Transco gas meter fiasco

Alan_Vickers

Thanks Swanjon. Yes I realise that it is a chain of subcontractors. My only comment is that I am pleased that I was not paying for the job as each of them no doubt want their cut.

Alan Vickers

Frugal_Sharky

I had the pleasure of OnStream replacing my gas meter today. Before the engineer arrived all was well. By the time the engineer had left, my boiler wasn't working and part of my kitchen furniture had been damaged.

The engineer had re-ignited the boiler's pilot but didn't check that it fired up before he left (too busy damaging my kitchen).

I called OnStream within minutes of the engineer leaving my property and asked if they could contact him and ask him to come back and take a look but I was advised that the boiler was my problem and that I should contact a registered Gas Safe Engineer.

Hang on a minute, before the new meter was installed my boiler was OK, after the new meter is installed my boiler won't fire - how does that make it my problem? I didn't ask for a new meter and didn't particulary want it, but I still had to take a day off work to allow them to fit it. Now I have to take a day off tomorrow as well while I wait for a gas engineer to come and tell me what the OnStream engineer has done to my boiler.

If they're not responsible for my boiler, why did he even touch it in the first place?

British Gas were'nt interested in my plight either. Said the meter upgrade was nothing to do with them as OnStream own the meter. Strange then that the appointment letter came on BG letter headed paper?

Suffice to say I am not happy and have logged a complaint about my damaged kitchen unit. If they're not going to fix my boiler they can sure as hell fix my kitchen cabinet!

Alan_Vickers

When our meter was changed the engineer explained that he had to ask our permission to switch off the gas supply to the boiler so that when the new meter was fitted and the supply restored there would not be a gas leak at the pilot as he had to test for leaks after the new meter was installed. He made the point that he would attempt to re-light the pilot but if it did not light this would indicate that there was an existing problem with the boiler whict would be our responsibility to correct. Fortunately there were no problems.

Regarding the letter, this had a very prominent British Gas logo at the top left hand corner and a less prominent OnStream logo at the top right hand side with underneath the words 'A National Grid Company Working on behalf of British Gas. Certainly, as I said in a earlier posting, on first reading the letter it was very easy to believe that the letter was from British Gas when it was not. This, together with the appointments system that OnStream initially use, which again I referred to in an earlier posting, I found quite strange. However the actual meter change was carried out very professionally and I was extremely happy with it.

Alan Vickers.

Frugal_Sharky

Unfortunately our meter upgrade wasn't carried out quite so professionally. In addition to damaging our kitchen unit the engineer left the gas valve on the boiler in the wrong position which meant the boiler wouldn't fire when the system called for central heating/hot water. I had to pay £45 to an independant gas safe engineer today to tell me that. I'm currently waiting for OnStream to contact me to determine what action they are planning to take to rectify the situation. So much for a free meter upgrade!

lemontart

onstream is currently a ng company but will soon be a bg company not sure of exact dates it goes over to bg.

Pssst

With regard to meter exchanges, the engineer has a duty to exchange the meter in accordance with current standards and to purge/relight appliances and visually inspect them for safe and correct operation.


There are occasional circumstances in which the appliance cannot be brought back into service again. This may be becuase of things such as;

defective ignition system- i.e it wont relight
partially blocked pilot light-wont stay lit
worn thermocouple-wont stay lit.

These are all maintenance issues and are the responsibility of the householder/property owner.

The engineer should explain if and why appliance will not relight.

Frugal_Sharky

The engineer who re-lit our pilot didn't advise that the boiler wasn't firing, he left that for us to find out after he had gone. My boiler had been serviced only 6 weeks previously so I was fairly confident that there wasn't a fault with the boiler. I suspect the reason he left the gas valve knob in the wrong position was simply because of the limited training he had received. I therefore don't see why I should be responsible for the £45 I incurred having to call out a boiler engineer to turn the gas valve knob back to the correct position. Had the OnStream engineer left my boiler in the same state that he had found it when he arrived there would have been no problem. I think OnStream should include a note in their appointment letters advising customers that boilers sometimes fail to re-light after the gas has been disconnected and that they should prepare themselves for this eventuality should it occur.

Pssst

Frugal_Sharky wrote: »

The engineer who re-lit our pilot didn't advise that the boiler wasn't firing, he left that for us to find out after he had gone. My boiler had been serviced only 6 weeks previously so I was fairly confident that there wasn't a fault with the boiler. I suspect the reason he left the gas valve knob in the wrong position was simply because of the limited training he had received. I therefore don't see why I should be responsible for the £45 I incurred having to call out a boiler engineer to turn the gas valve knob back to the correct position. Had the OnStream engineer left my boiler in the same state that he had found it when he arrived there would have been no problem. I think OnStream should include a note in their appointment letters advising customers that boilers sometimes fail to re-light after the gas has been disconnected and that they should prepare themselves for this eventuality should it occur.

Yes,perhaps it was just an oversight?

I have no interest in Onstream though i am aware of who they are.

I do think that customers should have some knowledge of how their appliances work and how to operate the various user controls.

Having said that,i also recognise that some people are wary of gas !

chnelomi

i think that experience is the key to most peoples problems with national grid or any company really. most of the time they try to stay exactly within their training and wont budge from the norm that they cause themselves problems when they come across a system they have no experience with and look for problems instead of checking the basics(properly open valves etc).

My dad had a very serious problem with several national grid(still transco at the time)engineers. He was working in what had been his kitchen and discovered an old cupboard behind plaster that previous owners had covered. Their was an old gas pipe that had been capped under this cupboard so my dad asked for an engineer to come and check it was not connected.he was told it was no longer connected and it was safe to be removed etc.

Now the dangerous part is my dad cannot smell anything not a thing, luckily i was visiting and came in just after he had removed the cap and was getting ready to cut the pipe. It was still connected to the main gas supply. called them out again and they still said it wasn't connected and my dad was going mad because they weren't following the right pipe.(the supply is at the rear of the house and they kept going to the front). They kept picking up the old drainage for the house.

Eventually after the third attempt and half the garden being dug up they found the correct pipe and disconnected it at the mains. Found out about a year later that the previous owner had paid for it to be disconnected 15yrs earlier. better late than never i suppose.:rotfl: