British Gas gets most complaints:
Complaints against British Gas have soared by 148% in a year providing damning evidence the country's most expensive power company is seriously failing customers. The utility giant has come under fire for repeated increases in both gas and electricity bills, putting a squeeze on 16.5 million customers. But, it can now be revealed that soaring prices have been coupled with a disastrous decline in customer service. The failure has coincided with the axing of thousands of British workers, the introduction of a new billing system and a decision to shift work to admin centres in India. The official consumer body, Energywatch, is furious that customers are paying more for a declining standard of service. Energywatch received 15,433 complaints against British Gas between April and September this year up 148% on the same period last year. However, this is thought to be just the tip of the iceberg. The problems at British Gas appear to cover all aspects of its services, however the billing and charging system seem the biggest cause for concern. The company has struggled with the introduction of a new billing system, which followed the axing of 2,000 jobs at sites in Manchester, Oldham and Solihull. As part of the cost-cutting changes, the company shifted 1,000 administration jobs to India. At one point British Gas put up the direct debit payments of some customers without warning or informing customers. Annoyingingly, customers find they can be left hanging on telephone help lines for long periods up to 47 minutes before they get to speak to a human being. Bills can be inaccurate, based on estimates that bear no relation to reality, while efforts to try and rectify them are often met with a brick wall. The ratio of complaints about billing and accounts have soared some 230 per cent in a year taking them up to 0.123 per 1,000 customers. In terms of complaints from customers transferring to a rival supplier, the complaints ratio has jumped 118 per cent to 2.88 per 1,000. While complaints about the British Gas sales arm have risen by 83 per cent to 0.22 per 1,000 customers. Energywatch Chief Executive Allan Asher said: "Everyone loses from poor customer service -and it makes absolutely no business sense at all. "It's a question of caring. Until they put customers at the heart of their business this is going to go on." The rise in complaints comes in a year when the company has put up prices three times. Gas bills for 10.7m households are now running at an annual average of £707, which is up by around 37 per cent in just one year. On electricity, the average annual bill is £428, which represents a rise of around 34 per cent this year. All the other major power suppliers have seen a sharp fall in complaints between April and September compared to the same period last year. The figure at EDF Energy is down from 2,147 to 1,487; for npower it is down from 4,680 to 3,306; Powergen is down from 9,344 to 2,680; Scottish & Southern is down from 905 to 466; and Scottish Power is down from 4,657 to 2,762. The poor performance at British Gas is highlighted on Tuesday's BBC Watchdog programme. The programme tested a British Gas claim that it endeavours to answer customers' calls within 60 seconds. The programme found it took an average of nine minutes for calls to be answered. And on one occasion it was 47 minutes before anyone replied. Watchdog editor, Rob Unsworth said: "Too often we hear stories about horrendously inaccurate bills - and when customers try to put things right British Gas don't always listen. They deserve better service for their money." Chief executive of the switching company, Simplyswitch.co.uk, Karen Darby, said the rise in complaints would be 'dangerous' for British Gas. "British Gas has seen an exodus of customers because of rising prices. It seems it has decided to cut corners which has had an impact on customer service," she said. "This is a company that trades on its reputation for offering good customer service. If it no longer has that, that is a very dangerous situation." SimplySwitch is a sister company of Mailonline. British Gas said: "We've been putting a new billing system into place this summer and training over 10,000 frontline staff, as well as recruiting 500 extra staff. "This is part of a £400 million investment we are making to transform the way we deal with customers. "The service issues highlighted are a temporary situation and we have already seen improvements. Last week our general enquiries line received over 300,000 calls with an average waiting time of 45 seconds. "We are confident the investments in service being made will restore our position as one of the UK's top rated energy suppliers." British Gas was unable to say how many customers had their direct debit payments raised earlier this year without proper notice. It said that some 600 of the 2,000 staff due to go from admin centres in Manchester, Oldham and Solihull have already left. The phased closure is ongoing. 1.11.06