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British Gas Rant
smart51 - 21/2/08 at 08:21 PM

My central heating boiler blew up this morning. It sounded like someone shaking a bucket of spanners. We have a service contract with British Gas, so I phoned them. The earliest appointment was Monday. After complaining to the manager, they put it down as an emergency, brought the appointment forward to Saturday and sent out an emergency technician to check it out. 12 hours later, he does a gas test, finds a slight leak, locked off the whole house and left. Now we have no cooker or gas fire either. I phoned British Gas again but we have the earliest available appointment and they can't bring it forwards.

The monthly cover isn't cheap and I thought that it provided a 24 hour response time. Is this typical or should I be complaining harder?


speedyxjs - 21/2/08 at 08:30 PM

Keep complaining.
If they find a small leak they should be able to do a temp fix. When our walk in freezer broke down, caused by a minor leak, he manager to patch it up with no problems so why cant they

[Edited on 21-2-08 by speedyxjs]


mookaloid - 21/2/08 at 08:32 PM

They only Guarantee too come out in 24 hours - not fix it in 24 hours


smart51 - 21/2/08 at 08:38 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
They only Guarantee too come out in 24 hours - not fix it in 24 hours

Their earliest appointment is 48 - 58 hours after I rang them. I know that they won't fix it on their first visit.


DavidM - 21/2/08 at 08:39 PM

If you've got kids, then I don't think they are allowed to cut off the supply if you've not paid the bill.
I would have thought it would be the same in the case of a fault.
Rant at them, the technician should have fixed the leak while he was there.

David

[Edited on 21/2/08 by DavidM]


RickRick - 21/2/08 at 09:14 PM

yup i can go along with that! they came out to my old boiler, under there 3star service contract, told me it was unsafe, turned it off and left!


paulf - 21/2/08 at 09:37 PM

My wife once called them out whilst i was at work because she could smell gas by the cooker turned out to be a very small leak at the
flexible hose behind it, engineer fixed that and then asked when the fire was last serviced.Because the wife said it hadnt been for at least a year he turned it off and put a sticker on it not to be used, I actually used to service it myself but the wife didnt know I removed the sticker and put it back on and never heard anymore from them.
Paul.


Hellfire - 21/2/08 at 09:42 PM

I cant understand why anyone is still with Britsh Gas anymore...

after making a 500% profit two weeks after increasing fuel prices kind of sticks in my throat - glad I moved years ago!

Steve


Schrodinger - 21/2/08 at 10:05 PM

I don't know what you are complaining about I can't get gas connected


JoelP - 21/2/08 at 10:27 PM

its understandable them capping it for a small leak, it can take a while to locate. However it is a bit galling that they are meant to fix it, but cap it anyway to fix at a later date.

Ive had this situation, where we fit a gas hob and then cap the lot due to a leak elsewhere.

The gasman is bound by the regs, they are responsible for it as the professional on site, and if there is more than 4mb pressure drop in 2 mins, they cannot leave it connected.


02GF74 - 22/2/08 at 08:38 AM

You should know better that you cannot make obcenely massive profits and provide decent customer service at the same time, something has to give.


smart51 - 25/2/08 at 10:09 AM

After asking British Gas on the phone on Friday if they could come out to the leaky pipes, something like 10 times, and getting the answers "your service contract only covers your boiler" and "there's someone coming out on Monday to look at your boiler" I've got someone else in to fix the leak. They're here now. I phone BG to rearrange the boiler visit for Tuesday. Guess who turned up to fix the leak just now? British Gas. Not only wouldn't they agree to come out and fix it, they supposedly canceled the appointemnt. Aaargh!

To make things worse, they said "a 4mb pressure drop is OK. Its only new installations that have to be zero." So we've been switched off since Thursday for nothing.


DIY Si - 25/2/08 at 06:54 PM

I do similar stuff for there electrics. If there is a fault the bloke is only allowed to work on certain bits of the system. For example, if there's a fault on the fuse board, I can fit an isolator and fix my side of things, but I not allowed to leave a faulty system in operation. I can tell you how to switch it on, but that's up to you. He should have left you with a safety notice too, suggesting what you should do or what/where the fault is.
Otherwise, I agree, they are a bunch of muppets. Which is why I'm glad I don't have to actually speak to them at all. They just pay me. I really don't know why people still pay them for anything given the shocking customer service they have.


MkIndy7 - 25/2/08 at 07:53 PM

If he was working on the boiler then he should have sufficient qualifications to find the leak. Although re-reading the thread he didn't get an engineer he got "an emergency technician" aka a Toffo!

You have to have CCN1 Core Domestic Safety to do anything and then additional qualifications for appliances such as boilers.

Althought this is British Gas were talking about so they write there own rules, just the same as all the other "de-nationalised" industries.
I'd still like to know how they can aprk on the roadside for free, along with BT and the electricity board etc, where they are now just a normal company like anybody else.


DIY Si - 25/2/08 at 10:25 PM

quote:
Originally posted by MkIndy7
If he was working on the boiler then he should have sufficient qualifications to find the leak. Although re-reading the thread he didn't get an engineer he got "an emergency technician" aka a Toffo!


They should be the same people. They are on my side of things, as I'm the one on call this week in the Midlands. Although there are differing levels of skill and customer service between workers. I try to be nice and do what I can, but I can get away with charging them lots of OT for it. Others are on a job and home version, so will be trying to naff off sharpish.