Auditel Consultant:
James Bury

Striking out unfair energy contracts

10 Mar 2010 | Filed under: Uncategorized

The BBC report today that British Gas staff are being asked to vote in a strike ballot by the GMB union. In addition to grievances on management style, they are apparently accusing the company of having “a culture of bullying, customer exploitation and profits at all costs”.

As an outsider, it is hard to judge the situation there objectively, but I have certainly noticed a hardening of their attitude this year and some dubious behaviour towards existing clients. There have been examples recently of customers missing their termination notice (easily done) and then finding themselves trapped in 2 year contracts and being charged nearly twice the going price. Readers can form their own opinions as to whether or not this is immoral profiteering, placing excessive burdens on businesses who are already struggling. It certainly does little to enhance the reputation of British Gas and one could be forgiven for wondering if they are trading long term customer loyalty for short term (bonus driven?) profits.

Ofgem made an attempt to reign in this sort of behaviour, but seemed to lose the rigidity of their spines along the way and ended up with some very disappointing changes that have added minimal real benefit to business customers.