British Gas Reviews 2023
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Disclaimer: The information on this page was last updated on 20/12/2022, 12:59:59

When switching energy providers, you’re likely going to be comparing many different ones at once. Our British Gas reviews can help you decide whether you should switch to British Gas or look elsewhere for a provider better suited for you. As always, we’ve got you covered.

What do customers say?

While we know our stuff when it comes to energy providers, British Gas reviews from customers are a window into what to expect if you switch.

Take a look at how customers rate British Gas:

A bit better experience than I would have expected from a large corporate. I am both pleased with the outcome and especially the way I was treated by telephone support staff. - David Hunt, Trustpilot

As an elderly customer, I have peace of mind that if I get any problems they will be sorted out quickly and efficiently without me having to find someone to do the job I need doing, and quickly. - Rita Soane, Trustpilot

British Gas complaints handling

An energy giant such as British Gas is bound to get some complaints from its huge customer base. But how well do British Gas complaints get handled?

Let’s look at the British Gas complaints for Q4 2020:

Complaints handling
Number of complaints	120,040
Complaints per 100,000 customers	1,039
Number of complaints resolved	109,000
Complaints resolved the same or next working day	51.4%
Complaints resolved within 8 weeks	92.3%

This is an improvement on their performance at the start of 2020, where they received 131,949 complaints with only 88.7% being resolved within 8 weeks; 41.7% on the same or next working day.

The nature of their most common complaints remains almost the same every quarter, with their top 5 being about:

• Billing
• Payments
• Meters
• Customer service
• Credit management

Terrible service, poor communication, ridiculous billing and difficult to set up payment plan. - Rosie, Trustpilot

British Gas customer service

Throughout its long-standing popularity, British Gas has kept consistently average customer service, however, they have put a lot more effort into improving this recently after having lost hundreds of thousands of customers in the second half of 2019 alone but taking on a lot of customers from suppliers gone bust.

Customers tend to report good customer service over the phone, with staff on the other end being mostly friendly and helpful.

Was pleasantly surprised at the amount if help I was given over the phone. They made the whole buying issue easy. My engineer was really lovely. Had everything installed in no time. Layed a wrapping down to save the carpet and cleaned up after himself. Then he explained how it all worked. - Miss Wendy Giles, Trustpilot

However, some British Gas reviews show customers find out a few days later that claims are not followed through and the problem they called to rectify hasn’t been fixed at all. This can obviously be extremely distressing when the problems are about billing and payments, especially in a time where peoples financial circumstances are uncertain.

British Gas’ customer service reputation plummeted in December 2019 and January 2020 as British Gas decided to stop working with PayPoint, meaning that prepayment customers could only top up at a Payzone, as well as increasing the minimum top-up amount.

Many customers weren’t told about the new changes until late January 2020 or until they tried to top up at a PayPoint and were turned away. British Gas had to pay out around £1.5 million to over 270,000 prepayment customers as a compensation.

In a survey taken by Ofgem, just 39% of British Gas customers said that they believe their provider cares about its customers.

Getting in touch

To find out how easy it is to get in touch with British Gas, we tried out different methods of contacting them at different times of the day to get an idea of how long you should expect to be waiting to speak to a customer service advisor.

Here are British Gas’ average response times:

Method	Wait time
Email	Currently unavailable
Phone	24 minutes
WhatsApp	17 minutes
Social media	12 hours 39 minutes

*Opening times only

British Gas had quite long wait times, but considering their 12 million strong customer base, we could easily have been waiting longer.

Contact British Gas

Is it worth the money?

British Gas has long been known as one of the most expensive energy providers on the market, but is their service worth the money? After all, you’re still getting the same gas and electricity you would from another provider.

A lot of customers are happy to pay extra for British Gas to be safe with the knowledge that they won’t be going bust any time soon. British Gas know this and that they can take advantage of it. Their ‘deemed tariff’ for longstanding customers who haven’t switched tariffs is consistently set at the maximum price permitted by Ofgem’s price cap.

In the 2020 Which? satisfaction survey, British Gas received just 2/5 for value for money, despite a lot of their tariffs coming with added extras such as boiler cover, direct debit discounts, and their famous ‘free electricity days’.

Make sure you’re not paying too much for your energy by calling Utility Switchboard on

020 3992 7717

British Gas app review

As the biggest and most well known energy provider, you’d want their app to be top of the range too. It is extremely extensive, allowing you to manage the basics of your energy account such as submitting meter readings, making payments, and viewing your bills, as well as booking boiler repairs and engineers and enjoying exclusive rewards and discounts.

Android users have given the British Gas app 2.8/5. Despite the number of features, the app is very hit and miss. Some customers struggle to log in when they need to or have the app crash on them while others can’t access some of the available features. While it’s good to have a variety of features, it’s also important that they work! Updates do make improvements, but customers are still left unhappy.

Constant difficulties getting into the app and often site crashes when trying to pay on line. Although improvements have been made, I still find this the most irritating, slow and difficult app. I still have problems logging in, it's so slow and half the time it wants me to set up something I've already set up. - Claire Griffiths, Google Play

iOS users seem to have a similar opinion on the app, giving an overall rating of 2.6/5. They tend to leave much more extensive reviews on the App Store, with most of them complaining about slow load times and crashes. Many customers say it has the potential to be a great app, but it still needs more improvements and users are having a lot of problems with it.

I downloaded the app imagining that I was going to be help me do stuff on my account far easier than online on the web. It does look like a good app that has potential to make life easier for customers...however there still bits and bots to improve. - Lacachaka, The App Store

British Gas homecare review

British Gas are currently the market leader in home emergency plans with a number of different homecare plans available to cover costs of boilers, plumbing, and even home electrics if something goes wrong.

As of 13th April 2021, the cheapest homecare plan covers an annual boiler service and boiler repairs, coming in at £20.50 per month. If you want your homecare to cover your boiler, plumbing, central heating, drains, and home electrics, you could be paying up to £38 per month. While you may be thanking yourself for buying this if something comes up, it’s a lot of money to pay out a month, and there aren’t many highly-rated British Gas homecare reviews to prove it’s worth it.

I have been with British Gas Homecare for 40 years. In recent years they have turned into a money grabbing operation. Their prices have rocketed, the service is terrible, they keep you waiting in all day for simple jobs and don't turn up. - Theo Singer, Trustpilot

Numerous customers have taken to review sites to share their distaste for the service, with many having to wait too long for an appointment to get their boiler fixed, leaving them with no hot water for weeks. If this wasn’t distressing enough, more customers have had their appointments cancelled with short or no notice and some engineers not turning up at all.

BBC Watchdog has done an investigation into British Gas’ homecare plans where a number of customers have reported that the engineer who turned up had completely misdiagnosed the issue or claimed that the parts needed were unavailable. They then suggested a new boiler costing £3,000. However, when a third party plumber was involved, they found that the parts were readily available, it was a simple fix, costs less than £100 and no need for a new boiler.

Our verdict

As the largest and longest-running energy supplier in the UK, British Gas must be doing something right by their customers. While they are one of the more expensive providers, they are one to be trusted and treat customers fairly.

Taking into account British Gas reviews from customers, Which? and Ofgem surveys, and our experience speaking with them, Utility Switchboard gives British Gas 3/5.

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