3,600 complaints over gas bills
GDF-Suez under pressure for over-estimations and misadjusting price and tax rises
MORE than 3,600 customers have lodged complaints with France's energy watchdog over the billing practices of GDF-Suez.
The focus of most complaints is the company's policy of over-estimating the amount of gas that households will use, billing them and then not refunding the difference.
Some customers have seen their bills rise up to 40% as a result of over-estimation and increased tariffs, according to newspaper Le Parisien .
Another tactic, of applying tariff rises from the middle of the year across 12 months, has also been highlighted.
Energy mediator Denis Merville said GDF's bills were far too complicated for consumers and its commercial practices would be closely examined.
A spokeswoman for consumer association UFC-Que choisir, Caroline Keller, said the group had seen a steep rise in the number of complaints and lawsuits against the company.
She added these were becoming more difficult to resolve as the gas firm increasingly passed complaints between different departments.
A spokesman for GDF-Suez said that since 2008 the number of complaints over bills had dropped by 70%.
He said the company sent out 40 million bills a year, and the number of complaints represented just 0.3% of those bills.
Nine out of 10 complaints were settled with just one phone call, he added.
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