A frugal life is an easy life!

British Gas are systematically telling their customers lies, misleading their customers and breaking strict laws on Data Protection by not keeping accurate customer account notes!

British Gas are also taking no action when pre payment customers are witnessing credit being taken from their meters, at more than two and a half times the normal rate.
British Gas are also advertising that their pre payment offices are "open 24 hours per day, seven days per week" - again a complete lie!

Customer scenario:
- £40 per month put on gas meter every month, same as it has been for the past 4 years
- In mid November, the usual £40 for the month is put on to the meter
- No extra usage, all gas appliances used as normal
- 14 days later, ALL the £40 has gone off the meter
- Another £40 is credited on to the meter (Making the cost for November DOUBLE the price, at £80)
- Over the next 4 days, £32 credit disappears from the meter!
- A brand new condenser boiler is fitted
- Over the next 3 days, another £10 of credit disappears from the meter (£82 has been taken by the British Gas pre payment meter in just 19 days - as opposed to £40 taken for a normal 30 days gas usage)

A quick call to British Gas will sort it all out?
CALL NUMBER 1:
Traditional British Gas greeting, then I explained about the problem of credit disappearing from the pre payment British Gas meter - the advisor then decided I was talking to "the wrong department" and put me on hold to transfer me over to a different department.
I was transferred to Rob, in double quick time, a promising start!
I then had to explain everything all over again - a bit of a pain but still I got someone quickly so no bother there.
Sadly, my British Gas experience went rapidly downhill from here.

Rob insisted that the old back boiler was to blame - when I pointed out that the expensive cost continued even after the brand new boiler was fitted, Rob blamed the new boiler, saying, "It is using too much gas, get the installer out to turn down its gas consumption!"
Of course this is total rubbish, a boiler either uses gas or it doesn't, a "turn the gas down" option, does not exist.
I told Rob this, he put the phone down on me!

CALL NUMBER 2:
Not happy, I rang them straight back, speaking to Ann.
I explained everything again and gave her my details so she could look up the account - Ann couldn't even find the account, gave me the direct number for British Gas pre payment accounts and hung up.

CALL NUMBER 3:
Next up, Nicola.
Once again I explained everything to Nicola, who then had a look at the account notes, telling me that Rob from the earlier call, who rudely put the phone down on me after talking complete rubbish, had not only done something that if caught, would cause an instant dismissal, but also broke the law by not keeping customer account notes correctly, in fact Rob of British Gas didn't even update the account notes and to all who viewed them, it appeared I did not even call and speak to him, as if didn't enter ANYTHING about the call on to the account notes!

For some obscure reason, Nicola put me on hold, then chose to refer me to British Gas' "Energy efficiency department" to discuss my home energy usage and talk about cavity wall and loft insulation!
I explained that the problem was that my pre payment meter was taking 3 times the amount of credit from the meter it should have been.
I confirmed that the emergency call out on Sunday, resulted in a full test for a gas leak (by their own engineer) which showed there was no gas leak.
I was assured that British Gas' "Energy efficiency department" would ring me at home later in the day, between 2pm and 3pm.

CALL NUMBER 4:
At 3.30pm - with no call coming from the energy efficiency department - that's if it even exists or maybe they are saving energy by not ringing customers back? - I rang British Gas again.
"I'm sorry our offices are now closed" was the automated response on the next four telephone calls - this is despite advertising via the British Gas website, which states they are "open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week"
I rang the British Gas main line and spoke to Susan, who objected to my abrupt manner - when I explained (yet again) all that had gone on previously.
Susan transferred me across to the pre payment department that was telling direct callers that they were closed!
I don't know the name of the lady who tried to sort things out.

The lady told me that Rob (from call number one) had not put anything about the call on my account notes.
The lady went on to speak to the "Metering department" requesting that our meter be checked - as any gas leaks had been checked and a new boiler fitted - as this was the only other option.
Accoring to the lady, there was definately something wrong, as we should be using around £2.20 of credit per day, at present the meter was taking more than £5.50 per day from the meter.

The "Metering department" told her that nothing was wrong at all with the meter - despite this, she insisted on sending out an engineer next Thursday - when she suggested we were now putting £240 per month on the meter, to try and force a call out, British Gas' metering department were simply not interested!

Suggestions for British Gas:

• STOP paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds on TV advertising campaigns and sponsoring the British Olympic swimming team - Use this money instead to protect customers where things are going wrong and improve your customer service!
  Putting the phone down on customers is bad mannered and rude, having customers waiting around for hours for a call from a mystical department, then not calling them, is disgraceful. Not keeping accurate account notes is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE!
• When there is obviously a problem - DON'T just ignore it or dismiss it out of hand, try sorting it out at the first attempt!
• Stop advertising that the British Gas pre payment department is open "24 hours a day/ 7 days a week" - this clearly is NOT the case and misleading.
  Contact should not depend on someone being abrupt with another department just to get to speak to the correct department.
  Switching your automated answering service to "emergency calls only" leaves customers hanging on the phone with no point of contact.
• Stop your advisors from telling customers lies!
  In this case, your advisor could not even see the boiler, nor has the expertise to make a considered opinion about its workings, yet he still portrayed himself as experienced and qualified enough to suggest that first the old boiler and then the new boiler, were both at fault for the same problem!
  Clearly untrue and should be stopped with immediate effect.

As for what happens next, regarding credit on the meter and keeping a house warm and being able to cook over the next two weeks, until more credit is put on the meter, British Gas are simply not bothered or interested.... a shocking way to treat their customers!