BG seriously annoyed now!

rachelralph

i have had a switch over from district heating to mains gas recently. i was lucky i guess in the sense that i didnt pay for the work to be done and i had new combi boiler, pipes and raidiators throughout.
unfortunately there are many downsides to having the work done by a company for the council. for example you dont choose when, you cant refuse the work, you dont really have any say in where the bolier goes. i tried to be positive about it when others on the estate were moaning, after all this is major work for no cost. anyway....
they came and did the work and for a 4 bedroomed large semi it took them less than a day. i was a little surprised as i was told by the surveyor it would take 2/3 days. the work however looked good, there didnt seem to be any issues that i could find. apart from the fact that all the raidiators were smaller than the old ones meaning every wall needs re decorating (hardly BG's fault though)
all seemed ok until the inspector came round on friday last week. all the raidiators had been put in the wrong rooms so basicly downstairs ones had thermastats on them and upstairs didnt. the main thermastat was in the wrong place downstairs ( no raidiator where it was) and the pipes hadnt been attcahed to the walls correctly causing them to bang.
so the same team who did the instalation came back on monday. with no warning as to when they would come, they turned up at 7.50am to redo the work. they switched the thermastats round and turned off the boiler. they did some stuff and then left. only as they left did my son point out that when they removed the thermastat from the lounge raidiator they had not put anything back on it and it was pouring water all over the lounge floor. (not good for my lamnate) hubby went after the workers and the guy came back, laughed at himself and said he'd not had enough coffee that morning! he replaced the cap with no apology and left.
all little niggly things but annoying none the less. however the worstt is to come.
only yesterday as i went to start dinner did i realsie that when they had turned of the boiler at the mains (the same mains they had put in themselves!) they hadnt in fact switched off the boiler but the freezer. this is bad enough BUT the switch for the freezer has a red label stating FREEZER! it is in a position where no one can reach it unless they mean to turn it off. i now have a freezer full of fully defrosted food with no cash to buy anything until friday. from start to finish this has been a nightmare. not only this but when i rang BG they dont have me on their system yet so they cannot deal with my complaint, nor can they take a meter reading from me so my first bill will be an estimate.
arghhhh ive had enough! and i started out being one of the only positive tenants on the estate!

macman

Since their contract is with the council, not with you, I would have thought that it's up to the council to compensate you via their insurers and then deal with their contractors themselves.
Or your contents insurer should be able to deal with the claim.

rachelralph

how long should i give them to reply to my email? i emailed them tuesday evening and heard nothing back yet. i know i could ring them but its half term and i have 3 kids around me all the time. being on hold as i undoubtably will be for ages my kids are going to cause havoc.

daveyjp

Find the names of your local Councillors and call them NOW. Far better than starting at the bottom of the complaint chain with an e-mail to a non descript address.

rachelralph

well i just rang the council and aparently its nothing o do with them anymore. my contract is with BG and its them that need to deal with this. so on the phone to BG, still no record of my address. its like a blooming merry go round atm!

macman

It's not your contract, BG are contractors for the council.

spiro

In my area refurb work is contracted to Wates, who they actually use to undertake the work I dont know. However you have no contract with the contractor so I would be pushing your council as it is they who hold the contract.

chanz4

who you rent from are responsible

undaunted

It's inconevnient and even annoying yes but ultimately you will (should) be compensated and have new efficient and free central heating system. Things could be a lot worse!

I'm not sure why you're annoyed with Britsh Gas (you even said hardly their fault so presumably they were not the contractors) rather than the Contractor or Council who appointed them?

If you are insured for contents and / or have any legal cover I'd contact them & ask if they can help with the claim (they would then pursue the council / contractor)

Lgas

rachelralph wrote: »

main thermastat was in the wrong place downstairs ( no raidiator where it was)

This bit confuses me, you mean they put the room thermostat in a place that wasn't near a radiator? If so, that is correct, it shouldn't be near a radiator.

rachelralph

sorry its taken me so long to reply had no internet for a few days. thanks to all who replied and tried to help.
i rang the council and they are 100% adament it is a british gas issue, nothing to do with them at all. so i rang british gas again and tried very calmly to explain everything from the begining. might as well not bothered. they dont have any record of my address as of yet and aparently im not on the system yet. so i rang the council back, got passed from person to person until finally the only thing anyone could suggest was to walk up to the compound (at the top of my road) and talk to the site manager. hes supposed to be coming round some time this week to discuss the issue. in the mean time BG suggested i email them my address and outline of the problem and my reference number (er i dont have one as im not yet on their system!) i recieved an email this morning addressed to a mr dent (im mrs ralph) with a thank you for contacting scottish gas (definately british gas email address though!) and my own email with my name attached to it! im so confused now!

with regards to the thermastat being where it is i dont know? the inspector said it was in the wrong place and needed putting in a room where there wa a raidiator as its in the hall right now and there is no raidiator in there?

sadly i dont have home insurance only contents which is with the council. i could ring them but seriously not looking forward to that again :eek:

i am grateful for the work having been done, like i said i had it done for nothing and the house is much warmer and its better for enviroment too. im just fed up of the lack of respect from BG. im just another number to them (although maybe not as im clearly not even registered as a customer yet!)