British Gas One Off Boiler Repair Charging Issue

HuwOS

My boiler stopped working in April, pressure release valve was simply releasing all the water in the system.

Saw British Gas headline offer of prices starting from £69.00
britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/boilers-and-central-heating/one-off-boiler-repairs.htm (new user not allowed to post links)

Phoned them and they explained that if the problem could be repaired in the first half hour £69.00 was all I would pay, if the repair would take longer the tariffs were £189.00 for 30 minutes up to 2 hours and there was a third tariff at either £289 or £389 for bigger jobs.
They also told me that for the higher amounts the engineer would quote me the figure and I could choose to accept or decline their repair.

Booked the engineer for 30/4 in the afternoon, although he actually rang me an hour or two earlier and as I was waiting in for him he came earlier than the appointment time.

He did the job quickly and efficiently and by my reckoning was done in under half an hour. Not only did I not accept a higher figure than £69.00 but he did not quote me any higher figure and I didn't sign anything ( I mean anything at all, not even signing off on a job sheet)

BG however charged me £189.
When challenged have claimed that all their data, computer timestamps, GPS logs and the engineer himself confirm that the job took longer than half an hour and in email have told me that their he started work at 11:25 and completed at 12:28.
(Although in my phone call to the initial email refusing a refund the manager chap said 48 minutes in response to a question about how long did he think replacing a pressure release valve would take? As if that was the time on their records.)

They also do not think it at all necessary that the engineer inform me that the charge will be on the higher tariff nor think they need to have had any confirmation that I was willing for the repair to go ahead at a higher tariff.
As far as the "Customer Liaison Manager" I have dealt with is concerned it is purely time based and as I was aware of the tiered pricing I needn't have been quoted any higher figure.

This is going back and forward now with him getting frustrated with me and naturally me getting frustrated with him.
As an example of the tone that we are at now, from him
"British Gas engineers have a primary obligation to the significant number of customers who invest in their heating systems by purchasing a HomeCare maintenance contract. Nonetheless, we are a commercial enterprise and as such provide a service for customers who do not consider such forward planning to be cost effective."
and from me
"It seems that a simple system of obtaining a customer signature
agreeing to a quote from the engineer could prevent this type of issue
arising at all and it is somewhat telling that British Gas does not
have such a system in place."
Apparently according to him, there is no ombudsman or resolution body that I can deal with, so does that only leave legal action or is there anything else I can do? (Equally, am I being blind to something here?)

Not sure if this is truly suitable for these forums, if not I apologise and will not take umbrage if mods move or delete.

victor2

Sounds like they would only quote you if the job was going to take more than 2 hours. The £69 for 30 minutes is just to suck you in and for anything more than switching a boiler off and on again, it will take longer than that.
The engineer probably logs the job as started when he rolls up outside your house and finished only after he's had his cup of tea from his flask, phoned the wife/girlfriend/office and is ready to go to the next job.
Don't think you'll have much luck getting it reduced, especially if you can't prove somehow that it took less than 30 minutes.

jalexa

HuwOS wrote: »

Saw British Gas headline offer of prices starting from £69.00...

I haven't studied your post line by line but think I understand your concern. I don't know your post-code but a random Midlands post code returned this...

"Fixed price from £69

As every boiler is unique, our engineer will provide you with fixed price quote after an initial inspection before commencing any work."

So it seems to me forget the timing detail and concentrate on the offer. Were you or were not given a "fixed price quote", did you or did you not accept?

HuwOS

jalexa wrote: »

So it seems to me forget the timing detail and concentrate on the offer. Were you or were not given a "fixed price quote", did you or did you not accept?

Sorry, it was quite long.

No I wasn't given a quote by the engineer (nor a fixed price quote from anyone else) and as you can imagine I did not therefore accept any quote from the engineer or anyone else.

jalexa

HuwOS wrote: »

Sorry, it was quite long.

No I wasn't given a quote by the engineer (nor a fixed price quote from anyone else) and as you can imagine I did not therefore accept any quote from the engineer or anyone else.

