British Gas boiler insurance 'impossible' to cancel, say customers

Energy supplier is bombarded with complaints about its HomeCare cover



British Gas has been accused of making it “impossible” for customers to cancel its boiler insurance as figures showed complaints to the company soared by 25 per cent last year.

The energy supplier has come under fire for failing to fix and service broken boilers for customers who pay for HomeCare cover.

The Telegraph revealed that some were left waiting for more than a month for a repair, despite paying hundreds of pounds for the cover.

Now it has emerged that those attempting to cancel their insurance policies with the company are struggling to do so.

Cancellation cannot be done online and instead some are having to wait on hold for almost an hour on the phone.

Separately, figures show that the company received more than half a million (544,000) complaints in the year to September 2021, as consumers took issue with its customer service management, billing and payments practices. This is up 25 per cent from 435,000 the previous year.

Scores of frustrated customers have rebuked the company online for providing poor service and then making it difficult to cancel the boiler cover.

British Gas customers with broken boilers have faced weeks of delayed and cancelled callouts despite paying for the HomeCare policy, which services around 3.4 million people across the UK.

Many say they were enrolled on the scheme without requesting to be a part of it.

James Daley, the founder of the consumer group Fairer Finance, said it was unacceptable that customers were coming up against “deliberate friction” when attempting to cancel services.

“It’s not good practice. It should be as easy to cancel as it is to sign up. If they're not providing adequate service on the phone then they should make it possible for customers to cancel online.”