British Gas: most-reported complaints
Automated analysis of 3,335 public Trustpilot reviews published 2026-01-29 to 2026-09-27. TrustScore 4.4 from 356,673 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is British Gas legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.
Reviewers most often report that customer support is unhelpful, with 511 complaints accounting for 48% of identified issues. Billing errors are the second most frequent concern, cited in 301 cases (28% of complaints) and showing a rising trend. Other notable issues include unreachable support, reported in 161 instances (15%), and problems with accounts or apps, mentioned in 110 cases (10%).
How to reach British Gas
These are the contact details British Gas publishes on its Trustpilot profile, as of our last check on 2026-09-27 — it publishes no phone number there, address Maidenhead Road, Windsor, SL4 5GD, GB.
The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2014-05-09, uses Trustpilot’s paid features, uses Trustpilot’s AI-assisted replies, and last replied to a negative review on 2026-09-26. Trustpilot ranks it 18 of 28 in Electric Utility Company. We last checked this profile on 2026-09-27 and found 200 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.
Official complaint record
Citizens Advice (Q4 2025): 2.28★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q4 2024): 3.27★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q4 2023): 1.84★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q4 2022): 1.875★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q4 2021): 2.85★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q4 2020): 3.2★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q4 2019): 3.95★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q4 2018): 3.65★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q4 2017): 4.05★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q3 2025): 2.94★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q3 2024): 3.27★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q3 2023): 1.84★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q3 2022): 2.75★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q3 2021): 2.65★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q3 2020): 3.45★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q3 2019): 3.95★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q3 2018): 4.15★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q2 2025): 2.94★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q2 2024): 2.94★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q2 2023): 2.45★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q2 2022): 2.85★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q2 2021): 3★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q2 2020): 3.7★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q2 2019): 3.85★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q2 2018): 4.25★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q1 2026): 2.61★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q1 2025): 2.94★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q1 2024): 2.39★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q1 2023): 2.5★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q1 2022): 2.95★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q1 2021): 2.8★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q1 2020): 3.6★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q1 2019): 3.9★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
Citizens Advice (Q1 2018): 4.1★ Citizens Advice customer-service rating. source
FCA (2025-H2): 93.1% of resolved cases upheld against the firm; 49,016 complaints opened with the firm; 9 consumer-credit complaints received. source
Financial Ombudsman (H2-2025): 4.4% of resolved cases upheld against the firm. source
Ofgem (Q4 2025): 1158 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2024): 1279 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2023): 1765 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2022): 2742 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2021): 1433 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2020): 1039 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2019): 1092 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2018): 1560 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2017): 1050 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2016): 1555 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2015): 1714 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2014): 2825 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q4 2013): 2412 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2025): 1212 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2024): 1427 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2023): 1588 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2022): 2107 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2021): 1396 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2020): 926 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2019): 1228 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2018): 1486 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2017): 1304 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2016): 1518 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2015): 2141 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2014): 2725 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q3 2013): 1582 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2026): 957 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2025): 1192 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2024): 1530 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2023): 1786 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2022): 1894 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2021): 1252 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2020): 590 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2019): 1366 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2018): 1221 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2017): 1393 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2016): 1574 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2015): 2507 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2014): 2844 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q2 2013): 1696 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2026): 1135 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2025): 1168 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2024): 1746 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2023): 2737 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2022): 1846 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2021): 1135 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2020): 1130 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2019): 1524 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2018): 883 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2017): 1463 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2016): 1866 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2015): 3051 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2014): 3084 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Ofgem (Q1 2013): 2295 complaints per 100,000 customers. source
Official figures reported by the regulator/ombudsman named; independent of our review analysis.
Authorised firm reference 490568 — check the FCA Register.
Forum footprint: 10,000+ MoneySavingExpert forum discussions mention this company (browse). Roughly 0 of the top, relevance-sorted search results were posted in the last 90 days — an approximate figure by construction, not a true recency count. Recent thread titles: “Problems with British Gas switch to British Gas NEP / Evolve”, “british gas and british gas energy trust fund”, “Switching from British Gas to British Gas whilst under Contract”.
Elsewhere: 2.1★ on Google (416 reviews) · 4.5★ App Store (13,837) · 4.1★ Google Play (13,557) · 1.22★ Reviews.io (3,249) — a 2.3-star gap between its Trustpilot and Google scores.
TrustScore over time
4.4 → 4.4 across 15 census measurements since 2026-08-11. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.
Reply behaviour over time
Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal: 2026-08-11 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-08-15 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-08-18 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-08-21 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-08-24 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-08-27 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-01 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-04 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-07 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-10 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-13 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-16 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-20 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-23 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-27 (100%, 0.0d).
Severity: 43% of this company’s 1067 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.
Reviewers here waited a median of 0.9 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (1203 reviews record both dates).
