British Gas faced a fierce online backlash on Tuesday as customers hijacked a Twitter Q&A session to express their anger over the company's decision to raise energy prices. The hashtag #AskBG quickly became one of the top trending topics on the platform, with hundreds of users venting their frustration.
Many tweets were sarcastic, with one user asking: 'My bedroom has a window where the sun comes in and that makes one side of my room really hot, how much do I owe you?' Another wrote: 'If we burn £20 notes to keep warm will we save money?' The social media team posted a picture of customer services director Bert Pijls answering questions, but even that drew criticism, with one user commenting on his lack of a jumper.
During the session, Mr Pijls reiterated the reasons for the price hike, citing rising wholesale costs, improvements to pipes and wires, and the cost of government programmes. He said: 'We have tried to hold our prices for as long as possible but factors such as rising wholesale prices have forced our prices up.' He also noted that wholesale prices had risen by 7%, pipes and wires by 7%, and environmental and social programmes by 38%.
Despite the backlash, some users saw the session as an opportunity for British Gas to explain its position. However, the event was widely described as a 'social media car crash'. One customer, Seth Kneller, used the session to point out that the company had been undercharging him, to which Mr Pijls responded: 'Hi Seth, we're sorry about this. BritishGasHelp will contact you to sort this out.'
