Washington Gas / WGL Holdings
Reviews and Complaints

WG outsourced its front office (call center) and back office work to Accenture (back in 2007); and Accenture has decided to take the work to their Manila Delivery Center (MDC). The staff doing the front and back office work is composed of Filipinos. The call center; which has been in Manila for almost six years, has an extremely high turnover rate. Accenture is continually hiring customer service representatives (CSR) for the WG account; they take in newcomers for this account almost every three months. Since the turnover is high for this account, people from different walks of life come and go. The wise; immediately sensing that there is no future for their career when they start/stay on this account, leave immediately after training (approx. 2-4 months). The wiser, well...they leave after a few weeks. The not-so-wise wait for a year, or a year and a half. Accenture hopes to prevent this high turnover rate by slapping a bond amounting to Php 100, 000.00 (around US$2, 400.00) to all new hires if they do not stay with Accenture for a year; however the unfortunate but wise ones (who; through just sheer bad luck got assigned to this god-forsaken WG account by Accenture's ignorant HR) choose to ignore this bond, quit fast rather than die young, and then go on hating Accenture for the rest of their lives.
Office politics and favoritism has ravaged the working environment at the WG account at Accenture's MDC. It is very toxic and more putrid than an open cesspool. If you always kiss ### and agree with your team leader all the time then you will become their favorite, the people who will then become team leaders/supervisors are the favorite of the managers. Some team leaders even have inappropriate sexual relations with their direct CSR subordinates. If you do not participate in the activities planned by the managers then you will be ostracized and your performance review will be affected. Meanwhile, (if you are not a supervisor or team leader) the managers want the rest of the CSRs to stay in the account and be a CSR/slave forever; they feed ### into the minds of the CSRs; they would even go to great lengths and say terrible things about other existing accounts at Accenture, just to make you believe that the WG account is the place to be in the world for a hopeless person like you who’s too fat and lazy to find a better job. Well, if you want to be a loser for the rest of your life and just want health insurance and a regular paycheck to pay your bills then this job is for you.
Customer service is not used as a metric to assess the performance of the CSRs; Accenture and WG have decided that their performance will be assessed every month using the three measurable metrics: average handling time (AHT), call quality and service order accuracy. So, the CSRs just focus on meeting the required scores every month so that they can keep their job. Customer service is not part of the training the newly-hired employees receive. They train the CSRs to be tough on their customers. WG Rules are the only rules in this workplace. The kind-hearted CSR who approaches his/her job to genuinely resolve the issues confronting the customers of WG will certainly have longer phone calls; however, because of this long call he/she will have a higher AHT. To compensate for these long calls (to lower the AHT), some CSRs drop their succeeding calls; or try to limit the succeeding calls to 2-3 mins., even though some customer issues would definitely need a much longer time to resolve. The CSR is more concerned with his/her performance as an employee. Customer service is the last thing on the CSRs mind when he/she is taking calls.
As mentioned earlier, the account has an absurdingly high turnover rate and people from all walks of life come and go; so the quality of the employees hired is unstable. Some employees lack the skills required to be effective on their job (English communication, critical thinking, etc.) . Accenture's infantile HR assigns their newly-hired employees to the account wherever manpower is needed without taking into consideration their abilities and educational/employment background. Accenture HR representatives are nothing more than puppets of the accounts they supposedly supervise.
Office politics, flawed metrics and poor employee quality are the reasons for WG's horrible customer service. WG has a 10-year outsourcing contract with Accenture. The WG account has been in the Accenture's MDC for almost six years; regrettably, CSRs who are unfortunate enough to have been working in this account have not much of a future left in their careers. They will leave this account without even learning what basic customer service is. The WG account at Accenture's MDC solely exists for the benefit of WG.

Washington Gas is a horrible horrible company. Their customer "service" is done overseas - I believe in India. They have lied to me and cheated me on numerous bills. I can't stand the service, the company is crooked through and through, however I don't know of any other gas companies in my area.

Waiting for a "supervisor" is a joke - they give you some jerk who's sole goal is to get as much money for Wash Gas as possible and make you waste as much time as possible in the hopes that you will go away. I told the lady who went to get the supervisor that I would wait on hold for 3 hrs while watching TV if that is what it took to get to speak to them. I also said that I wasn't going away and I wasn't going to pay for the erroneous bills if I had to get a lawyer and sue them to do it. Ridiculous. These people and this company I hope and pray go out of business SOON. They deserve it.

I too am going through a ridiculous situation with incorrect billing with washington gas that has been an ongoing dispute for 15 months (EVERY time i call, it's "yeah your case is still being investigated", despite the fact that i've faxed as well as emailed my proof on numerous occasions, and the fact that we had a threeway phone conversation with my former landlord who verified that i moved out when i said i did), and if this hits my credit report, i am prepared to file suit in court. I have all my evidence and documentation to prove that I am absolutely telling the truth. If there is enough interest in a class action suit, please let me know and we can proceed together to find the best course of action. email at craigslistemailmww on yahoo.