Official record vs what reviewers say
Solid: OFGEM complaints per 100,000 customers, Q1 2013 to Q2 2026 (88 quarters of official data). Dashed: our share of complaints about “support unhelpful” over our census window. The two series measure different things over different periods and are shown for context, not as a like-for-like comparison.
Two readings of the same reviews
Trustpilot’s own automated summary of this company’s reviews reads as predominantly positive. Our classifier, reading the review text in our recent window, judged 18% of those reviews to be complaints — most often support unhelpful. Both are automated readings of the same public reviews; they weigh them differently.
Regulator enforcement
- OFGEM, 2023-02-02 — Investigation into British Gas Trading Ltd’s compliance with with Standard Licence Conditions (‘SLC’) – SLC 0, 13.1 (a) and (d), 23, 26, 27, 27A, 28, 28B.1 and 32 of the Gas and Electricity Supply Lic (notice)
- OFGEM, 2017-01-27 — nominal penalty of £1 plus £4,500,000 in consumer redress — The Authority has confirmed its decision to impose a financial penalty on British Gas following an investigation into its failure to comply with SLC 12 in relation to advanced meters for non-domestic (notice)
- OFGEM, 2015-03-05 — penalty of £500,000 — The Authority has confirmed its decision to impose a financial penalty on British Gas following an investigation into its compliance with Article 9(1) and Article 9(1A) of the Electricity and Gas (Car (notice)
- OFGEM, 2015-03-05 — a nominal penalty (the substantive remedy is set out in the notice) — The Authority has confirmed its decision to impose a financial penalty on British Gas for its failure to meet its obligations under Article 14(1) of the Electricity and Gas (Carbon Emissions and Commu (notice)
- OFGEM, 2012-01-10 — penalty of £2,500,000 — The Authority has confirmed its decision to impose a financial penalty on British Gas for its failure to comply with the Gas and Electricity (Consumer Complaints Handling Standards) Regulations 2008. (notice)
- OFGEM, 2011-11-03 — penalty of £1,000,000 — The Authority has confirmed its decision to impose a financial penalty on British Gas for its failure to report accurate supply data as required under the Renewables Obligation for England & Wales (notice)
Formal action published by the named regulator. Penalty figures are quoted as the regulator stated them; where no figure is shown the action carried none or none was published. Historic actions may predate current management or ownership.
Independent findings
Which?’s 2026 energy supplier survey scored British Gas across 15 published metrics.
- complaints performance: 5/15
- accurate payments: 2
- clarity of statements: 2
- contacting your supplier: 9/12
- customer communications: 2
- customer score: 65
- ease of contacting: 2
- overall customer service: 2
- smart meters: 3/10
- supporting customers who need it: 8/10
- switching: 0/5
- total score: 59
- usefulness of communications about energy costs: 2
- value for money: 2
- which assessment score: 52
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint about this company’s advertising:
- 2026-03-04 (Social media (paid ad)) — A paid-for Meta ad for British Gas, which promoted switching to a heat pump, didn’t have enough evidence to demonstrate that ‘up to’ saving claims could be achieved by a significan
These are the findings of the named independent body, reported here with attribution — they are not our conclusions and are separate from the review analysis above.
What their policy promises
refund window: 5-8 working days — meanwhile 40 reviewers in our census window reported refund delays.
“usually within 5-8 working days”
refund window: 5-8 working days — meanwhile 40 reviewers in our census window reported refund delays.
“Refunds to your bank account should take 5-8 working days”
refund window: up to 42 days — meanwhile 40 reviewers in our census window reported refund delays.
“can take up to 42 days after your account closes”
Quoted verbatim from the company’s own published policy (source page); complaint counts are census classifications. As of 2026-09-12.
Policy-page monitoring
We monitor this company’s published policy page for changes. No changes have been detected since we started watching on 2026-09-01.
Automated change detection on the company’s own published policy page — a record of when the page changed, not a judgement on what changed.
Measured reply time: across 1184 negative reviews that received a public reply, the median wait was 0 days — the company profile reports an average of under a day.
Reply quality: of 1184 company replies to negative reviews analysed, 22% engaged with the specific problem and 76% were generic templates.
What employees say
Employees rate British Gas 3.3★ overall from 1,807 reviews on Glassdoor — the inside view, kept separate from customer complaint statistics. Read the reviews there.
Review provenance: 2085 company-invited reviews in the recent window average 4.91★, while 624 organic (uninvited) reviews average 2.04★.
11% of its 2115 recent 5★ reviews came from accounts that had written only that one review when we captured it (the median across companies is about 39%). A high share is a reason to look closer, not evidence of fake reviews.
Sector benchmark: support unhelpful makes up 48% of this company’s complaints vs a 29% median across 111 ranked companies in its sector.
Review velocity: 56,617 of this company’s 356,673 Trustpilot reviews (16%) were written in the last 12 months.
What are the most common complaints about British Gas?
