THE UK gas company British Gas has been fined a total of £9.5 million pounds after a mishap in their IT upgrade left tens of thousands of business customers with incorrect bills.
This error caused delays and inaccuracy in thousands of customer bills and British Gas were fined by the energy-industry watchdog, Ofgem on Tuesday 24 January, last week.
Ofgem said the supplier “let customers down” when the introduction of a new IT system led to failings in registrations and billing processes.
Customer complaints showed a “high increase” as a result and many were handled with little attention or not on time, Ofgem added.
Although British Gas voluntarily reported the issue themselves they were still told to not have acted quickly enough for customer needs.
Ofgem boss Dermot Nolan said the penalty “sends a strong reminder to all energy companies that they must treat consumers fairly at all times”.
Some British Gas customers were compensated and the company has reduced levels of delayed bills and contacted customers to explain the issue.
Other customers have been allowed to switch supplier despite having unpaid debt, as the debt had been related to failure of a bill being produced at the correct time.