My mom is going through a very similar experience with them, and this is the SECOND time around they have given her account to someone else without any explanation or justification. Any chance you would want to team up and sue these SOBs?

Wash Gas also did "maintenance" to our meter which resulted in a usage of 144 therms... in AUGUST.. yeah - for the past 9 years it's been 10-12 therms and now 144? I don't think so.. Their "customer service" assured me each month that it would be corrected and it's now March and I am still waiting. Last cust svc jerk I spoke with tried to tell me that since my meter reading is correct today (in March) that it was correct in October (no physical reading - only an "electronic one" showing an abnormal number ) and that I had to pay. Ridiculous company full of incompetence, fraud, abuse and lies. If I could cancel and find someone else, I would.

I have the exact same issues with Washington Gas, tough out 2009 I only used about 300 therms all readings where actual not estimated. Then starting in March 2010 they began estimating my bill for the next 7 months until when sometime in early October of 2010 they said they needed to do maintenance to my meter. One week later the so called maintenance a actual reading was done on the meter showing that over 719 additional therms where used since February. So the total use for this year shows over 1020 therms, over 3 times higher then the previous year. So somehow I used over 800 additional therms since February.

I have had problems with Washington Gas billing also since December 2008 when we switched to an alternate provider, WGES. They didnt bill us January - March and then billed us $1300 and then 3 days later $1600! No way that 2 people with a new HVAC system and our being away for part of December, all of January and 1/2 of February to have this much of a bill. We are on the budget plan for estimated usage and - even though we have regularly sent in actual meter readings, they refuse to use ours and just estimate it. We figure that they overestimate by approx 117 therms over our actual usuage. This has been going on since 2004! I think that they owe us alot of money. We contacted the MD Attorney General and then filed a complaint April 20, 2009 with the Public Service Commission and also with our Congressional Representative. So far they STILL are overbilling us, have never sent us an acknowledgement of our complaint, tried to require a large deposit (we have been with them for 30 years!); etc. Finally today billing returned our call (1st time since April 20 -- today is June 23). They did not have all the facts; tried to say that we owed $1400! Last month we only owed $328 more than our figures indicate. Quite an increase for 1 month! I think that we are just the tip of the iceberg. It seems to us that its either 1) incompetence 2) fraud or 3)embezzling.

My gas bill is 2 times higher since November of 2008. Someone needs to investigate this issue. People have more problems with jobs, gas and losing there homes. Please someone help. Email address is allaboutwork@comcast.net if you have advise please email.

First I am in the military with auto pay set up, all my bills are payed and my account is in good standing. I called them about a issue with our gas fireplace insert. We are renting and tried to get it started up. We smelled gas and shut it off immediately. In the off position we did not smell gas. Our neighbor had nearly the same problem. He recommended call the gas company. I did the emergency crew was called out and did not find a leak initially. The valve was opened and then close and the leak detection meter went off the scale for a leak. The valve was open since we moved in with no issue. The gas guy then shut off the gas at the meter per "the policy" on Friday at 1450 hrs. He said if we got the problem fixed they could turn the gas back on ASAP they were "24/7/365" company just call. I paid $160 for a contractor to come out with "emergency" pay. The problem was fixed by 1745 hrs. I called the gas company to come out and turn it back on, there response was they could not do it until Monday which is unacceptable since I have a young son and the lows that night were supposed to be 39. I called multiple times talked to multiple people to resolve the issue after doing my due diligence and doing exactly what was required from my position. I asked to talk to a supervisor and one was not available. I gave them my phone numbers to contact me to resolve the issue after doing exactly what they said to do to resolve the issue. I called back every hour on the hour to turn the as back on with no resolution. Their answer was the same each time the best they could do was Monday. I called both the regular line and emergency line with no resolution. I finally got my gas turned back on the next day paying another contractor to turn the gas back on. Later that morning I was finally contacted by the supervisor who left a message telling me that things were on track for Monday which is the best the could do. I called them and canceled the order since I did it myself after spending $240 for a service they should provide. Therefore I am filing a complaint about their service. This has solidified a few things in my mind 1) it must be nice to have a monopoly since their are no other gas providers, if there was I would change immediately 2) never call the gas company, if my rental house were about to explode due to a gas leak I would still not call them. Their service is deplorable. Everyone that I contacted stated "that is the policy" so I leave this in your hands.

They probably did something to your meter. It has happened to us and it was a defecting electronic reading device that was recording our bills at 4x -5x the normal average cost. Ask them when the maintenance was done last on your meter and make sure you read it and report it yourself the 15th of every month. Taking a photo of the meter with the date helps. We shouldn't have to live like this as customers. Awful just awful the way customers are treated by this company.

We are going through the same problems with Washington Gas. If you do find an attorney who can help please notify me and maybe we can file a class action lawsuit against them. This all started with my wife emailed Washington Gas in October of 07 and verified the account number that was originally given to us. They verified it was correct then months later, after many payments, we recieved a letter of discontinued service. This is how we found out our money was going somewhere else. Instead, Washington Gas changed our account number with notifying us. They have almost $400 of our money and refuse to refund or apply to an outstanding balance that is their fault. We filed a complaint with SCC and now we are getting calls that they will terminate our service next week. I have never delt with such unprofessional people before we also informed them that we have a new born which they apparently could care less. We even have bank statements proving we paid. Doesn't matter to them. Help!

