British Gas Homecare - what a joke

Payless_2

I have had no heating or hot water since new year's day. On Saturday British Gas agreed to come out to mend my boiler. They said that they would come between 8 and 6 today. I phoned them just now because I have been reading such bad things about them on the web and I was told that sorry, I was not a priority and that they would not make it today after all.

I am livid. Why couldn't they have contacted me this morning to tell me this and I ciuld have made other arrangements. I cannot keep taking time off work for this. On top of this I have a cold. What do you have to be to be a priority. In fact how do they know that I'm not. I was asked no questions about who was living in the house or anything.

What appalling customer service

Payless_2

A small local company Shipleys have come out straight away and sorted the problem out in 20 minutes. It cost me £60 whereas British Gas would have charged £160. I only went with British gas because I thought there was a better chance of getting someone out earlier with them being a big company and no one else was answering their phones on Saturday.

I'll know better next time

lallysmum

Sorry you had such a bad experience with them.

We have BG Homecare though, and they almost always turn up the next day (we had a cr*ppy boiler that broke at least every week and they were forever having to come out and fix it) Their blocked drain Cover is fantastic imo - my 18m old son (as was) kept shoving things down the loo and blocking it - the engineers were usually out within 2 hours.

No complaints regarding BG Homecare here.

pimento

Were you already a member of British Gas Homecare or did you call them only when your hot water stopped working?
If the latter, then I'm not surprised you weren't a priority.

I have nothing but praise for their Homecare service.

Payless_2

No

I admit I was not a member of their Homecare but I was told on Saturday that they would still definitely turn up on Monday. In fact they said that if I joined it there and then i could have an engineer round the following day. However, there is no way that I could have afforded £99 and then £20 a month for the next 12 months at least. I can understand how this can give you peace of mind believe me.

My real gripe is that they did not bother to contact me to tell me that he was not going to come. I'd still be sitting here waiting for him now if I hadn't phoned. If they are overstretched they should let people now.

I am now joining the local company's bronze service scheme. It's £5 a year on top of what I already pay them to service the boiler but they come out straight away if anything goes wrong. I still have to pay the repair cost on top of this though, unlike Homecare

jackieglasgow

Having no heat/hot water DOES make you a priority with BG. What the customer service slave probably meant to say was that your job was way down the list of "priority" jobs after "vulnerable" customers. People often get "vulnerable" and "priority" mixed up and assume they are the same thing. They are not. IF I were you I would get back in touch and lodge an official complaint about the lack of contact to keep you up to date. It won't get you anything much other than an apology, if you are already getting the repair done elsewhere, but it's important to let them know when they're getting it wrong.

Alias_Omega

Homecare cover -

We had an existing fault on the boiler, it was hot & cold water. We took out Homecare cover to have it replaced. The initial inspection was carried out, apparently we needed over £600 worth of work to cover us (Power-flush etc).

We cancelled & received a full refund.

British Gas - One Fee Repair -

Arranged for this, paid the £160 fee. The same engineer as above came out and fixed the boiler with 2 sensors, changed the link pipe. System working fine now.


We were pretty miffed that the same guy a few months earlier said we needed more work.

Shocking performance.

Payless_2

I fully intend to make a complaint to British Gas. I am convinced that by priority they mean someone who makes monthly payments on one of their service plans. If that is the case in busy periods like now they shouldn't be greedy and take other work on.

Anthillmob

my boiler cant cope with coldweather. i seem to have repaired it for now by just resetting it but its council property and they aint too good at the ni heating and hot water thing. and yes i should be priority [disabled and 2 small kids]

Payless_2

I am so glad that my son is grown up now. That would have been a real nightmare if he had been little. In fact he could not have stayed here as he had bad asthma when he was younger. If the council are ignoring your complaints about the boiler could you not write to your local councillor and see if he/she can give them a boot up the backside

Gerrard_8_lfc

Repair and Care is not a priority other homecare customers will be seen to first regardless of your payment.

With the high volume of breakdowns BG were getting the "Priority" level reduce to " Will you or anyone that stays in the house die" with no heat or hot water. To many people abuse this power and ruin it for people who really need an engineer.

Plus they were so busy I was called in twice on my days off to do ASC to answer the phones when I work a totally different department.