British Gas has infuriated customers across the UK by calling in the middle of the night with an automated message asking them to carry out a feedback survey.
The energy firm woke up Britons between 2.30am and 4.30am with a message asking: ‘This is British Gas, we want to conduct a survey asking how did we do.’
Some customers said the call left them fearing their elderly parents were dead, while others said it woke up their whole household and no one could get back to sleep.
Further people were even more incensed because they received the call after British Gas had been allegedly ‘ignoring’ their letters and emails for help with a problem.
The company later blamed a ‘technical issue’ for the error on March 12 and claimed only a ‘small number’ of customers were affected, but did not reveal the total.
Among the customers affected was Rebecca Ringshall, 63, who told the Telegraph she feared it was her 92-year-old mother’s care home calling to say she had died.
British Gas boss sees pay jump to £8.2million
By Jessica Clark
The boss of British Gas owner Centrica saw his pay almost double last year after high energy bills boosted the firm’s share price.
Centrica chief executive Chris O’Shea took home £8.2million in 2023. That compared to £4.5m the year before – a figure he recently said was impossible to justify.
Mr O’Shea, who has led the firm since 2020, earned a £810,000 salary, around £1.4million in annual bonuses and £5.9million in longer-term bonuses.
The latter figure soared in 2023 as it is linked to the FTSE 100 firm’s share price performance over the last three years. The company’s stock was boosted by high household energy bills during the cost-of-living crisis.
Mr O’Shea did not accept a bonus in 2019, 2020 or 2021.
The pay rise, revealed in Centrica’s annual report, comes two months after he told the BBC ‘you can’t justify a salary of that size’ when asked about his £4.5million wage from 2022.
Ms Ringshall, who was awoken at 3.15am along with her husband, said: ‘We have had the discussion with the home, if she is starting to fade, my mum has said she wants my brother and I with her.
‘So when the phone rang, I did fear the worst for a couple of seconds. I thought they might say something like ‘your mother has passed away in her sleep’.
‘When I realised it was British Gas, I just couldn’t believe it. I just put the phone down, I was thoroughly hacked off.’
She had already been on the phone with British Gas the previous week over a £30 overpayment it collected when she shut her mother’s account last October.
Another affected customer was Derek Smith, 85, who told Metro.co.uk: ‘I was less than impressed with being called at 3.30am and would best describe my manner as incandescent… no, I didn’t give the requested rating.’
He also speculated that the message was made from a call centre in India where it would have been an ‘OK time’ to ring.
Other customers took to social media on the morning of March 12 to report being woken up in the middle of the night.
Among them was Phil Shieber from Telford, Shropshire, who tweeted: ‘At 3am our phone rang. As we have elderly parents we naturally panicked. It was an automated call from British Gas asking us to take part in a survey.’
He claimed that a glance at the firm’s timeline on X revealed that they ‘clearly weren’t the only ones’, adding: ‘What on earth are you playing at?!’
Meanwhile Deborah Page from Suffolk tweeted: ‘Not only do you ignore my letter and emails, you also ring me at 3.34am with an automated survey. I am beyond despair. I need help and this is how you treat my vulnerable brother.’
And Charles Cracknell from Hull said: ‘So British Gas, you think it’s OK ringing at 3.10am for a customer feedback survey waking us up – it’s not even amusing.’
Simon Harrison, from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, also tweeted: ‘British Gas, maybe you need to change the settings on your survey robot caller to avoid it calling at 2.30am to see if I’m happy with your service? #goodreviewunlikely.’
Sheila Fell from the North East said: ‘Just had a phone call from you – an automated survey – at 4.32am this morning, Tuesday, March 12. Really? You can’t ring up at a more civilised time?’
Caroline Grimble tweeted: ‘Thanks so much for the survey call at 3.49am today. Really appreciate you waking up the household… who now can’t get back to sleep. Oh and no, the matters are not resolved.’
And Alex Wright said: ‘Why is your survey line ringing me at 3am?’
A British Gas spokesman told MailOnline: ‘We’re very sorry Mrs Ringshall was woken by the call and we completely understand that a phone call in the middle of the night creates worry.
‘On March 12 a small number of customers received an automated call from us in error due to a technical issue, which we fixed as soon as we were made aware.
‘We’re also processing the £30 refund that Mrs Ringshall contacted us about and it will be with her soon.’
British Gas apologised and blamed a ‘technical issue’ for the error on March 12 (file picture)
A source at the firm also told MailOnline that staff disabled the automated call ‘pretty promptly to start working on the fix’.
Last week, British Gas was among three energy providers named by Which? as needing to ‘urgently’ improve their customer service after a survey found they are the worst energy suppliers for responding quickly and effectively to problems.
The watchdog said ‘all too often’ consumers were being left on hold, stuck in never-ending chatbot loops or passed from department to department with no resolution or helpful answer to their query.
One British Gas customer told how she spent 43 hours on the phone and sent 24 emails trying to fix a billing issue for more than a year. She said staff lacked empathy, causing her distress as she was made to repeatedly explain that her husband had died.
Another found himself stuck at 830th in the queue for an online chat after struggling to find any phone numbers for British Gas customer service.
British Gas responded by saying it was investing more than £50million in customer service, including hiring 700 more UK-based contact centre staff at the end of last year and introducing longer call centre opening times.
** Had a 3am call from British Gas? Please email: [email protected] **