brit gas compensation

kreid

british gas wasted nearly 4 days waiting for them to come to connect up a new electricity meter at a property I had just bought. They had the usual sob stories but they were useless, the outsourceing of the helpline was a disaster as the people at the other end were hard to understand, or, knew nothing of the geography of the uk etc....meantime I was stuck there for 3 and a half days unable to do much (no power) while they decided not to come. Eventually they did. They say £60 is the max they can authorise. That hardly covered my mobile bill. Several weeks later no cheque. I am thinking of rejecting the offer and going to the press like the daily record/sunday mail consumer page, or at least threatening to do so. I was 100s of pounds out of pocket, taking a day off work for them not to show from 10 am til 5 pm despite promises. The actual tale...saga ..is worse but I have bored you enough already.

Point...should I accept or say forget it, you've had weeks to sort this and failed again or can I expect more?

Joyful

You will not get more as this is the industry standard for missed appointments. The cost is not to cover employment. This is agreed with Ofgem.

dude89

kreid wrote: »

I am thinking of rejecting the offer and going to the press like the daily record/sunday mail consumer page, or at least threatening to do so.

And how will this benefit you? They are likely to have heard this a million times. They are already in the headlines because they are going to cost millions of people £100+ a year so why do you think they will bother about one person threatening to reveal a story.

Your best bet if you are not happy with this amount is to use all of their complaints procedure and if you are not happy after 8 weeks go to the ombudsman (going to the ombudsman costs them a few hundred quid but costs you nothing)

kreid

I think I should be compensated for their failings, I was there 3 days while their useless system failed and failed again. £60 for 5...yes 5 missed appointments doesn't seem adequate to me. Not as if I was waiting at home and could do other jobs. Couldn't even make tea!

kreid

think I will go to ombudsman as well.

kreid

dude89 wrote: »

And how will this benefit you? They are likely to have heard this a million times. They are already in the headlines because they are going to cost millions of people £100+ a year so why do you think they will bother about one person threatening to reveal a story.

they may be forced into paying up more. It worked with british airways, british rail to name but 2 companys that tried to rip me off. They hate the mail ( that's the Scottish sunday ed of the record) cos so many people read about it. I recommend it. Worked 3 out of 3 times for me so far.

dude89

kreid wrote: »

dude89 wrote: »

And how will this benefit you? They are likely to have heard this a million times. They are already in the headlines because they are going to cost millions of people £100+ a year so why do you think they will bother about one person threatening to reveal a story.

they may be forced into paying up more. It worked with british airways, british rail to name but 2 companys that tried to rip me off. They hate the mail ( that's the Scottish sunday ed of the record) cos so many people read about it. I recommend it. Worked 3 out of 3 times for me so far.

Energy companies get so much bad press as it is that this will not bother them. They are currently being accused of putting oaps at risk of dying because they can no longer afford to heat their houses etc.

There are set procedures to follow when you have a complaint like this.

1. The companies complaint procedure.
2. The ombudsman - this can only be done when you have formally met deadlock with the company or 8 weeks have lapsed since the complaint was first made. The ombudsman decision is binding on the company only.
3. Smalls claims court.

OFGEM have issued a set price to cover missed appointments. BG would normally just be sticking to these though they have discretion to add additional compensation if the situation requires it. The will definitely not offer £100s of pounds for missed days of work. I cant even see the ombudsman awarding this.