OMG British Gas Homecare!

jennyjelly

Anyone advise on the best way forward please?

We have a BG Homecare plan just entering its second year. Made our first request for a repair last Saturday when the CH broke down, engineer came that afternoon & left it working.

Monday it broke down again, Tuesday morning engineer 'fixed' it. Tuesday lunchtime it broke down, another engineer came, identified fault but didn't have time to fix it. Weds morning another engineer came and fixed it. Weds afternoon it broke down again. Thursday morning engineer fixed it. This morning it broke down again, engineer should be here by 2.

Costing money/holiday/goodwill to keep taking time off work but they won't do evenings.

How difficult can it be to fix a leak for heavens' sake? They all say the boiler is fine (only 5 yrs old) and it's to do with the pipes.

I'm so disgusted with BG. Where do we go from here?

ollski

What's the boiler?, is it the same fault reoccuring, is it intermittent or have the engineers seen it?. Look on the bright side bg are same or next day, lots of other providers seem to need a good week or so to get someone out each time!

macman

Dump the contract and get a local independent GSR RGI who knows the product. Self-employed sole traders don't have the time to take 5 visits to diagnose and solve a problem-if they did then they wouldn't be in business.

viv0147

After what I seen on watchdog last night I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole

jennyjelly

Ok, engineer no. 6 turned up well before 2. He was from the next level up apparently and is one of the people who problem jobs get passed on to.

He was extremely apologetic about the inability of the previous 5 to solve the problem and diagnosed a faulty cutout (something like that) and has ordered a new one from the manufacturer in Spain. He's also fixed it so that we are not without hot water while we wait for it to arrive, and says he will replace a dodgy looking pipe and do couple of other things when he comes to fit the replacement. Can't say fairer than that.

I absolutely agree that it's worth the occasional !!!!-up to have the convenience of someone who will come out within 24 hrs and keep coming back till they get it right, with no nasty surprises or big bills. Also we have had issues with bad independent plumbers before and have no wish to go back to ringing round to find someone who may or may not turn up a week next Wednesday. No offence to all the good plumbers out there, just our (maybe exceptionally unlucky) experience.

macman

You don't need an independent plumber. you need a GSR RGI. If you've been calling out 'plumbers' to fix a gas boiler then it's not surprising that you've been let down. A decent local independent to whom you give your annual service business will generally be with you in the next day or so.
Given that 6 visits in and the problem is still not fixed, you are remarkably relaxed about it. The next visit will be a different engineer who may think differently.

jennyjelly

macman wrote: »

You don't need an independent plumber. you need a GSR RGI. If you've been calling out 'plumbers' to fix a gas boiler then it's not surprising that you've been let down. A decent local independent to whom you give your annual service business will generally be with you in the next day or so.
Given that 6 visits in and the problem is still not fixed, you are remarkably relaxed about it. The next visit will be a different engineer who may think differently.

What's a GSR RGI? And how does it differ from a Corgi reg plumber?

No need to be anything but relaxed at the moment, the part is on order and being the sunny optimist that I am now that I've had a really good rant at them I'm assuming it will all be ok. The bloke who came yesterday has promised to see it through himself and I've got his mobile number.

If it all goes tits up it will be time to rethink, until then I'm not stressing.

BTW I watched the BG Watchdog item on iplayer - absolutely outrageous! Just shows you should always get a second opinion where big bucks are concerned.

giraffe69

What's a GSR RGI? And how does it differ from a Corgi reg plumber?

GSR is Gas Safe Register and has replaced Corgi

Rupert_Bear

jennyjelly wrote: »

Anyone advise on the best way forward please?

We have a BG Homecare plan just entering its second year. Made our first request for a repair last Saturday when the CH broke down, engineer came that afternoon & left it working.

Monday it broke down again, Tuesday morning engineer 'fixed' it. Tuesday lunchtime it broke down, another engineer came, identified fault but didn't have time to fix it. Weds morning another engineer came and fixed it. Weds afternoon it broke down again. Thursday morning engineer fixed it. This morning it broke down again, engineer should be here by 2.

Costing money/holiday/goodwill to keep taking time off work but they won't do evenings.

How difficult can it be to fix a leak for heavens' sake? They all say the boiler is fine (only 5 yrs old) and it's to do with the pipes.

I'm so disgusted with BG. Where do we go from here?

Well OP we are into our 4th year of Homecare and unlike you who finds it so easy to complain we have had nothing but a first rate service. We always find them excellent and even got them to reduce their charges last year down to £29. per month. This is for the Homecare 400 deal.

Just because Watchdog have got on the band wagon it is unhelpful for people like you to add fuel to the flames.:mad:

OMG

jennyjelly

Rupert_Bear wrote: »

Well OP we are into our 4th year of Homecare and unlike you who finds it so easy to complain we have had nothing but a first rate service. We always find them excellent and even got them to reduce their charges last year down to £29. per month. This is for the Homecare 400 deal.

Just because Watchdog have got on the band wagon it is unhelpful for people like you to add fuel to the flames.:mad:

OMG

Did you even bother to read my follow-up posts? If you did you would see that I'm now being dealt with by a properly qualified person and am optimistic that it is being sorted out. That I have had 6 different engineers and the first 5 failed to solve the problem speaks for itself, it's not me slagging off BG, just reporting the facts. I would much rather they got it right and made me happy to stay with them then got it wrong and gave me the problem of finding someone else to repair it. I can't imagine you would disagree with this would you?

RE the Watchdog article - any right minded person would think it's wrong to condemn a boiler when it could be fixed for under £100. I'm not adding fuel to the flames, just commenting on what I saw (which incidentally was not relevant to my own problem).

Do you happen to work for BG by any chance? Or is it just your habit to respond after reading only the first post of a thread?

jennyjelly

giraffe69 wrote: »

GSR is Gas Safe Register and has replaced Corgi

Same thing then!