Beware the British Gas letter

masonic

I am always pleasant and reasonable (;)), yet for all my efforts, I repeatedly find myself dealing with people who are quite simply incapable of doing their jobs. This does not just apply to BG, but it does apply particularly to BG. Now clearly not everyone working in a call centre is terrible at their job, in fact I have found the odd person to even go beyond the call of duty, but I guess what I am trying to say is it cuts both ways. You cannot know what the person you are dealing with has been through before you answered their call.

tomstickland

I can sympathise. I've found that regardless of how !!!!ed off I am I treat each new member of staff with respect and give them a chance. Being rude means that they don't feel any compulsion to be helpful. Being understanding goes a long way.

On the other hand, the reason people are so rude is that they feel frustrated by the system that prevents them from sorting simple problems.

I did a transfer of supplier and must have made around 15 calls and spent around 6 hours on the phone before I finally found someone who explained wht it had all gone wrong. My dispute units difference was too small for the dispute process to go through. Once I knew this then I just paid the outgoing supplier. However, around 6 different people never explained this to me.

Mercenary

BritishGasWorker wrote:

As with all suppliers we will try to keep your custom, no one wants to lose customers, so please remember try to be nice and not rude ;O)

Just to make sure you know, I was very nice . I can't be rude to anyone without a BIG reason and this guy was soooo charming, almost flirtatious.... (considering that he didn't know if I'm young and stunning, or old and wrinkly. Of course I happen to be the first option !) that it would have been impossible not to respond in kind .

elektra

question for BritishGasWorker (sorry if this is in wrong place)

Would you think 7 weeks is a reasonable time for BG to get a report from meter people ?

Situation is this :- Parents house has 2 elec meters. British Gas said they were sending someone to change meter. Meters less than 2 years old.
Tried phoning to tell them no need but was told they have contracted out meter services to Onstream. Phoned Onstream - they had no record of appointment ( this was about 4-5 days before). But they did say they had the contract from BG so were just basically carrying out what BG wanted.

Then I think I decided happened to phone Onstream again on morning of apt - they found the appointment. At that point I should have told them to cancel but let them go ahead as I thought well they'll probably only try and make another apt. Onstream came and changed one meter only - they never realised there were 2. He also left no record of meter change.

Surprise surprise - next bill came and it was large and complete nonsense - totally wrong meter reading, not taking into account meter change against the right meter.

Spoke to BG and asked for it to be escalated as exact same problem had happened 2 years before and frontline staff passed it on then. They said that dept was busy but someone would get back to me in a week. 3 weeks later ( no call) I phone them again and they said the were waiting for report from meter people and it could take 7 weeks. 9 weeks later and nothing has happened. I'd like to get the bill sorted as I want to switch and I guess BG could refuse the switch if amount outstanding( although account is frozen at moment - they are not chasing payment).

So how long should it take to get report from meter people. When I spoke to Onstream they were very helpful but they could not access the details of the meter change.

BritishGasWorker

Hey there...ohh how i have heard of this b4 about meter exchanges...however if BG requested the exchange it should not be any problems getting it. However if the engineer has not left any details I would be worried that it may be gone for good, what they can do is estimate the change read if onstream have lost it..

Personnally I dont think BG are to blame here, it sounds like the meter was changed due to a policy exchange in your area, it is not bg that request it, unless there is a tech issue with it or you have said it is not working properly.
If it is a policy exchange then is can take a long time for onstream to send it thru to us, however! there maybe a light at the end of the tunnel..you need to call BG and request to speak to there CLT department, they are the next level of escalation and they will be happy to track this down for you
If the person is unhelpful, tell them that someone from the CLT department has told you to call them, and not to aruge :P doubt they will tho...and clt will be happy to help you if they are not busy at that time, otherwise they will arrange a call back for you within 48 hours. If you dont have any joy please tell me and I will send you a direct number to contact CLT, but i wont give it out here....

Hope this helps

Andy x

Honeydog

I'm not having a go here British Gas Worker but just making a point. I'm a normaly mild mannered and polite Primary School teacher but even I resorted to raising my voice during my last call to British Gas last year. I was trying to continue my sentence when I had been interrupted by one of your colleagues. I raised my voice to try and carry on what I was saying and she hung up on me.

Problem is that it is perfectly possible to be told something completely different about your particular case every time you phone BG customer services. They will always say that the last person you spoke to "shouldn't have told you that"

Fair enough if it only ever happened once you could write it off as a genuine mistake. My view now however is that lots of call centre monkeys will tell you anything they think will make you happy and are content to let the mess be sorted out by someone else.

eg Last winter got huge (by our standards) BG bill. On supply at the time and couldn't pay it off in one go due to wages being paid approx 8 weeks in arrears by our dinosaur of an LEA. Tried to pay half of it by automated payment. It wouldn't let me and connected me to an operator. System down couldn't make payment but I advised the person that I intended to pay half one month and half the next. They said that was fine.

Got a couple of threatening (and to me offensive) letters from BG. Not a problem to me but one was opened by my elderly mother and panicked her considerably! Each time I phoned up and explained the situation. Was promised that note would be put on account and NO MORE LETTERS would be sent out. Got another letter. Rang up to complain and monkey on phone says. "OH he shouldn't have told you that - the letters are automatic and we can't stop them".

I'm not really complaining about this incident - it is over now. But what came out of it is that either call centre folk are not receiving adequate training or they aren't paid enough to make them care about their jobs or the people they
are supposed to be providing a service to.

Rant over.

Honeydog

Oops. Said I wasn't having a go and then I did.

Not intentional but I got so cross (while I was typing as I remembered all the hassle it caused) that it turned into a bit of a rant.

I apologise for the way I said it but not what I said.

alangc

British Gas prepayment queries are never answered until 12 - 15 mins after your option list even first thing when they have just opened! Have recently changed from BG and recieved a statement regarding my BG account being £70 in credit sent 3emails , none ever answered made many calls with a variety of answers the best one being I didnt know what I was talking about and the statement did not refer to real money and no credit is ever repaid, another call the man was drunk and I gave up but today I recieved a cheque, so someone must have read an email about 6weeks ago after all.
For all the good people that must work for BG there few exceptions should be found something else to do!

johnofhertford

BritishGasWorker wrote:

Arrr oh ok...sorry got the wrong end of the stick..thought you were correcting my grammer..

Is that what they mean by irony?

elektra

BritishGasWorker

Thanks for your reply. I knew there was another level of escalation as dealt with them 2 years ago and they even gave me firect phone number to get back to them on.
But staff on normal number tried to tell there wasn't( I can understand why).