British Gas Electricity

I have been in dispute with British Gas virtually non stop since they took over my Gas and Electric when my previous supplier went bust last year. I have tried to use Resolver to get British Gas to rectify things, but they have stopped responding to my Resolver Case. Most of the problems have been over grossly exaggerated Direct Debits. I have lived in the same house for over 20 years with very consistent usage! Most recent problems are that British Gas have deleted and replaced the bills that were generated since they took over my accounts. Previous to doing this, my Gas account was considerably in credit and on course to reach zero by the end of the account year. - Overnight, when the bills were replaced, my Gas account went into significant debt and I cannot access the deleted bills. British Gas now deny receiving a Credit of £147.68 from my previous supplier, despite that I have an email from British Gas stating that they had this credit! This would have shown on the deleted bills, which of course I cannot access. The deletion of this credit would also explain why my Gas account went from being considerably in credit, to considerable debt overnight! I have sent British Gas a copy of their own email confirming receipt of my credit from my previous supplier, and they haven't had the common courtesy or manners to acknowledge my email. - I am tearing my hair out with them, and to say that I am angry is an understatement. I would give British Gas zero stars if it were an option!

British Gas are a mess of a company. I have spent hours on the phone to them this year, being told contradictory information, have been charged over and above what we have used, been told our DD would be dropped down to 50.99 pounds per month with no action required, only to then be told in July that we are over 400 pounds in debt and our DD payments will now need to be 140 pounds. The manager told me that the numbers don't relate to each individual home and are automated. So what is the point in being economical and sending in meter readings if this is not taken into account. The manager herself said that there must have been a "glitch." I phoned on the 27th July and am still waiting for a response, in the meantime I am now 140 pounds short. I have just been on the phone again about our gas appliance check and told 3 different pieces of information from different sales advisors. When asked if i could have our confirmation sent by email as evidence of what had been said, i was told it is not possible. I have also lots of issues with HIVE this year. AVOID this company!

They called regarding the new smart meters asked if I wanted to get them installed at my property. Pitched all the benefits NO MENTION OF PROBLEMS THEY HAVE WHICH THEY ARE AWARE OF. Fitted it fine and that's where the problems started. I went to top up electric at the paypoint came home no electric tried to call through 20 mins on hold hung up called again another 15 mins before getting through. Getting told to enter a code manually which then turned out didn't work. Was told will need to send an engineer out as it's not working.I went 3 hours with no electric that time. I then went to top up again a week later and the same thing happened no registered the credit. So this time I called and told them I want my old meters installed today not tomorrow or nxt week. They got someone out who installed my old meters again and guess what It's then happend again today where currently I am still without electric from 9am this morning. I have already lodged a complaint but this Will be going as far as possible. Unacceptable when I have a 66 year old in the property and a 10 year old.

I was moving house and contacted British Gas to advise them that the final payment of the account would need to wait one and a half months after our departure due to the cost of the moving. This was agreed using the telephone. I then cancelled the DD as I had moved 3 months previously where I still retained the DD link and British Gas took nearly £800 from my account because they believed that was how much I owed. I subsequently proved that this was erroneous and eventually I received the refund and a poor apology. You can understand my reason for cancelling the DD link. However, immediately the link was severed British Gas had debt collectors chasing me. This was annoying but as I knew I had made an agreement I was not too concerned. In view of British Gas's attitude I delayed payment to them for another 2 months. Prior to me paying I received no apologies and they were insistent upon continuing with the debt collectors. Hence my actions. I would never use British Gas again. Another problem was I gave them a telephone number just so that an engineer could pay a visit and they said that they would not retain the number this was only for this one purpose. Naturally they gave this number to the debt collectors. Illegal! Even the CEO was very unhelpful.

They tried to increase our direct debit from 150 to 450 a month.

I called them to find out why and they gave me the standard... we read your meter and it was higher then previous estimates.

Ok you cant argue with that, or can you?

As we take both gas and elec from them, I asked them for the readings 12 months ago and then I read the meters today. I calculated given the pence per kwh for all the readings and worked out that we should pay about 130 a month, not 450 a month.

They keep trotting out this real vs estimate sentence.

Anyhow I then compared todays readings with the ones they took 3 weeks ago. They do not put these on the bill anymore. It turned out their reader had made an error inputted the wrong reading, so the bill for elec was 700 not 2000 as they had calculated.

So if I was an old person, I would have just said ok, you read the meter, you must be right, I will find another 300 pounds a month. Unluckily for them I am not that old, have a science degree and am no stranger to electricity or KWH.

To be fair the poor guy on the phone did his best and was nothing but polite, as was I.

So be careful if you get any stupid bills and just question them in detail until its sorted.

I purchased dual fuel from British Gas. Honestly, with the competitive prices offered by other energy companies and the more active role government is playing in monitoring fuel prices, the main thing I look for now is customer service.