In that case that is the question (and the only question) you need to put to the manager.

Where did the post first half-hour prices in your OP come from?

It is clear to me from the BT website that the service is a "fixed price" repair. "48 minutes" *may* be reasonable (I do not know), but I do not understand why the engineer (and manager) are debating times, it is a fixed price job.

HuwOS

jalexa wrote: »

Where did the post first half-hour prices in your OP come from?

When I was booking the appointment, they advised me over the phone of the various charges that I could be quoted. The £69 and £189 tiers I recall for obvious reasons, the higher one again I'm a bit unsure of.

Obviously the £69 one covers the engineer visiting at all, so I would consider that had been quoted but with the proviso that the engineer after identifying the likely fault could quote a higher figure if the job could not be done in the 30 minute time frame.

Please don't think that I haven't repeatedly addressed that issue.
The only response I've had about it was during my initial phone call in response to the email denying a refund. Where he basically didn't think it mattered one iota. He told me he would refer that matter to another manager to investigate and I would hear from them today, but I have not and he has somehow avoided responding to any of my emailed repetitions.

For example:

"Even without a disagreement about time spent on the work we still have
the situation where I had put faith in what your website and the terms
and conditions of the offer stated, with such claims as "Even if the
job takes longer than estimated, you won't pay a penny more than the
amount quoted" and "We will agree any extra costs with you
beforehand". It is extremely sad that this faith was so woefully
misplaced."

and

"And none of this would matter too much, if your company abided by its
promise, both on the website and given over the phone when I booked
the appointment that the engineer on site would quote the higher
figures if such were necessary and that a customer could choose to
refuse the repair work, especially if, as in my case, they could not
afford to pay more than the £69 pounds for the first half hour.

It seems that a simple system of obtaining a customer signature
agreeing to a quote from the engineer could prevent this type of issue
arising at all and it is somewhat telling that British Gas does not
have such a system in place."

jalexa

HuwOS wrote: »

Apparently according to him, there is no ombudsman or resolution body that I can deal with,

If it had been a Homecare issue, 100% the Financial Ombudsman Service would have been an eventual outcome. I'm not 100% sure about the "fixed price repair service". What I would do however is to raise a complaint in writing or by email (it is important not to discuss by phone unless you can record the call).

Make BG say (in writing) there is no complaints process, having sh*fted the manager in the complaint opening for informing you there was no process. In any exchange do not let go of that point or the failure to quote a fixed price contrary to the website.

http://www.britishgas.co.uk/help-and-advice/contactus-personal-details/complaints/homecare.html

Treat the exercise as a no-cost discomforture of the BG manager, with only a possibility of some money back.

victor2

jalexa wrote: »

Treat the exercise as a no-cost discomforture of the BG manager, with only a possibility of some money back.

In addition to that, you could do a bit of anonymous shopping and call BG with a similar problem from a fictitious address. Get as many details as you can and specifically ask about the £69 charge and the possibility of it becoming more, before declining their kind offer of course.
You may want to record that call as well, but do have to inform the person on the other end it is being recorded, unless it is purely for your own record I believe.
Actually I just saw their website has a "live chat" facility, so you could always try from there. You can then copy the chat text.

muttlock

I just called them out of interest after seeing & hearing adverts, as I have no hot water £69 charge is for half an hour labour. Only a speed demon will be able to have the parts to hand & fix within half an hour.

Most problems will take about 10minutes to diagnose. Its a CON as most people will go into the £189 charge.

Was also offered a fixed price repair for £99 but I had to agree to take out HomeCare for £20 a month. Unbelieveable!! most boiler parts do not cost more than £150 & they buy in bulk so they get parts even cheaper so they make their money back so quickly.

The salesman on the phone said a replacement heat exchanger can cost £420, i think that is quoted RRP for a really big one most are £60 to £100 to buy.

AVOID AVOID AVOID just call local plumber via GasSafe register to get the best deal.