You may have seen the email circulating but if not they are inviting you to email them with your thoughts on the company and how they can improve. The email address is phillip.bentley@britishgas.co.uk.

Feel free to send your views, a copy of my email is below.

Hi Phillip or Phillip's representative

I read with interest an email from British Gas promoting the ‘Honest Conversation’ campaign. I think it is a good idea as long as it is not simply just a marketing campaign to gain more customers and is an honest attempt to clean up energy supplier's tarnished image.

You asked for feedback and I am glad to provide this.

1 – The problem with any Gas or Electricity offer is the wording is so cleverly written, the average person may be lead into believing they are getting a good deal without actually understanding any of it. For example the Direct Debit statement on your better deal website states you could save up to £67 a year. The notes hidden underneath state “Direct Debit gas customers will receive a discount off your Tier 2 consumption charges of 0.196 p/kWh, up to a maximum of £65 per year pro rated across your billing period. Direct Debit electricity customers will receive a discount off Tier 2 consumption rates (and night rates where applicable) of 1.873 p/kWh up to a maximum of £40 per year pro-rated across your billing period. Based on average annual consumption of 16,500 kWh for gas and 3,300 kWh for single rate electricity as at 18th August 2011, is rounded and includes VAT at 5%. Discount received varies according to seasonal consumption.”

I have no idea how to quantify those notes into an actual figure and neither will most people unless they take a degree in babble. I think I’m saving money if I go direct debit but I don’t know how much or even if I will save any at all. If you really do want to improve you should make it as simple and honest as possible, e.g. “Take out a direct debit and we will give you a £5 discount per quarter.”

2 – Direct Debit. I do use them if they pay the full amount for the bill in question. I do not like underpaying or overpaying a bill. As I understand it energy supplier direct debits take out a fixed amount each month as they cannot predict what the real bill will be and have to arrange different direct debit agreements every time. I understand this but having a bill outstanding or overpaid plays on my mind and I simply do not want to add any extra hassle to my life. When I get my bill I pay it and it is clear. My sister went down the direct debit route and found out a year later she had been underpaying each month and owed a lot of money. Unless you can come up with a system which automates paying the exact bill every time I will never switch to a direct debit system. It may save me money but I’m not sure of this (see point 1). To me it makes my life worse so I will not do this.

3 – 12 month Tarrifs. When I joined British Gas I calculated as best I could how much I would save if I went dual-fuel and joined the websaver tarrif. It seemed to me I would save some, how much I was not sure (see point 1) but I went for it. 12 months later I received an email saying this tariff was ending and I would be put on the standard tariff unless I chose a new one. This is a clever ploy to catch out those who do not understand what this means or are too apathetic to investigate. I would imagine like me most would be worse off and pay more on a Standard tariff which I presume is the intent. So each year I switch to the next websaver tariff. If you wish to improve things you need to either stop expiring tariffs customers are on and are quite happy with, or offer to switch them to the next ‘saver’ tariff unless they specifically choose to go on the standard one.

4 – Increasing prices so much. An obvious one and one which I’m sure you will get a lot of emails about. Earlier this year British Gas announced profits of £1.3Bn after a price rise of 18% in gas and 16% in electricity. You said the rise was entirely justified. We, the British public are not stupid. It is not justified. Such price hikes kills people, you can never justify that. The world is stood on a financial precipice at the moment where any change in the status quo could bring the world crashing down. The greedy and morally devoid capitalist system is much to blame for this. I am sure British Gas could bite the bullet and help the country recover by not increasing prices so drastically and even offering to cut it for a year or two to help us all get back on our feet. We would remember such a gesture and you would benefit in the long run.

The company may be called British Gas in name only these days, but it really needs to look out for the British public at the moment and not the stockholders.