British Gas

It took British Gas 3 months and several attempts to set up a direct debit, meanwhile potentially forcing me into arrears.
No operative was able to explain why such a simple procedure was beyond their capabilities, nor did they have any idea of how to correct a situation casually dismissed as a system error when the repeated errors were of human construction
The promised phone call from a 'specialist' never materialized.
I was further given false and misleading information regarding direct debits.
And my complaints were either not responded to as promised, or were dismissed by the person(s) against whom the complaint was made.
I have today arranged to change my supplier.

The date of my 'experience' is the date of the first in a series of complaints, which were ongoing and largely unanswered at the time of posting.

In respect of the response from British Gas, I should say that I had been offered similar empty words of apology or regret previously.
What British Gas absolutely declined to do was to address and correct many of the issues.
It is purely due to the cavalier attitude towards my complaints, and the ineptitude and incompetence of British Gas employees that they now have opportunity and occasion to express, in their most patronizing autoresponse, their 'sadness' at losing my custom.
Either the staff or the company are not fit for purpose

I cannot access my account online. As soon as I enter my email address, the webpage goes to a 'google captcha' with a box to tick, saying 'Let's do a quick verification'. You tick the box and it reloads with exactly the same page - so you can't actually login.
Ah you say - "But you can access 'Help' at the top of the page". "Oh, wow, so you can..." and you enter the kind of issue and it presents you with a series of vaguely relevant advice, and "Wow, there's the chatbot. My saviour!"
So, you start chatting with the chatbot, who offers you the chance to chat to a real human being and then decides after 10 seconds that all the real human beings have gone off to lunch or are living a few lightyears from earth or are just busy. And ends the conversation by telling you to come back later...
All I want to do is to access my account...

I switched from a prepayment meter to a credit meter, they promised to credit my account with the money left on the prepayment meter which i had paid for, i never got this money back, was trying for months to get it, but they lie all the time, the staff at the call centre are totally incompetent, i have now switched suppliers, AVOID BRITISH GAS

If there was a -5 you would get it! Well done again for being the WORST ENERGY SUPPLIER IN THE COUNTRY! Honestly, I've asked repeatedly for a smart meter and pay as you go electric and gas- as a new customer, this is what I signed up for. But British Gas make up their own mind and now I have one prepayment meter, one pay monthly and NO smart meter! Well done to you British Gas, is it that difficult. Because I DON'T want a pay monthly account, I need to speak to you, you have now put negative markers on my credit file. DISGUSTING! I've asked you again and again and again for a smart meter and gas and electric on pay monthly! Seriously how difficult. I swear I'll put this story everywhere I feel like contacting the papers and I'll be contacting the ombudsman! It's not like I can ever get through on the phone lines - I'm sure if I plaster it all over every review site and Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, you might listen!

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!

If I could leave zero stars I would, 9 months on a total of around 60hours of phone calls and hundreds of emails they still haven't resolved a miss billing of £2500 and It stills shows as a debt on my account, eventually got Ofgem involved, Would never use or recommend to anyone.

Took out boiler maintenance contract with British Gas. It had been only a few weeks since one of their engineer had come out and serviced the boiler, he failed to realise it was in an unusable bad state and left it running saying it was fine, few weeks later it brokedown in the middle of winter we were without hot water, when I requested for an engineer I was told their engineers were on strike and that I should contact another company to get it looked at. I was quoted between £300.00 to £500.00 an hour, when I informed British Gas of these extortionate costs they said it was not their problem that I could not afford it. Luckily a friend suggested I try a company he knew off who charged £110.00 to tell me the boiler is in a very dangerous state and that it was beyond repair, I was also told that the British Engineer who last serviced it should have realised the boiler was in a dangerous state. British Gas quoted me £3500 for a new boiler install, I got the job done for only £1800 by another comapany.
Not did they only leave my family with a boiler in dangerous state they were inconsiderate and uninterested in providing any form of help at our desperate hour, yet they had our money for the year's contract. I will never use this company again! They sent out a cowboy engineer who did not know what he was doing? And left us with a dangerous faulty boiler in running state.