Problem 1: When my prepayment meter also British Gas in a new property was changed to monthly meter there was an extra £5 left in the prepaid card which British Gas failed to reimburse despite making repeated promises. In the end as each call took so long, my boyfriend said forget it. Imagine them owing £5/customer of 1million customers. Hmm easy profits eh?

Problem 2: Calling British Gas on their 0800 number takes on average 45 to 60 minutes. And then you would have to talk to someone new repeat everything and chances are nothing resolved.

**Tip for mobile phone users, use British Gas's overseas number so you are not charged a premium which they profit from, and put the call on speaker phone while kept on hold so you can actually get on with your life.**

Since my boyfriend has relinquished overseeing the utilities to me, the first thing I did was give British Gas the sack. My new supplier answers my phonecall under 5 minutes, does not sound tired like the droids at British Gas and very clearly offers an 0800 number for landlines and 0330 number for mobile users on their website.

I lived in a STUDIO flat for 9 months, the last 3 months of my tenancy i had to pay for my bills. The 1st month Feb 2014, my bill was £90, and i thought that was high. Which made me re-think my energy usage: switching off all plugs, the hot water when not needed and not even putting on my electric heaters as i had in the past. My final bill is £561 for just 2 MONTHS, in a STUDIO property.

How has my bill increased that much? That is £381 more than i had expected, which is MORE than 3 times the expected amount. I had even hoped for a lesser bill due to being more efficient with my usage.

Time to look into some court action. DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!!!!

I switched electricity/ gas supplier some years ago. I received paper bill from British Gas which was £500-00+ in credit! the final bill from British Gas I received debited the £500+ leaving me with zero. Never did get it back.

this is the worst customer service and most expensive company ever.

I use to be with british gas on energy supplier, at first the first

12 months bill look ok and normal but still very expensive, after that

12 months the british gas send me a letter and saying there have been

under estimate me and telling me to extra £7,000, this was crazy I phone

them up, the british gas people keep on passing me to another

department and another department and constanly talk to difference

person to person at the end I got to talk to the final person

and he said to me, yes everything is accurate I own them £7,000.

I was thinking why after 1 years send me a bill £7,000 just 2 words

said under estimate and there have scam you, my English is not too

good or well spoken so don't know what to do the weird thing they

have stop sending me statement to track my usage, there just send

me a total invoice every month how much I use and added on the

top of the £7,000, I phone them up again asking them why don't I get

statement, there keep saying we have send them out to me and is been

6 months not receive statement only keep sending a invoice that

only said the sub total I own them now, cause I don't have the money

to pay the one off £7,000 I only can paid little bit at a month and plus on

top how much I use that month.

I was so tied down with british gas for 2 years contract can't wait to leave this company but I still need to pay them off before there will let

you switch to another energy supplier.

one day I received a letter is another invoice saying I am £9,000 in

credit, this is so weird I call them up same thing again keep on passing

me to person to person to speak to me and I told them about this invoice

and that person said to me o is a mistake is not right you are not in credit you still own british gas a out standing balance, so I said ok so I leave it and hang up and after couple month same thing happening again sending me a separate invoice saying i'm in credit of £9,000 but there

still sending me invoice every months saying how much I own then. now I have pass this case to a advisory to help me out on this.

I decided to leave British gas as price went up before Christmas November 2012 time and again in march 2013 ... I've had hardest time ever switching and they said my final gas bill was £203 but they need to refund me £60 from my electric bill as we had duel fuel ... I had explained that bothe were on same account and why can't they send me a giro of £143 instead of refunding me 60 and still me paying £203 saves time and easier for me to pay off.. I spoke to 3 customer service guys who all said they owed me £60 and the last call I made to them I had the guy tell me over the phone they owe me £60 I got him to calculate it and tell me the difference as I was flustered ( my 3and4yr old are not best pleased if I'm on the phone and they keep u online for ages about 50mins a call) today I received the bill of £203 I've rang and told the lady I don't owe all that and she said the last call had been logged explaining I would have a final bill of that amount... What? The guy told me and calculated the difference I'm fuming!! I've tol her to contact the manager and the phone call I had needs to be listened to as he was not the only who told me they owed me £60 ...3 diffetent guys had , their communication and customer service is not good at all I feel stressed from this and fed up with it now am waiting a call bk from them although doubt they will refund me anything! I've only switched once before and had no problems! British gas make it hard for u to leave and will try to clamp u down and make u stay but be warned if u fee leave them they will try to squeeze money out of you!! Even at htostmas I was £150 in credit on both accounts yet struggled to get a refund in always gave readings and all way been in credit after Christmas and ask for it bk but leave £50 on each to keep me safe and use the money I was owed towards my boys birthdays which is end dec and beginning f January... At the end of the day if u pay to much u shoul get it no bit that was hard I had to convince them I'm a good custome and I need bk what uv paid over although kept some on each account!! Painfull company!!!!!! Wish me luck and I started my switch 2monts ago and it's still ongoing!!!