Support unhelpful
511 reports · 48% of complaintssteady“absurd, wild bills—including single charges as high as £3,980”
The company replied on 2026-09-10: “Hi Joe, I'm sorry to read about your experience. I can understand how frustrating this must be, especially with the account discrepancies, billing concerns and the impact this has had on you. If you…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I was charged 227 pounds for gas alone for 2 months.”
The company replied on 2026-09-10: “Hi Adebayo, I'm sorry you're had an unexpectedly high bill. I'd like to make sure you're only paying for your usage, and not from the previous owner. Please get in touch with the reading from 6 July…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“they had kept reporting to Credit Agencies that my account was severely defaulted”
The company replied on 2026-09-10: “Hi there, thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties you've faced regarding your billing & complaint handling. I understand how…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Billing errors
301 reports · 28% of complaintsrising since 2026-07“Sent multiple debt collection letters to my house, affecting my credit score etc for a gas account bill on a new build.”
The company replied on 2026-09-13: “Hi, I’m really sorry to hear that you’re unhappy with the service you’ve received from us. This is far from the standard we aim to provide, and I’m genuinely sorry that we’ve let you down. We truly…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Money getting lost, cheques not being sent and threatening letters to chase debts that aren't even yours!”
The company replied on 2026-09-11: “Hi there, this is very disappointing to read. I’m really sorry for the poor experience you’ve had. I’d like to get this sorted out for you. Please send us a direct/private message on Facebook,…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Charged someone on benefits £200 for a bill dated before their tenancy agreement which is illegal.”
The company replied on 2026-09-11: “We are truly sorry to hear about this extremely distressing situation and the concerns you've raised regarding the billing. We understand how upsetting and frustrating this must be. We’d appreciate…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Support unreachable
161 reports · 15% of complaintssteady“engineer left property after the service with the gas supply to the boiler isolated leaving me with no hot water or heating.”
The company replied on 2026-09-11: “Good afternoon Matt, I'm disappointed to hear about the service you received from us recently. I’d like to make sure this gets sorted out for you. Please send us a direct/private message on Facebook,…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Formal complaint ignored for over five weeks”
The company replied on 2026-09-13: “Hi Julia, I’m really sorry to hear that you’re unhappy with the service you’ve received from us. This is far from the standard we aim to provide, and I’m genuinely sorry that we’ve let you down. We…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Impossible to do this online because their system would not accept my bank details.”
The company replied on 2026-09-11: “I'm sorry you've had such difficulties so far Rhona, that's far from the service we aim to provide. If you need any further support at the moment please send us a direct/private message on Facebook,…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Account/app problems
110 reports · 10% of complaintssteady“It took a further 3 weeks of chasing to get the rest of my own money back”
The company replied on 2026-09-13: “Hi, I’m really sorry to hear that you’re unhappy with the service you’ve received from us. This is far from the standard we aim to provide, and I’m genuinely sorry that we’ve let you down. We truly…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“told got to wait for our credit and put on a variable tariff when we agreed our existing fixed tariff would transfer”
The company replied on 2026-09-12: “Hello Scott, Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties you've experienced while moving home. I can appreciate how frustrating it must be to have…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I’m going round in circles”
The company replied on 2026-09-10: “Hi Vicky. Thank you for sharing this review for us today. I am sorry to hear about the ongoing issues you're having with the smart meter. We would like to investigate this further for you, please…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Missed appointments
105 reports · 10% of complaintssteady“Had five attempts to fit meter been let down every single time”
The company replied on 2026-09-10: “Hi Andrew, I'm sorry to hear this. Being let down five times would understandably leave you with little confidence, and I can appreciate how disappointing that's been. I'd love to look into this and…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“the engineer was stuck and they had to cancel.”
The company replied on 2026-09-11: “I'm sorry to hear your smart meter appointment was cancelled so late in the day. We appreciate how disappointing that must have been after waiting during the appointment window. Please send us a DM…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“British Gas arranged an appointment for 10am–1pm, but nobody came.”
The company replied on 2026-09-23: “Hello Visakaperumal, thank you for taking the time to share your experience. I'm very sorry to hear about the difficulties you've faced and understand how distressing it must have been to be left…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Poor core service
96 reports · 9% of complaintsfalling“engineer left property after the service with the gas supply to the boiler isolated leaving me with no hot water or heating.”
The company replied on 2026-09-11: “Good afternoon Matt, I'm disappointed to hear about the service you received from us recently. I’d like to make sure this gets sorted out for you. Please send us a direct/private message on Facebook,…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“That did not happen. The engineer gave me the number of his manager, but that person is not responding to my calls or texts.”
The company replied on 2026-09-10: “Hi Christina. I am disappointed to read about your experience & we'd like to get this looked into. Please reach out to us with a private message on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram, including…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“The heating of the radiators and storage tank was not checked”
The company replied on 2026-08-26: “Hello Alan, thanks for taking the time to leave a review. I'm sorry to hear about your experience. So we can look into this further for you, please send us a direct/private message on X, Facebook,…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Compare British Gas with…
Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-09-27.