British gas are charging me £3500 a month. I phoned them up. They told me that it's because of cost of living. The staff were so rude. Woudnt recommend British gas

It's 02/11/2022 I'm coming back home after work. I see a white envelope with written on it: To occupier.
First my reaction was: What!? Someone entered my house door?!
The letter was from Arvato, the company is working for British Gas dealing with debts.
I was totally shocked.
It's a long story to say the all what happened.
In short words, I moved to a new place, I set up an account for meter reading, I paid bills. Arvato came to my house, they put me on top up.
I bought top up I put in and still couldn't have gas, no heating, no hot water. Additionally they take every week £6 from my top up for my debts which I do not have, plus 50 p every day for maintenance.
All that nightmare is caused by British Gas which made a mistake treated me as a previous occupier with debts.
Today is 26 of November and still the problem is not solved.
Topping up doesn't help. Debts are on the top up too.
I again don't have gas.
Furthermore, made many calls to British Gas, hard to get through to speak to them, agents not professional.
I'm exhausted.

British Gas Electric is terrible. I transferred to this company from Bulb and they got the start readings wrong and also put me on the highest tariff instead of the prepayment one. They then sent me a bill for 680 pounds and it took weeks to complain. They then sent a bill for 74 pounds and soon after rebilled me 184 pounds! All this for 30 odd days of being with them. Fortunately I left them quickly but the complaints process went on and on during which time they sent in debt collectors and charged a further 28 pounds in admin fees while my complaint was with the Ombudsman and although the ombudsman found in my favour they could not get the 28 pounds extra removed and they did not follow the decision of the ombudsman to split the full use into a day and night reading using econonomy 7. It took 5 months and I gave up in the end. They are the worst company I have ever run across and have used every trick in the book to decive and cheat you the consumer and are even vindictive about having complained about their shoddy business practice. Keep well clear of this lot!

Smart meter broken since June. Prior to that was working intermittently since February. I've had to call multiple times to chase. 2 complaints have been escalated and nothing has been resolved. Was told on 24/8, after I had to call again, someone would be in touch within 4-6 weeks to book in an engineer to fix broken part. Have had no communication whatsoever and after I had to call again today to chase, I've been told smart meter won't be fixed until 9th January. The resolution for lack of communication is to escalate a complaint. Absolute joke. Processes within the company are shocking. It's difficult to find a human to speak to on the phone and the online chat is terrible. The submit meter reading option on the website is shocking, it just sends you round in circles and you can't do it on the app. The app is lacking as well for such a profitable company which are rinsing its customers, for what? Shoddy customer service and communication. If I wasn't on a fixed tariff I'd be going elsewhere. I categorically would not recommend British Gas

August - offered a service for boiler and fire for £39 so thought I would see if any good. Booked on their chart first available which was for end of September. No show. Phone line advised to ring back due to considerable calls. Tried Chat Line - put through to 3 different people, eventually booked October. Waited in for 6 hours - No Show again, logged on and found moved to November at 8.00am. Chat line again, said I could only do the between 12 - 6pm, two more people to go through and moved to correct time. On the day, an arrival at 7.45am - left a card and asked me to re-book, another arrival at 3.00pm from Scottish Gas. Advised I needed new
Boiler a. S.a. P. so Chat Line again, would get someone to me in a couple of weeks to give a quote. Explained I was on the Priority Register, and told she would mark as urgent. Absolutely nothing! Have now had to find a local tradesman.
Another call - all my Gas Bill details have disappeared not on either the old site or the new.
Have not been informed on the new charge since the October 1st increase - We are waiting for
Government instructions! Not received the Benefit either.
Obviously have too many customers to be bothered to care.

Definitely wouldn't recommend using British Gas, the salesman who did my quote didn't understand what he was doing, didn't order some things needed including the hot water tank!
I paid to have the new boiler moved to a new location but was informed by the contractors it was not possible due to how much work was involved…despite paying for it! I'm visually impaired so couldn't help with any of the required work, they were well aware of this from the start but didn't want to allow for my disability when it mattered.
The quote was loaded to the max with Labour charges, I paid for at least 38 man hours but it was done in less than a day. Mostly because they didn't want to do what was quoted for and I had paid for. I even stipulated I wanted a power flush to all radiators, again it was quoted for and paid for but instead all I got was one of the contractors banging the radiators with a hammer.
They don't all get warm again, a mere 7 days after.

Avoid British Gas, rip off.

