Energy News

British Gas complaints skyrocket

Saturday 21 April, 2007

Customer complaints to British Gas (www.britishgas.co.uk) has almost tripled in the past two years, according to a survey by energywatch, the industry regulator.

The level of British Gas complaints is almost three times more than the total complaints received about the other ‘big five’ UK energy companies put together.

Sam Laidlaw, the chief executive of British Gas’s parent company Centrica, said: "Most UK homes are poorly insulated and the energy loss and emissions levels from them are much higher than they could be. We can use our expertise in the green energy sector to help home owners significantly reduce their impact on the environment and take a lead in this rapidly growing new business area."

The company also broke complaints records in March 2007, when it received more than 14,000 complaints in a single month.

Energywatch has released the following figures, which show that Powergen, npower and Scottish Power have managed to significantly reduce numbers of complaints, while customer dissatisfaction levels for British Gas have risen dramatically.

British Gas has blamed this rise on the introduction of a new billing system, which allows the company to estimate bills rather than sending employees out to take meter readings.

According to managing director Peter Bentley, this system has had “teething problems”. Talking to the BBC, he has said: “Obviously we apologise for the inconvenience and the stress. I understand what it’s like to get a bill that is incorrect. We apologise to those customers and we are working very hard to improve services.”

Earlier this year, British Gas was the first energy supplier to cut its gas and electricity prices for six years, and has taken on 800 extra staff to answer customer services calls.

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