British Gas Nightmare! Had to leave house last night??!!

littleraindrop

Just moved into flat on a PAYG meter. Have been waiting for card to arrive from BG (was promised a card which would reset meter). was told last week that if gas runs out on what credit was left on meter, to go to shop, get card and load up. Two different cards wouldn't load up............ Rang BG at 4pm yesterday, was told problem was with meter and engineer would be out within 4 hours........ 5 hours later no engineer. Rang them back and told wait would be no longer than 1 hour more......... 2 hours later.... Both (my 2 yr old and me) starting to turn blue from cold!!! No engineer. Ring back again. Told that someone would ring back straight away. No one rang back?!!!!!
Had to wake my baby up and drive to my mother's house, where I rang BG again, only to be told there is no record of me or my address on system and there would probably be no engineer out???!!
Rang back again half hour later, spoke to someone else who said they would look into it and ring me back this morning (which they did, at 6am)
Asked me for meter id number which I now have and am waiting for them to call back. they said at 7:45 but am still waiting.
If there was a chance i wasn't with BG, why would they promise to send engineers out??? Also landlord (agent, prop man) said i was on BG.... also the hotline which tells you who you are with says same!! What do I do next? Does anyone have any clues??

Is it really possible for a company to be so shambolic??? What if we hadn't anywhere to go??? It was like some weird pantomime!! BG may be a big company but that doesn't mean they aren't cowboys!!!!

HappyMJ

Last night wasn't really that cold. I don't remember using the heating at all. Even the high-low thermometer says the bedroom got down to 14 degrees overnight. Anyway, good luck today. Keep at them and ask for some compensation for a missed appointment. If the electric still works you might want to get an electric heater to use in case of instances like this in the futrure.

littleraindrop

It was very cold in our building last night. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have moved my child!

I have contacted BG now 9 times and have now been promised another engineer within 4 hours, again. The person who said they would ring back at quarter to eight never did.

ihateyes

littleraindrop wrote: »

Just moved into flat on a PAYG meter. Have been waiting for card to arrive from BG (was promised a card which would reset meter). was told last week that if gas runs out on what credit was left on meter, to go to shop, get card and load up. Two different cards wouldn't load up............ Rang BG at 4pm yesterday, was told problem was with meter and engineer would be out within 4 hours........ 5 hours later no engineer. Rang them back and told wait would be no longer than 1 hour more......... 2 hours later.... Both (my 2 yr old and me) starting to turn blue from cold!!! No engineer. Ring back again. Told that someone would ring back straight away. No one rang back?!!!!!
Had to wake my baby up and drive to my mother's house, where I rang BG again, only to be told there is no record of me or my address on system and there would probably be no engineer out???!!
Rang back again half hour later, spoke to someone else who said they would look into it and ring me back this morning (which they did, at 6am)
Asked me for meter id number which I now have and am waiting for them to call back. they said at 7:45 but am still waiting.
If there was a chance i wasn't with BG, why would they promise to send engineers out??? Also landlord (agent, prop man) said i was on BG.... also the hotline which tells you who you are with says same!! What do I do next? Does anyone have any clues??

Is it really possible for a company to be so shambolic??? What if we hadn't anywhere to go??? It was like some weird pantomime!! BG may be a big company but that doesn't mean they aren't cowboys!!!!

Im with the above poster here......

The weather over the whole country is mild.
Maybe a little nippy if you live in Northern Scotland.
So if both you and your baby was turning blue in temperatures above freezing, i would make an appointment with your doctor, because something clearly is right.

meggsy

It was certainly cold where I am as it was a very clear and starry night. Just checked the met office site and the temp ranged between 4.3C and 6.0C !

Hope you get this sorted out soon OP

ihateyes

meggsy wrote: »

It was certainly cold where I am as it was a very clear and starry night. Just checked the met office site and the temp ranged between 4.3C and 6.0C !

Hope you get this sorted out soon OP

It hardly suz zero, but would not make you turn blue!

HappyMJ

meggsy wrote: »

It was certainly cold where I am as it was a very clear and starry night. Just checked the met office site and the temp ranged between 4.3C and 6.0C !

Hope you get this sorted out soon OP

It was 6.0C at 2:41AM. Most people are fast asleep wrapped in a warm blanket at that time of night. Last night in the evening it was over 10C until about 8:30PM. Most kids should be considering bed at this time. With solar gain during the day and insulation (which can be installed for free) most internal temperatures of houses are about 5-10C higher than the outside temperature in the evening. I just can't believe a child and parent is turning blue yesterday evening.

blue_monkey_2

It does not really matter whether or not anyone else thought the OP and her kids were cold, she lives there and she was.

However, the issue is that still has no gas after 24 hours and BG are not returning her calls or sending an engineer to sort it out and, without either of these, she still has no gas and it is still not sorted. Also, the people promising to call her back are not calling her back.

Maybe this is the bit she needs help with, not debating whether it was too cold for her or not - what a waste of 6 posts, all arguing about the temperature last night and not one person giving her any help on what to do. Sorry OP I have no idea because we are not on a card, hopefully someone will come along soon and offer some advice that is more helpful.

Older houses, ours included, have no cavity so cannot get free insulation anyway, our bedroom and main living room is cold, even in the summer. The OP is in a flat there will be no loft insulation either.

HappyMJ

blue_monkey wrote: »

It does not really matter whether or not anyone else thought the OP and her kids were cold, she lives there and she was.

However, the issue is that still has no gas after 24 hours and BG are not returning her calls or sending an engineer to sort it out and, without either of these, she still has no gas and it is still not sorted. Also, the people promising to call her back are not calling her back. Maybe this is the bit she needs help with, not debating whether it was too cold for her or not.

BG rang back at 6AM and the OP did not have the required info to give to the engineer so it was up to the OP to get that info and call BG back.

Road_Hog

HappyMJ wrote: »

Last night wasn't really that cold. I don't remember using the heating at all.

That was exactly my thoughts, very warm yesterday.

Now, just after Christmas, I was replacing a radiator and ran out of time, so I had to leave the heating off overnight. Below zero, it got cold that night in the house, until about midday when I fitted the radiator. Had the heating on constant for the rest of the weekend.

ihateyes

Im sure the other posters will agree,,,,,

I sympathise with the OP that she has had shocking service from BG, but feel she is slightly exagerrating how cold it was.