Edit - As I say above, I'm visually impaired but you give me links and typed messages to speak to someone? Says it all really

Edit #2
It's now 10th March and still no help.
I rang about 2 days ago and was informed my complaint was in a queue, this might be 3 to 4 MONTHS until it gets looked at. How many complaints must they have!
I'm disabled and my heating system still isn't working correctly, absolutely no care from British Gas despite them trying to appear like a caring responsible company.
Avoid using British Gas at all costs, corporate money making machine with no customer care.

Unfortunately British Gas has become my supplier, after my previous energy company folded. BG has, without consultation or them following the Ofgem guidelines, put me onto a prepayment meter account. As a disabled person who cares for another disabled person, this clearly defines my household as vulnerable, but this did not stop BG cutting off my gas supply, I did not realise my Smart Meter was now converted to a prepayment meter, as I had not been consulted, that I needed to put credit onto my smart meter, so far over six phone calls, over three hours of trying to explain, emails to Chis OShea, my MP, Ofgem, still no joy at all.

Inept.

BG have yet again messed up our Direct Debit, Readings and Bill.
Over the last 4 days our account has shown 2 bills and 2 reversals of over £1k each. We've been in debit for over 1.5k, in credit for £55 and now in debit for £800! I sent our readings and they said they were wrong so they wouldn't use them to bill me so I sent photos of the meters. This is when the money merry-go-round began on the App. When I looked at our usage on the App for the last quarter it is sky high. The only way it could be this high is if a music festival was being run off our meter. Utterly ridiculous! Then I find out they've been taking £50 a month more than the agreed direct debit without informing me of the change. This is the 2nd time in 2 years they've made a huge blunder and I've wasted time trying to get hold of them with absolutely no luck. It's wearing and infuriating. Every time you go to Live Chat a notice pops as informing you that there's nobody available. Utter rubbish. Utter, utter rubbish. Sort it out British Gas! Just look at the review sites! It says it all!

Booked installation of Smart Metre 3 weeks ago, for between 1pm - 5pm today. The technician arrived at 4.30 and as soon as we opened the door she said she didn't think she could do it as she did not have the right equipment. When asked didn't they check they had the equipment in the morning before setting off on the appointments we were told she had only been given this appt 30 mins ago. When we asked when she would be returning she said she would not be WE would have to arrange another appointment. PRETTY POOR SERVICE IF YOU ASK ME. A TOTAL DISREGARD FOR CUSTOMERS.

App and website still not working to check how much you have on your meters over a year later. Clearly not bothered to fix them.

When I got pleurisy due to them cutting out my gas because my Smart Meter screen and app were showing that I had £15 on my gas when in fact I had nothing (So their fault) they said that someone will come the next day or two to turn my gas back on (I couldn't do it myself due to disabling health problems... With pleurisy on top of that). I had to scream cry over the phone to get them to turn my gas on the same day (It's been hours of pain in the middle of winter without heating. And I was on their priority services register due to disability. They don't care).

Now they were supposed to, a week ago, refund me £100 for what I had on my gas and electricity before moving house, and they were supposed to change my meters to my new place, plus delete my old address account. They didn't delete my old address account until I called them to ask why they haven't done that. They didn't refund me. And they put my neighbour's meters as my meters. And on top of that they told me that they'll call me back the same day, but three days later and they still haven't called me back. Huh... Seems to be a clear sign... Ableist much? No care towards disabled people. And clearly no care towards elderly people from the reviews that I read either (I don't have experience on the elderly side, I believe them though).

I have been a customer of British gas on the electric key meter side I have complained for years about how high our bills were and that we were being overcharged I have since found out after trying to leave them that my bill is double that to which a 2 bedroom property should be I gained a debt which we had been paying off and I asked for a settlement figure they then received my payment in full I explained that I was joining another company and not only did they not remove the debt but also blocked my move because of the debt I paid I have made more than 9 calls to British gas regarding this whole issue were I have been lied to and not received phone calls back when promised one.to make things worse they told me to top up with them again and when I put the key in the meter it would clear the debt I have tried this now at 2 different shops and spent 25 mins in the last trying to achieve this however to no avail in my experience the customer service is non existence and everything thing I told the people who answer in a far off land I had clearly just wasted my breath if you read this please take note so you don't encounter the problems I have had myself