Jayne Dowle: Hot under the collar over treatment by British Gas

A year-long investigation by the Competitive Markets Authority watchdog has found that 70 per cent of us are paying too much for our home energy and would benefit from switching suppliers. Why then, do so many of us stick with what we know and put up with rising prices and customer service that traps us in an infernal limbo of stress?

You would think, when it’s under such scrutiny, that a big consumer organisation such as British Gas would do all in its power to redress the balance. You would be wrong.

Recently I did my customary daily check of my online banking statement, and noticed that my direct debit to British Gas had gone up more than £10. I don’t like direct debits going up without my knowledge – this is my money after all. So I rang them.

My phone call established the fact that there had been a mix-up with my estimated readings. I was instructed to go into the cellar and tell the woman on the end of the phone the latest set of numbers. So far, so simple. This reading, though, proved that over the course of a year or more we had used rather more gas than the monthly direct debit covers. There was a shortfall of more than £600. That’s why my direct debit went up without warning, to start to recoup this debt. That’s the word they use, debt. As in “debt recovery”. She mentioned a figure of £200 a month to cover the debt and our ongoing usage. I told the woman that I understood the bill had to be paid but I wasn’t in a position to pay much more than £100 a month.

Before we had even had a chance to agree terms, she was informing me that if I didn’t pay this bill “further action would be taken” and that a “debt recovery company” could be instructed. She also suggested that I contact a debt advice charity for help to get my affairs in order. And to consider having a payment meter installed so I could keep track of my usage.

This was all at the first point of contact I made with British Gas. Is that the way to treat a loyal, direct debit-paying customer who has never missed a payment in her life? A customer who goes round turning radiators off in the middle of winter, who only allows the hot water on for an hour in the morning and an hour at night? Who rations the gas fire to sub-zero evenings only?

Talk about insulting. I was incensed. The only sensible thing she suggested was for me to take advice from a British Gas home energy adviser, so I did. And over the course of an hour on the phone a most helpful young man talked me through my bill. We concluded that I do all I can to keep my energy use to a minimum.

However, there is a huge difference between my summer and winter usage. A point which had evaded the woman threatening me with bailiffs. And although I obsess over temperatures, I’m slightly missing the point. The fact that I live in a five-bedroom house means that the boiler has to work twice as hard to literally push the water through the pipes. Hence a massive hike over the winter months.

Anyway, we agreed that we would keep my direct debits as they were and see what happens by January. A sensible solution you might think. Until a letter dropped on my mat the next day telling me that my direct debit had been cancelled – presumably by the woman I first spoke to for advice – and I had to pay the £600-plus asap. So much for what I had spent an hour discussing with that nice young man.

So I rang again and after 20 minutes of being passed around ended up being put through to the “debt” department in India. Now, if you were running a massive public company already under fire from every watchdog and consumer group in the world, would you outsource part of your most delicate department – debt – to an offshore call centre? The woman I spoke to in this country was snotty enough, but the man and woman I dealt with in India clearly had one version of British Gas customers in their manual, and that was “can’t pay, won’t pay”.

This is where the farce reached its height, with the figure of £226 per month being plucked out of thin air. I steadied myself on the worktop and politely but firmly put the phone down. I am now in correspondence. And as soon as I can, I shall be switching suppliers. I understand Sainsbury’s has the cheapest deal. So much for the “Big Six” energy providers, trusted to keep the country warm and safe.

The price of energy is high enough. What price loyalty though, when British Gas behaves like this?