I had been battling in vain with BG for many months before deciding to contact EnergyWatch. In direct response to EnergyWatch's intervention I very quickly received a phone call from BG and now, a few weeks (and a few more hiccups, admittedly) later, I at last have a bill with which I am happy.

Perhaps I've just been lucky, but the letter from EnergyWatch certainly seemed to provoke BG into a flurry of action - so I'm more than happy with EnergyWatch's service.

I envy the subscriber who got a flurry of activity after moaning.
I was contacted by Siemans (on behalf of BG) to fit a new gas meter in our proerty.... "Had to be home, couldn't guarantee time , bla blah blah." (we all know the score). Arranged a date to be off work. waited, got suspicious, phoned Siemans and was told they'd cancelled it the night before- what clever little souls they were to leave a message on my WORK answer phone after 6pm, guranteeing i didn't get the message in time to save me wasting a day off! Hurrah!! I obviously read them the riot act for wasting a day of my leave and after much moaning and getting nowhere asked for the 'ombudsmans' number. This threw the lad I'd been ranting at, who didn't know what an ombudsman was. so i tried plain language and explained it was a watchdog. No comprehension there either. I insisted he went away , asked an adult and got me the number. He eventually returned with a number - which turned out to be wrong- what a surprise.
I finally found energy watch and complained to them. They said they'd seek a response. in the meantime a customer complaints lady from Siemans came back and was very helpful (ahah- good news at last?...) and rearranged the appointment to suit me, for a two hour early morning slot on May 4 (Friday). Excellent.

A week later BG rang me to apologise for the problem. I then got a letter and a £20 'compensation' cheque - nice but hardly pays for the inconvenience, phone calls, high blood pressure and aggravation.However, I started to feel better about the whole thing.

Thursday dawned and I trotted off to work- my diary now cleared for the next day and the eagerly awaited Siemans engineer (and remember, this is something THEY want to do- not a request from me). My husband returned from work to find a message on our home answerphone (better) saying the appointment the next day was cancelled!! They had offered a re-shedule for a date that is of no use. he phoned back to tell them and now apparently no one is on our area for 3- 6 months!!!!!!
Have just phoned Siemans again and suggested that they might be better to run a circus.
Once again the customer complaints lady is lovely, understanding and helpful. What a dreadful job to have to placate all these furious customers. She has offered a 'supervised' visit possibly for next week ( I thought they now had no appointments?....). I am awaiting a returned call from her to sort out another ficticious date, but I'm not holding my breath.

So, as far as I can see, Energy watch did mobilise a call from BG to apologise, and Siemens did compensate me, but the job remains undone, I'm irritated and again I have lost a day off, as I'd had to clear my diary and so the day was as good as written off anyway. It was my choice to take it, so I wouldn't seek compensation (ha, ha) this time. but I still had to re arrange my life and given the choice would have saved my precious leave for something more rewarding.

I'm now going to moan at Energy watch - sorry, update them- again, but I don't suppose with so many thousands of other folk complaining that it will make the slightest difference. How drepressing that absolutely no one has any control over this supplier and all you can do is vote to leave them and enjoy yet more confusion of billing and being cut off by mistake if you do. Does no one at BG really care that their reputation is mud?? Clearly not.

God help me if I get a gas leak or a real gas call out requirement.

Thanks for bearing with this saga.... I fear it is not over yet........

My mother-in-law went into care in January, so I wrote to both British Gas and British Gas Electricity (2 different address on the bills)and told them her house would be vacated on the 19th January and I would phone in and write with the final meter readings. This I did and heard nothing. Then about 5 weeks later her neighbour phoned me and said she had intercepted several bills and she would send them on. The 'final' bills showed estimated readings, far higher than the actual readings, so they took additional amounts from her bank account. The final letter was to me 'Welcoming me to my new home and giving me a new Gas and Electricity Account'! I phoned 4 times. Each time the person confirmed that he/she had amended the details and I would be getting the finalised accounts. The last time I rang was 15 minutes after a previous phone call. I wanted to check that the details had been amended. The nice young man apologised and said that it hadn't and promised that he had done so. Either their IT's in a mess or most of their staff aren't bothering.

My mother-in-law sadly died in March and as executer of her will it was important for me to sort this out. Needless to say, it hasn't been, despite 2 written complaints and surprise, surprise, they owe a substantial amount of money.

I'm now writing to Energy watch and the CEO...and going to the doctor to get some pills for my high blood pressure.

I have been trying for over 3 months to swap from BG to Scotish Power for my electricity supply. I receive letters from BG saying they will only agree to allowing me to move if I pay my bill -fair enough but I am given 3 days to pay it and the letter is dated 6 days ago. There is also a problem with the meter as BG say it is a single tariff tab no on the data base whilst Scottish Power say its a dual tarrif. We had a new meter fitted in January which is a single tarrif. I have phones BG on 8 occasions and despite having the name and tel number of a specific person end up with a different person each time. All promise to sort it out and put it in writing but nothing happens. I have also written twice with no reply. Any advice please. I'm desperate.

