Help required: mystery of British Gas and a £3 million Giveaway

PhylPho

Gerrard_8_lfc wrote: »

I posted this ages ago in the freebies forum.

it seems a classical case of your wrong if you do and your wrong if you dont.

Apologies, Gerrard; I certainly wasn't having a pop at you or anyone else who posted the Magnabooster info on MSE. Rather, it's as notbritishgas said: how come this offer (backed as it was by funding from the public purse) was so singularly promoted?

The expenditure of public monies -- via Warm Front or any other agency -- should be undertaken in a structured, responsible fashion. After all, Government has no cash of its own: what it spends is your money and mine.

If Warm Front decided -- as seems so far to be the case -- to fund an initiative under which British Gas (accoding to what BG told us) was "the contractor", then Warm Front's failure to communicate that is reprehensible.

Put it this way: had we not had to call out an engineer to fix a boiler problem under the terms of our HomeCare policy, then we would never have learned of this BG "contract". The engineer's visit could have as easily pre-dated the initiative as occurred after its August 31st closing. We just happened to drop lucky.

MSErs like yourself do an incredible job in bringing to the attention of other forum users information which is valid and valuable -- but as Notbritishgas said, why should it have to be someone like you who is taking on this role?

We have written to Warm Front seeking clarification of what's gone on here and why public monies appears to have been allocated to a scheme the publicity for which was non-existent.

The fact that British Gas, as an organisation, remains one of the most repellently dysfunctional in the UK is by-the-by; what is germane is the so far unanswered question of just who was responsible for the task of communicating news of the scheme to the wider world: the agency (Warm Front, reportedly) or the contractor (British Gas.)

It's a question that begs another: if this ramshackle pot-luck scenario is how taxpayers' money is being spent in the UK, what other "Government grant-aid" initiatives are or have been underway about which few if any know anything at all. . .

. . . Unless they happened to have browsed through some particular posts at a particular time on an Internet forum?

Haarlem

I have seen / heard several consumer programmes criticising Warm Front for the way they operate.

Last year I had a Warm Front rep at my door saying if I did not have insulation through them they would inform my local council who would put a surcharge on my council tax.

PhylPho

Haarlem: seems I've missed the stuff about Warm Front, so your post is illuminating.

To be honest, we had only the haziest notion of its existence before (because we don't qualify for energy-related benefits) and it's only through posts on MSE re the Magnabooster offer that we now understand (or, er, not) its role.

As noted, we've written to Warm Front at its Newcastle Upon Tyne address for more information about the funding / publicity / allocation of this British Gas offer.

SwanJon

PhylPho wrote: »

We have written to Warm Front seeking clarification of what's gone on here and why public monies appears to have been allocated to a scheme the publicity for which was non-existent.

The fact that British Gas, as an organisation, remains one of the most repellently dysfunctional in the UK is by-the-by; what is germane is the so far unanswered question of just who was responsible for the task of communicating news of the scheme to the wider world: the agency (Warm Front, reportedly) or the contractor (British Gas.)

It's a question that begs another: if this ramshackle pot-luck scenario is how taxpayers' money is being spent in the UK, what other "Government grant-aid" initiatives are or have been underway about which few if any know anything at all. . .

Surely the money is better spent on providing the support of the particular initiative than advertising it? Whichever company is chosen to distribute it is probably relied upon to identify prospective applicants.

Ken68

This might help......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1OlTgyTv3E

The whole scheme sounds like a fiddle gone wrong.

PhylPho

SwanJon wrote: »

Surely the money is better spent on providing the support of the particular initiative than advertising it? Whichever company is chosen to distribute it is probably relied upon to identify prospective applicants.

Which kind of goes to the heart of this: taxpayers' money. . . to fund customers of British Gas Homecare policies ONLY?

I'm not saying that is the case. I'm saying: I don't *know* what the case might be here.

If, as BG told us, it was the "contractor" to a "Government grant scheme", then sure as egs are eggs, that grant scheme would *not* have been so selective as to exclude every household in Britain which didn't happen to have a contract with British Gas.

Public funding doesn't work like that. Nor should it.

Of course: if British Gas has picked up the tab itself, then that's different. And all kudos to BG for its generosity.

But somehow -- just somehow -- I have reason to believe that British Gas is not a philanthropic organisation. And anyway: why should BG tell us it's merely "a contractor". . . if it isn't??

Hopefully, clarification about who-funded-what, responsibility for publicity, and responsibility for determining who should benefit from the public purse, will emerge in an answer from Warm Front to our request for information.

If it doesn't, we'll ask our MP to investigate.

@ Ken68: thanks for that link -- great!

As to some kind of fiddle "gone wrong", we've no idea. But it's because we've no idea that we'd like to get to the bottom of this: taxpayers' money, channelled by Government through Warm Front, is emphatically *not* for disbursement via any commercial outfit which is then given the power to pick-and-choose who benefits.

SwanJon

PhylPho wrote: »

Which kind of goes to the heart of this: taxpayers' money. . . to fund customers of British Gas Homecare policies ONLY?

I'm not saying that is the case. I'm saying: I don't *know* what the case might be here.

So you don't know, but it makes a good story. Sounds like a certain kind of paper.

In your example, there was no suggestion that it was going to fund your Home Care policy. In none of the examples you have uncovered did it fund anyone's Home Care policy. But don't let the facts get in the way of a good sound bite. Sounds like a certain kind of paper.

You're not even sure if this is government money or not, but don't let that get in the way of a good story.

You even made up the amount of money involved to make a good headline. Sounds like a certain kind of paper.

You obviously have some other issue with British Gas, and have leapt upon this to have a rant. I'm sure to be the target of some of that as an employee. All energy suppliers have obligations to reduce carbon emissions, right through from generation, their offices to customers' homes. This is why they are subsidising energy efficient measures for their customers (as well as making themselves look nice). They support vulnerable parts of society with social tariffs (heavily encouraged by the government).
Although these initiatives are driven by the government, they are funded by the supplier (i.e. other customers).

I know that nothing I, or anyone else on here, says will change your view.
Enjoy.

PhylPho

SwanJon:

Nobody said public money was being used to, er, "fund Home Care policies'. Not me. Nor anyone else on MSE.

Only you.

If you want to go around inventing fictional hares upon which you can then unleash your hounds, try another thread.

There must be somewhere -- if not on MSE -- for illiterate ego-trippers.

Ken68

Seems odd, whatever, one particular brand being grantable.If I was in competition with MagnaBooster, I would be shouting from the rooftops. Level playing field and all that.

SwanJon

PhylPho wrote: »

SwanJon:

Nobody said public money was being used to, er, "fund Home Care policies'. Not me. Nor anyone else on MSE.

Only you.

If you want to go around inventing fictional hares upon which you can then unleash your hounds, try another thread.

There must be somewhere -- if not on MSE -- for illiterate ego-trippers.

Erm.......

PhylPho wrote: »

Which kind of goes to the heart of this: taxpayers' money. . . to fund customers of British Gas Homecare policies ONLY?