'It's bonkers': British Gas tells customer he's £196,000 in credit

One British Gas customer was told he was nearly £200,000 in credit, as ITV News' Consumer Editor Chris Choi reports

An ITV News investigation has revealed how British Gas told a customer he was more than £196,000 in credit.

The firm says it happened after someone in its team "inputted an incorrect meter reading” last August.

The figure caused astonishment and confusion, especially as British Gas was simultaneously demanding more than £2,000 from the same customer.

After Rod Peach was sent what he calls a "bonkers bill" he called the energy firm saying "can you do me a favour, can you take the £2,500 I'm in debt to yourselves off the £196,000 and send me a check for the rest?"

British Gas says the problem was corrected in a day, but ridiculously high figures kept appearing on Rod Peach's account and it's taken months to sort things out.

The energy firm apologised and has reduced his current bill by 50%.

He joked: "Why are we paying British Gas bosses millions of pounds when they owe me £196,000?"

British Gas says it’s invested £50 million more in consumer service since the root causes of this problem, including 700 more call centre workers.

Although the company says customer service is improving, the industry's regulator Ofgem insists that the whole sector needs to do better. It's clear that British Gas does not have a monopoly on mistakes like this.

In Sheffield, we spoke to Allan Hartley who got different British Gas bills for the same period and received letters from their lawyers.

He's in his 80s and was left afraid and confused.

He told ITV News: "It's not fair, they shouldn't be treating people like that, should they? I've been up in the middle of the night two or three times with it on my mind."

British Gas says confusion was caused when several of Allan Hartley's bills were reissued for the same period.

It’s apologised, saying things should have been resolved sooner and explained better.

The company says his high bills were caused by a backlog following estimated readings.

There was also a metering dispute after it took over supplying him from a small energy firm that went bust. Allan Hartley dismisses the company's claims to have improved customer service standards, as "ridiculous, diabolical. It's not running better when they are treating people like this is it?"

British Gas told ITV News "We know in these examples – which are unrelated to one another – that we have made mistakes. We’re sorry for that and are working to resolve the separate issues for these customers as quickly as possible. We'll learn from them to continue to improve our customer service.’’

If you have been experiencing issues with your Energy Provider, we want to hear your story. Get in touch with the team at: consumerteam@itv.com

If you want to dispute your energy bill there's plenty of advice from officials, charities and others - see the links below.

What I've learned after decades of investigating energy complaints is that customers have to be determined. It can be a long and frustrating slog to get answers, but many of the cases we are seeing are worth the fight.

https://www.energyombudsman.org/how-we-can-help

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/help/

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/complain-about-your-energy-supplier-

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