British Gas Damage - Rather Long Rant (Sorry)

eprophet

eprophet wrote: »

Hi Gerrard_8_lfc,

They charged £1,500.00

Hi Everyone,

We have just this minute got the bill from British Gas and it's not what they quoted. They have charged us £1976.90!

Other News:
A contractor come out to us on behalf of our insurance company and we are now waiting to hear back from them.

I've had about enough of this and I'm at my wits end.

I'll keep you all updated as and when things happen.

Pincher

BG can't talk rubbish to the insurance company because they have professional engineers.

The legal insurance is just a referral to compensation chasing solicitors. They make their money from the other side. Because you had a contract with British Gas for the work, they will pursue BG for the damages caused, and make them pay their fees. They will not take on a case that is difficult to win, but if your insurance company pays up to £10,000 legal costs, then surprise, surprise, they will take it on, and give up when they have charged £10,000 in expenses.

It's a long battle, and you are living in the ruins, but you are in a better situation with the legal rotweillers on your side.

eprophet

Hi All and thank again for your help,

Here is an update on the progress:

We sent a letter to Scott Boose (the Managing Director for British Gas Service and Repair), and also a following email to Phil Bentley (the Managing Director of British Gas).
Mr Bentley replied to our email quite quickly and his reply was polite and apologetic and he assured us that our experience was very rare and will be dealt with.

We were soon phoned to arrange a time for someone to come and have a look and talk to us about what can be done. It turned out to be the same unhelpful supervisor that we originally saw but this time he came with a more understanding and helpful attitude (the letter and email seems to have helped). Anyway because he told us to get on to our insurance in the first place, they told us to get in writing everything British Gas intended to actually do. Several phone calls later to both British Gas and our insurance and they still refused to put anything in writing. So our insurance said they would talk to them directly (that was today). Soon after we got another call:

British Gas are coming next week to repair the damage to the floors (quote: "as best we can") and plan to stop the constant noise from the pipes and also reposition a few exposed pipes to a more aesthetically pleasing and less dangerous location.
Yippee! A good start (I hope) - but that's not all:

They have also agreed to get a builder in to look at the ceiling incase the artex contains asbestos and they said that they will be get on to thier insurance to see what can be done about the damage to the kitchen ceiling.
Things are looking up - I will update again...

MrsTinks

Have you thought about the BBC watchdog? Just a thought...

eprophet

Twice we've told British Gas that that have sent the wrong bill and they've told us they will correct it and send it to us.
Today we recieved a final demand for the incorrect bill threatening to alert their "Debt Recovery team" if we don't pay the full amount (even though we should be paying in installments) in 7 days.
The bill is dated 3 days ago and we now have 2 days for the weekend so thats 5 days already before we can even contact them again!

eprophet

Today a man from British Gas arrived and started to get to work on the problems.
He has moved some of the pipes into corners of the room and screwed down a couple of the broken floorboards to make them safer until they are replaced.
Because he had to cut some pipes to move them he drained the system and refilled it. After bleeding the radiators they all seem to heat up now (some more than others, but that has got something to do with how they are now set up apparently).
Anyway, something that he has done (he is not sure what) seems to have reduced the constant banging/clanking noise we have been suffering with. It is still there but now much much quieter and I'm sure if it stays that way I will get a better sleep at last.
Anyway, he is coming back tomorrow to do some more.

They tell me that they have put our bill on hold until this is all resolved and their insurance company will be contacting us to arrange a date to look at the ceiling damage and also the broken floorboards.

jackieglasgow

Thanks for the update.

jackieglasgow

eprophet wrote: »

Because he had to cut some pipes to move them he drained the system and refilled it. After bleeding the radiators they all seem to heat up now (some more than others, but that has got something to do with how they are now set up apparently).

Is it possible they just need rebalancing? You should check this with him

eprophet

Hi All,

Sorry it has been so long since my last update but it has taken a long time for BG to do anything. After a long wait and many phone calls we have finally had a rather good result.
British Gas insurers have repaired our ceiling and also replaced the dangerous floorboards (not all the damaged ones but at least we no longer fear walking in our own home). To be honest they have not done the finest job on the floorboards but we are satisfied. There is still some noise but we are learning to live with it as it is not longer constant and is much more quiet (most of the noise was from some wood (part of a joist) they had used as a wedge between 2 pipes).
Also one of the floorboards they had actually put down we have since found out they had screwed through the earth but we have been told it should still be safe (fingers crossed).
In all fairness the repair to the kitchen ceiling is fantastic and it is impossible to tell there were ever any damage let alone a big hole.

Oh, the reasons the radiators were not heating up correctly was/is due to these things.
1. They did need to rebalance the radiators (thank you jackieglasgow).
2. They had forgotten to open some of the valves up.
3. The way they have configured the system some radiators now run off others so we will have to turn some down to get others to heat up.
4. Some radiators needed re-bleeding.

All that said we have already received a new bill (funny how they can be prompt when they want money) and for the correct amount this time.

I am now wondering if we have any grounds for some compensation.
What do you think?

56runner

I would go straight to the top. Contact the Chairman and send a letter off to someone like Tony Hetherington at the Daily Mail. You can also try OFGEM. I had a dispute with them recently. Unfortunately I have now lost the will to live. The supervisors all sound like chain smoking Dot Cottons. Good luck..