British Gas under attack as bill system fails

British Gas under attack as bill system fails 

The Times

12/06/2007 

Energy watchdogs have attacked British Gas after discovering that 45,000 of the groups customers have been told that their direct debit payments were cancelled by mistake in February.

Homeowners affected by the 12 million billing bungle will now pay an extra four months of gas and electricity bills over the next year.

The error comes just weeks after Phil Bentley, British Gas managing director, vowed to cut complaints caused by a new 400 million billing system.

In a letter sent to the 45,000 customers, British Gas hopes that a new payment plan will be sent out in time for direct debits to resume by the end of this month.

Lois Hedgpeth, customer services director, said: You may have noticed that over the past few months we have not collected your monthly direct debit payments and more recently you may have received a reminder notice for these missing payments. I apologise for this mistake, which was caused by a system error. Our specialist team is working now to resolve this. We appreciate your patience in this matter and I will be in touch again soon. Given average annual direct debit bills of 875, many of the affected customers owe nearly 300 in back payments.

Graham Kerr, a spokesman for Energywatch, the independent gas and electricity consumer watchdog, said that the mistake would cause a major headache for families who plan their budget around regular bills. Yet again British Gas is found wanting when it comes to delivering basic customer services, he said. It is the latest in a series of high-profile gaffes by Centrica-owned British Gas, which supplies 16 million customers.

In April, Mr Bentley was forced to apologise for teething problems with the billing system after Energywatch revealed that complaints about the group had trebled to a record 21,427 in one year.

It claimed many customers were being sent bills for amounts far higher than their actual usage, while in some cases British Gas was still collecting direct debit payments from customers that had switched to a rival supplier.

Mr Bentley joined British Gas at the beginning of March and one of his first acts was to scrap a controversial 5 late payment charge.

He told The Times last month that his top priority was great customer service. He said many complaints were being caused by kinks in the billing system.

A British Gas spokesman yesterday blamed mechnical failures at a printing department for the latest setback.

This meant the 45,000 customers were not informed of a change being made to the amount they pay within a ten-day deadline in February. It had taken until May to spot that this had frozen their bills.