Recently, I logged into my British Gas account and found it was in my name, but with a different address, phone number and bank account number. British Gas kept insisting I must have had another account. Eventually, after a month, it removed the stranger’s details without explaining what happened. Today, I received my monthly bill, which showed a wrong amount and a wrong credit, and found my account was now in the name of an Andrew Fuller*, with his email address and balance but my address. What’s going on?
MP, Loughborough
You and at least one other customer have been put in a potentially risky situation by British Gas’s negligence. Its response is not reassuring. It tells me that a data synchronisation error resulted in your account being associated with Andrew Fuller’s email address, and that a system fault reversed the correction. British Gas says: “We’re really sorry for what has happened. An isolated system fault led to an account mix-up, but we’ve put things right to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
