British Gas shells out £1.1m in compensation for missed appointments

British Gas has forked out £1.1m to compensate some of its domestic and micro business customers after its agents missed or were late to appointments.

The company came forward to Ofgem after failing to compensate around 12,000 of its customers as required by the regulator.

British Gas has paid out £30 for initial failed appointments and £30 for not paying customers within the required 10 days. In addition, it has paid an extra £30 to each affected customer. Ofgem has agreed to the redress package and will not be taking any formal enforcement action.

Martin Crouch, Ofgem senior partner for Improving Regulation, said: “British Gas did the right thing in coming forward to report this issue, and has since improved its processes to make sure that, when appointments are missed or not kept on time, all customers receive the compensation they’re entitled to.

“It’s crucial that suppliers keep appointments on time, and make amends when things go wrong.”

Ofgem said it has been working with Centrica-owned British Gas to make improvements, adding that the company has since taken action to change its customer services processes to make sure that in future, when appointments are missed or delayed, customers receive the compensation they’re entitled to.