Watchdog tonight 19/04/12

ollski

Hi Cardew I'm stumped why is it wrong that you were advised on the winddown of parts and the opportunity of replacement, would you genuinely be happier with the service if you were told two years down the line when you have a breakdown that the part you need is unavailable and has been for the last 2 years?

SailorSam

They quoted a guy from BG trying to get out of it and gave HIS email address with a promise that he'd sort out any problems personally.
I've read on here, the thread about the proposed new smart meters, that we have a couple of BG employees on this forum.

prosaver

ollski wrote: »

Hi Cardew I'm stumped why is it wrong that you were advised on the winddown of parts and the opportunity of replacement, would you genuinely be happier with the service if you were told two years down the line when you have a breakdown that the part you need is unavailable and has been for the last 2 years?

not that old one? whaat happen in 2 years time (crystal ball time).
another good one is if you keep your old boiler and on christmas day itbreaks down ,oh no soorry that your cooker.
or if you dont buy now they are going up soon...last few days...
.....sale in shops UP to 90% off (notice the word up to)
need i go on?:p

ollski

SailorSam wrote: »

They quoted a guy from BG trying to get out of it and gave HIS email address with a promise that he'd sort out any problems personally.
I've read on here, the thread about the proposed new smart meters, that we have a couple of BG employees on this forum.

He is the home services director and he will sort out any problems with the homecare service.

ollski

prosaver wrote: »

not that old one? whaat happen in 2 years time (crystal ball time).
another good one is if you keep your old boiler and on christmas day itbreaks down ,oh no soorry that your cooker.
or if you dont buy now they are going up soon...last few days...
.....sale in shops UP to 90% off (notice the word up to)
need i go on?:p

Don't follow what your saying prosaver. If you are paying for a maintainence / insurance service and the time comes after 20 odd years that the manufacturer ceases making some of the parts for your particular boiler, would you prefer to be kept in the dark paying your premiums for years until your boiler broke down and then told the part was obsolete and the boiler unrepairable?. Alternatively you could be informed about the reduced parts availability situation as soon as it is raised as an issue, offered the option of a boiler replacement and given the choice of continuing with the plan or not which is the current position.

utility_csa

subby45 wrote: »

british gas look after their world - every single home repair visit or service visit is treated as a sales call - engineers are "encouraged" to offer bast advice at each visit. In reality this means encourage the client to buy - from CO alarms through to system replacements, regardless of age, ability to pay (finance available) or actual necessity. EVERY service manager is targeted on their teams' sales for each week and considerable pressure is put on to engineers to meet these targets - if they don't these service managers tend to "help out" with a variety of techniques,often accompanying their under performing engineers and putting the hard word on to customers.
How do I know? I was unfortunate enough to do some sub-contract work for these rogues over a year ago as a sevice and repair engineer. I was constantly bombarded with calls from my SM as to why I wasn't bringing in enough leads to "grow the business" and he seemed genuinely peeved when I told him that I was there to carry out repairs and servicing and not to sell boilers to people who did not need them. They really are appalling and unscrupulous - quite happy to try to sell a new boiler to an 86 year old woman who was hardly likely to enjoy the benefits for much longer.
This report only scratched the surface - there are thousands of people every year who are led into having unnecessary and often costly work done by people they have been loyal to for years and who they trust.

exactly.

When my old engineers tuped over to British Gas smart metering they didn't realise they would have to basically become sales men, loads have quit because they cant hit targets. Plus they arent sales people and dont want to me doing that.. :rotfl:

Cardew

ollski wrote: »

Hi Cardew I'm stumped why is it wrong that you were advised on the winddown of parts and the opportunity of replacement, would you genuinely be happier with the service if you were told two years down the line when you have a breakdown that the part you need is unavailable and has been for the last 2 years?

Hi,

Because all the parts are readily available - it is an Ideal Mexico.

The only part replaced since new was a thermocouple. Boilers of that vintage are inherently reliable.

My impression was, and is, that BG are motivated to 'sell' rather than Service'.

ollski

Cardew wrote: »

Hi,

Because all the parts are readily available - it is an Ideal Mexico.

The only part replaced since new was a thermocouple. Boilers of that vintage are inherently reliable.

My impression was, and is, that BG are motivated to 'sell' rather than Service'.

There's over 150 models of mexico over the last 35 years or so, roughly half on the reduced parts list with some of the early models showing about 30% of parts available as per ideal.

To be fair you decided the service wasn't of benefit to you, I totally respect that. The issue I have is with the posts that say the service didn't suit them so won't suit anyone else either.

Your impression is roughly right, the emphasis probably leans towards sales where beneficial, but is starting to be driven back toward service quality. As an idea I visit about 1500 properties a year and ring through 15 - 20 boiler leads

thor

I've not watched it yet but I hope Ms Robinson gives the guy a damn good grilling for a change. I always get the feeling that during the questioning she sets them up to land the killer blow but then ends up letting these people off the hook and even sometimes having the last word. Nicky Campbell used to do a better job of it.

roddydogs

Are there really people out there who dont know about BG?, well I suppose there must be.