For the past year I have had nothing but trouble from Scottish Gas as they find new ways of delaying paying out just over £600 that we paid them in error.......

come see my own live blog in FULL detail at www.energybullies.info.ms

I have been told by BG that i am in debit with my payment scheme this started in February 07 everytime I telephoned I was told to ignore letters and continue paying the agreed amount so I did they then stopped my payment scheme so I went through everything again and asked if I was paying for the whole streets electric as well as my own they couldn't answer,I pay £80 every four weeks and both my husband and myself are at work everyday. I then decided to have a pre-payment meter fitted I made the appointment on 2.8.07 it was booked for 9.8.07 between 8 and 12 am, by 11.40am I was on the phone trying to find out how long they would be what I found out instead was that the job was not booked in!! I was told by BG it was booked in and then given a number for fasttrack the company that was doing the job, when I telephoned them that is when I found out I was not booked in! so back on the phone to BG I got wanting to speak to the head of customer services I was told I 'Lois Hedge-Peth doesn't take phonecalls you have to write to her' I was then put onto the superviser Shirley Pemberton who was no help what so ever, I explained I have taken a day of work to wait in for someone that was obviously not coming although I had been told by BG I was booked in. The customer care sevice that BG supply is appalling there is no communication between all the call centres and being told to ignore letters when really the issue should have been resolved with one phonecall there and then is ridiculous. Shirley Pemberton verbally assured me of a £20 compensation off my bill this is just insult to injury as I lost more than that by taking the day of work. Bg need some help with there customer service. Please advise

Briefly, I was unhappy that I had not received the promised welcome pack from British Gas, which was to offer me a 7 day cooling off period once received. As this did not arrive, I find myself in the ridiculous situation of being taken over by Scottish Power from NPower in October... Only to be then taken over from Scottish Power to British Gas in November... Only to now have to re-apply to Scottish Power, to be taken back from British Gas in December!!

The letter/welcome pack never arrived. Because I had simultaneously applied for Scottish power to take over my supply, I presumed that they had taken precedent and acquired my supply. This I now understand was not the case. I am however, very angry that I now find myself in the situation that I need to re-apply(already done) to Scottish power in an effort to leave British Gas. Who failed to follow the procedure I was advised would occur, on the very morning after I have wrongly changed supplier. I was told that;

" Am sorry but we do not have the cancellation telephone number, this will be contained in the welcome pack you receive from British Gas, when you receive this pack you are automatically issued with a a 7 day cooling off period from British Gas"

Therefore, I find myself in the position of being forced to go through all of this trouble, because British Gas FAILED to send me the relevant documents promised at

The start of the contract. Furthermore I was refused a telephone number in order to achieve this directly and therefore was left stranded, waiting for the said documents to arrive.

Trapped in fact!!!

Now onto the customer service!!!

This customer service girl seemed to be obstructive to the point of argumentative. When I explained my concerns to her she then leapt into a tirade about how I had 'Missed your cooling off period' this apparently had ended some weeks ago. I tried to explain to her that I was unaware the cooling off period had actually begun, as I had never received the welcome pack. She then started to lecture me that it was common knowledge that there was a postal strike and that if I hadn't received the documents through, it was 'up to you to find out why they had not arrived'.

She stated that British Gas had sent out the welcome pack and it was therefore not British Gas's fault that it had not arrived. I noted, it was also not my fault, again, she said, well it's not our fault either. It will probably arrive with you soon.

Amazing therefore, that in this same time I have managed to receive;

A letter from Power saying sorry to see you leave.

A letter from Scottish power saying welcome to Scottish power.

A letter from Scottish power saying sorry you are leaving us.

But not one letter from BG in all that time.

I said that I was not happy about this response and that I had been waiting for it to arrive in order to cancel the agreement as originally advised. I stated that I had presumed that because it had not arrived, that Scottish power had taken precedent. She then patronised me, by stating that I should not have presumed anything of the sort and that it was my fault for not realising that there was a postal strike.

I asked if I could speak to a manager, she refused to do so. I asked 3-4 times to speak to a supervisor and she refused. According to your own web page, if I am unhappy about how things are being handled, I can ask to speak to a manager. She refused to do so on a number of occasions and basically insisted that any complaint would begin and end with her.

I felt completely disrespected, as this takes away any rights I have to complain about what is said at this stage and seems to force me into a position that I must accept what is being said.....unquestioning.

I asked for the address of the regulatory authority, she did not know what this was. I asked her no less than 3 times for a regulatory authority or ombudsman and she kept repeating that she was the complaints department and it was her I needed to speak to..

