I refused to pay for some time and contacted energy watch. BG wanted to take the meter out and replace it with a pre pay meter, I said that I wanted the meter checked and tested. While out at work one day a person came into my home and took away the meter and replaced with a pre pay without my consent, my son had let him in thinking it was all ok.
  The only evidence I ever had has been 'lost'. Now I seem to be forever running out to have the key recharged,