I don't understand how there is no other public utility competitor with Washington Gas - isn't this a monopoly? Is this legal? They have the WORST customer service staff - I have been explaining to them for over 8 months now that the bills they send me are erroneous and that I do NOT have an outstanding bill with them. I have called several times, mailed and faxed all my supporting documenetation etc. Not only have they told me oh...about 5 times now that the problem would be resolved, they have even sent me a final bill with a zero balance. But that does not mean anything to them apparantly and they keep sending me bills! The latest letter stated that "if the bill does not belong to you, please advise us who is responsible for the bill." All I have to say at this point is...Are you kidding me? Who's responsible? It could be Santa Clause for all I care! This last letter says it all about their lack of professionalism, lack of competency and lack of due diligence and service to their customers. If any of you out there have experienced this and have successfully corrected your problems with them, please let me know!

Thanks,

FedUp

complaints-[protected] and if you want a hearing put it in writing and call [protected] and they will give you a free lawyer

i have found numbers- complaints for Washington gas-[protected] and if you need a hearing you can put it in writing and call for a hearing. [protected]

i may self is going threw some of the same thing. i lived in overland garden some three years ago when i moved i called and ask for them to cut BGE OFF and WASHINGTON GAS when i called back i was told a tech could not come out to turn the gas off cause they didn't have non, now some three years later they want me to pay they put this on my credit report and now took it off of my credit report and put it on my bill and told me to pay 466.00 and i have a turn off. this is what i believe we all have to come together as a 1 there are more gas company's out there for us and we have to find them. there should be a meeting of some sort to find out whats out there for us. me myself will be speaking with a lawyer to find out what i can do they need to be stopped . if i have to go to the media with this I'm going .

I had fallen on hard times and went thru the past winter without heat and hot water thanks to Washington Gas. I could pay my bill in full, however the next month I would be right back in disconnection status because of a required security deposit. For (3) years I have lived at the same location. Where am I going, currently I owe nothing to this wonderful company. However their automated system continues to say I owe thousands of dollars. Funnier still, they tell me to contact their attorney handling my case and when I do they can not give me a file number. Customer Service Reps can even read the clued responses to your needs and although they claim they are recording the conversations they should stop and rewind the tape sometimes and just listen to the customers. I want my service back and if not I will survive. I am furious with the fact that they are not knowledgable enough to hire an attorney who will contact you. Yet, you can only talk with them what type of service are they really rendering. I wish the deregulation would bring in some fresh gas companies who want to serve people rather than themselves. This company is the worse that I have ever dealt with.

Washington Gas are filled with silly people with no brains because in this slow down economy where people cannot afford o make their payments on time then how do you expect that same person to pay a deposit request of $744 . I don't know how this works out and I don't understand it especially now. It is so crazy I was hoping I will be able to change gas providers. Their customer service also tries to tell you what to do with your money. I am so mad.

I have had a problem with washington gas also for overbilling me almost 1000 dollars because they claim they underestimated the bill for 12 months. My response-how can a company suddenly wake up and decide they've underbilled me and expect me to fork up 1000 dollars, and on what basis? This was told to me over the phone, not at all in writing. Just because they said so I must pay? I think an FBI investigation should be launched because I suspect that the dear folks working in there are profiting from the inefficiency and I'm sure if they do that, they will smell the huge rat of CORRUPTION because they think people will pay anything not to have their service disconnected. The Public Service COmmission of the District of Columbia is supposed to docket complaints. Once you do that, according to DC law, they cannot disconnect your service for the disputed amount. I just read that and am about to pursue that avenue. Meanwhile, if you have any FBI friends, point them in the direction of this utility company.

My experience with the Washington Gas has been the most insane and frustrating experience in a LONG time. I had my service interrupted and have been trying to get it back on since Thursday and today is MONDAY! I have called and screamed - and we won't even talk about trying to get a supervisor on the phone! That takes an act of God! Here it is :43 on a Moneay afternoon and I have been home ALL day waiting. Not only that but they were supposed to come out Friday and never showed up. He tried to tell me no one was home. Well if he bothered to get out of his truck and knock on the door, he would know that some was home...ALL DAY! This makes now TWO days I've taken off work. What's worse is never was there a notice, or card or anything left at the door. I waited all day and was told that no one could return until Monday unless it was an emergency! Hmmm so I thought I would be clever and tell them I had a gas leak. Sure enough a few hours later a truck showed up. I begged and pleaded with him - showed him my receipt and he got in his truck and rolled off once he found out there wasn't a leak.
Here I now sit and 4:47 Monday afternoon STILL waiting. If I had ANY choice in this world I would never use these IDIOTS!

Washington Gas has a bunch of idiots over there - please don't insult the good folks by giving Washington Gas any credit and use of the title "Customer Service". I understand economy is tight, but this is no excuse to retain poor performance in any industry responsible for providing good, quality service to its customers.