British Gas complaint!

[Itstimeforbaileys]

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Can anyone help with details on how to successfully raise a complaint with British Gas?

I called on the 13th to request a partial refund of the credit on my account, advised this would take 3-5 working days.

I called back on day 6, due to not having received a refund and was told there had been a system issue; I should’ve been contacted to advise there would be a delay, they were really sorry and it’d be another 2 working days.

Those 2 days have come and gone, I’ve called again to chase up to be told there is no record of me requesting this be done. They’ll put the request through and it’ll be 3-5 working days.

This time I’ve admittedly lost my patience and advised that I require a same day payment, BG claim that they don’t have the facility to do this which is absolutely laughable.

I spoke to a manager last night (finally) who agreed to send me a same day payment of £1000 as that was the limit they were allowed for same day payments; but that the rest would be 3-5 working days. I said no problem. He then put the phone down on me after agreeing this solution, presumably because it was 6pm and his shift was now over.

I’ve called first thing this morning, and been told that the request has been put through today, 3-5 working days AGAIN.

I’ve advised them that I am on holiday with my toddler as of tomorrow and needed this money in my account when I requested it initially for this holiday (I don’t think that’s unreasonable given that it’s a simple request and my own money!?)

I’m still waiting on two manager call backs both advised would be within the hour, one was requested yesterday at 09:30, the other today 10:30. Neither have rang. I was blind transferred twice to the incorrect departments who couldn’t help me at all, I’ve called no less than 11 times to have this resolved. I’ve requested the complaints team call me, no response from them. One advisor (last one I spoke to) even blatently lied, he had me on mute and hadn’t realised he’d taken me off it, I overheard him say I’d get the money on Wednesday next week; then when he come back to me advised that it would be Tuesday next week!? I’ve asked for a FOI request, the advisor didn’t know what it was in order for me to provide the request in writing.

Does anybody have any idea where I can go next with this because unsurprisingly, I very much so doubt that my refund will be with me next week when they’ve now said it will.

Complaining on Twitter/X, while @'ing Martin Lewis might be effective. Martin Lewis is very hot on customer service and utilities credit at the moment!

@MaryBethMayfair great idea thank you! I had tweeted but didn’t even think about tagging Martin Lewis too. I’ll give that a go!

I hate hate hate British gas they are liars and thieves.
DM was in credit of over £1k. She was then placed in a nursing home.
I had power of attorney and they said that mum actually owed them money.
Sent the bailiffs to her old house. New people were shocked.
It only ended when I sent a solicitors letter. But not until 3 months after she died
did I get the money back.
I can give the names of all the people I spoke to.
Abbey
Fatima
Craig
Lewis
Jasmine
Peter.
Charmaine.
Suzanne.
And finally Ian he was the only one who got back to me.

There are not enough swear words to describe the company and the above people.

I HATE BG. Complain to the Ombudsman. I'm sure our new (last year) smart meter is wrong. It was up to £25 a day despite us turning it down to 17deg and only having it on a couple of hours a day (used to be on 19deg and up to 20 hours a day midwinter. They agreed it was very high. We were asked to send 7 days of meter readings and if they agreed, they'd adjust it their end. Next Fujitsu/Post Office scandal?

FTR they said there was nothing wrong with it.

We were switched to BG when our small, green supplier went bust.

BG are awful!! I had them try to take us to court for non payment. We were paying, but apparently they were switching systems and the "new" system wasn't registering the pymts on the old system.

Endless phone calls every time I got a debt letter, eventually got court papers. Called BG one last time and pointed out I could prove my payments, could they prove theirs. I attended court multiple times a week for my work, so it didn't phase me and I knew I would win.

Anyway, just before the hearing they fixed the mistake and withdrew the case. I left BG immediately after.

Oh and you need to do a subject access request, not a freedom of information request. FOI is only for public bodies, not private companies like BG.

I had a similar issue with BG and I just ended up phoning them basically every hour and insisting I talk to their managers. Have you been getting peoples names? Make a log of every time you've called and when the complaints team FINALLY get in contact with you (keep chasing for that too) they will offer you a sum for compensation for your time. They can offer you a certain amount per call you've made so make sure you have a log.

Basically, just keep calling and calling and calling. Ridiculous that you have to make a complete nuisance of yourself before they'll deal with anything.

