Britain furiously reacting over Gas hike

Heating and electricity utility British
Gas attempted to head off public
anger over a price hike by inviting
customers to a Twitter chat just
hours after the increase was
announced Thursday.
Our Customer Services Director
Bert Pijls will be taking part in a
Q&A about our price rise at
1-2pm. Tweet your questions
using #AskBG !
— British Gas (@BritishGas)
October 17, 2013
What the company got instead was
more vitriol than it could handle.
According to The Guardian, 16,000
people tweeted at British Gas using
the #AskBG hashtag, and nearly every
tweet was a knockout punch. Many of
them included “greed” and/or “death.”
#askbg. Did you forget the
balaclava? Isnt that normal in a
planned robbery?
— James Hobson (@
jamesdhobson) October 17, 2013
I've found a cheaper way of
heating than British Gas #AskBG
pic.twitter.com/7EVMTbi5Q0
— Tony Shepherd (@tony_sheppy)
October 17, 2013
The price hike in question is a double
whammy: Electricity rates will go up by
10.4 percent and the gas tariff will
increase by 8.4 percent starting Nov.
23. The average annual cost of energy
will go up £120.
Ian Peters, managing director of
British Gas Residential Energy, said
the price increase is a result of
skyrocketing costs. He also defended
the choice to hold the Twitter chat.
“I would not describe this as a PR
disaster,” Peters told The Guardian .
“We have made a commitment to be
open and transparent. These are
tough decisions we have had to take in
tough times, and it would not be right
of us to hide away and not explain
ourselves.”
Many of the utility’s explanations—it
largely referred customers to its
website and a phone line for people
struggling to pay bills—got lost in the
pile-on, however. Maybe waiting a few
days after the announcement would
have given customers a chance to cool
off.
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]
London Loves Business posted a
screenshot of a British Gas job listing
for a social media manager, noting
that Twitter commentators were
speculating over whether the vacancy
had anything to do with Thursday’s
chat.

posted from Bloggeroid