I explained that if I am forced to remain with British Gas I would be extremely unhappy about it and would like to escalate the complaint. It was then explained to me that I would need to re-apply to Scottish power.. I understood this, but was still unhappy about how British gas gained my custom to begin with. I believe that BG have been absolutely terrible in providing me with any information for the following reasons;

I had received no number to cancel, despite requesting it.

I had received no welcome pack.

With such knowledge of the postal strike, why was I not contacted by email or phone?

I was not provided with a cancellation number, indeed I asked and was refused.

Now, these are genuine complaints.

I explained that if I was unable to speak to a manager, there must be some governing body who deals with complaints about how energy companies operate, 'after all', I said, British Gas does not run the whole world. By which I meant, they are not a law unto themselves and must have to answer to someone for the mistakes made. This is when she got very cocky and said and I quote:

"Well Miss xxxxxxx, if British Gas do not rule the world, I fail to see what your problem is"

Nice way to speak to customers?!!!! Amazing customer service. What a joke. Did I ring up to be put in my place?!!!!! Or did I ring up for help?!!!!

She then went onto state that she had the postal strike dates in front of her and that it remained my responsibility to get in touch with BG. She stated that 'you knew there was a strike and you did nothing about it'

By this point, I had become quite alarmed. I realised that this woman was spending more time lecturing me about what I had done wrong and how it was all my fault, with very little time given over to what I was actually complaining about.

She stated that I should have rang BG, I said there was no number supplied(please see attached email).

I asked her to ask someone more senior who the regulatory body was, if she did not know and at this point, she put me back into queue for general enquiries.

Through my own enquires, I have since learned that energy watch is your regulatory body, I suggest you tell xxxx ASAP.

Can you please tell me if this is your policy to speak to customers in this manner?

Does anybody have the right to prevent escalation of a complaint?

Why are your staff unaware of 'energywatch' ?

How can I progress this complaint ?

I understand there are procedures, however, I fail to see how you can get away with not following through with procedures and just basically telling customers 'tough' it's your own stupid fault for not checking we were doing our jobs.

In answer to your questions:
In most cases you wont be allowed to speak to anyone higher up, as per BG policy.
Also BG telephone CSA's aren't allowed to give out energywatches details.
If you want any compensation you have to ask for it, it wont be offered.
Agents on the phone can give £20 compensation, agents at BG complaints have an unlimited compensation allowance.

How to officialy complain.
Try the following steps in order until you are satisfied.
Allow a month after sending each letter for a reply.
You can phone, fax or email any of the below addresses but a written letter carries more weight.
If your not satified with the Energy Supply Onbudsmans reply (if your complaint gets that far) then your kind of stuff.
1. Complain to the people on the phone, these probably wont help as most of them are useless.

2. Write to BG with your complaint at -
BRITISH GAS
PO BOX 3055
EASTBOURNE
BN21 9FE.

3. Write to BG complaints at -
BRITISH GAS
PO BOX 3054
EASTBOURNE
BN21 9FD

4. Write to Energywatch at -
4th Floor, Artillery House
Artillery Row
London
SW1P 1RT

5. Write to the Energy Supply Onbudsman -
Energy Supply Ombudsman
PO Box 966
Warrington
WA4 9DF

I have had an ongoing problem with a leaking water cylinder , British gas have spent three weeks trying to sort it out. The call centre in Leicester seems to be useless in terms of liasing with engineers, and management seems non existent. Last week I contacted them for the umpteenth time and was after a great deal of persausion transferred to a 'manager' .. who later transpired to be just another call centre operative.. British Gas have lied to me time and time again I have lost all faith in them. This is not the first time I have had problems .. last time it was two weeks without hot water.. and all I got was an apology.. and a hamper containing biscuits cakes , jam and tea..all of which were very inferior quality.. a bit like their service.

my late mother died last februray 2007, we contacted british gas to in form them and forwarded the solicitor dealing with the estate's information, when her gas bill came through, i rang up and was ask that as a gesture of good will would i pay over half the outstanding amount and the rest be seattled when the will was finalised, as i was still grieving and very upset i did this. to this day british gas have hounded me, threatened me, harrassed me all because this person then put the account into my name against my wishes,today 19 april 2008 i recieved a nasty threatening phone call from an uninformed operator, when i then contacted the manager sam turner who had assured me that he had spoken to the solicitor dealing with the estate, and had sorted it out. he refused to place a block on the account,he also refused to pass us on to his manager. we have received several letters threatening to bring the police, take us to court and forcefully enter my late mother's property, all of which to his reply was oh that's just a standard reminder we send out! despite admiting that all correspondance is to go to the solicitors! we would be grateful for any advise on where to go from here with this outragious behaviour from british gas.
very sad and unhappy