I would try using Resolver, its free and often companies have a seperate team to deal with complaints this way. Writr out you complaint clearly and put dates and times if you have them (this is in case you need to go to the Ombudsman - you can't until you have given British Gas 8 weeks to respond). Then put what you want. I would request £30 for each failed refund so £60 personally as I know another energy customer offers this as standard for delayed repayments on account closing. Id also raise on Social Media and Trust Pilot in case they have teams monitoring those.

@Listengold I am so sorry that’s happened to you! It’s shocking isn’t it what it takes to have them action such a simple request that they get day in, day out. Awful that they’ve made what I imagine was already a very stressful time for you, even worse!

@Examexsham Thats an interesting way of looking at it! It probably is the next scandal isn’t it! They’re such cowboys! We had someone come out to our house to take a meter reading, then when I come to submit my next months reading, it was lower than what their employee had put it down as for the month before!

@MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel thank you for the correction, I’ll make sure I request the subject access request instead!

I can’t believe how incompetent they are, it’s truely baffling.

@Bringthejury1 thank you for that, I’ve got a full log of times/dates but no names 🙈

Ex BG customer here. Nothing works. Following the change to British Gas Evolve I had endless months of "you're still on the old system blah, blah and you're not on the new system yet so we can't do anything about anything but thank you so much for waiting on hold for two bloody hours, have you looked at the website?"

You're rewarding their uselessness by continuing as a customer. There are other suppliers - just switch. I was surprised how easy it was.

Yesterday, I wanted Octopus to refund some of my credit balance. I wrote a 2 line email and they replied promptly and did it without any fuss.

@ManagedMove thank you for that, really helpful! I’ve done all of those things now!

@CranfordScones you’re completely right, I’ve already moved from the house that the credit balance is for; but it’s still going through the sale process, i stupidly thought it was pointless changing a month before the sale is due to complete but apparently not!

Fab. It costs them hundreds if you take your complaint to the Ombudsman even if the Ombudsman didnt award you anything BG still have to pay for the case to be looked at, so they won't want that. It is frustrating. I've been having an argument with Octopus recently and honestly they left it til right before the eight weeks before suddenly deciding I was right, they did give me some money though which helped with my annoyance a bit. Im very corruptable 😂

Ombudsman.

You've called 11 times in 8 working days?
I think you are being unreasonable.
Why do you have so much credit that a partial refund is over £1000?
Did you not think to request it sooner?
I think letting it get to that level and then expecting a quick refund is unreasonable....they are not a savings back set up to release money whenever your like.

And the aren't coveted by Freedom of information requests....you mean a subject access request. Which takes time to put together but probably won't tell you what you think you want to know.

British Gas are the most infuriating company that I have had the misfortune of having to deal with. I could write a book about their incompetence and lies and the patronising, rude customer service agents. The best way to have actual proof of any conversations that you have with their agents is to use their live chat service. Go on very first thing in the morning (you'll be on hold for absolutely ages if you dont do it as soon as it opens) and screenshot the chat as you go along. It's worth waiting the 8 weeks to then contact the ombudsman. All the screenshots can then be forwarded onto them. Sorted in no time.

Google the CEO email address and name and email them directly. I did it for BT and it was resolved in two days!

@FTPM1980 if you read the previous posts you would see that I have moved out of the property whilst it has been up for sale which has taken best part of a year. I think you’re unreasonable to believe that regardless of why I have such a large credit on my account that I’m not entitled to my own money back within the timescales THEY have provided time and again.

@ManagedMove why can’t anyone just follow simple instuctions 🙈 it’s almost like they do it on purpose at this point isn’t it!

@Neveranynamesleft Completely agree with you, one of the agents I spoke to on Wednesday actually said something along the lines of “respectfully, it was only supposed to be with you by Monday (just gone) anyway..” yet it wasn’t, and then said it’d be 3-5 working days from that point 😂 meaning that apparently it was fine that it was “only supposed” to be with me on the 20th, but that I’d have to wait now until the 29th.. and don’t get me started on the one that repeatedly called me “love”

@DumpedByText I’ll have to do a little more digging for that! I did manage to find the Head of Operations but no luck so far!

@Pikapikapikachu11 That will definitely be in the pipeline I think but fortunately or unfortunately it hasn’t been long enough yet.