Urgent Help Needed No Gas

poppyscorner

Hi all,

I am a prepayment customer with British Gas and my meter has picked the coldest night of the year so far to play up it has rejected our card and said call help.
I have rang BG prepayment team explained we have 3 young kids in the house tonight ages 7yrs, 4yrs and 8months they cannot offer me an engineer appointment until 4pm till 8pm tomorrow I am not happy with that and I think it should be sooner but what are our rights about it can they just leave us like that??
Anyone have any advice for us before we freeze please and who can I complain to about it ?
Their reason for the delay according to BG is that our meter is owned by the national grid and it is them who have no appointments

Thanks in advance
Poppy xx

Terrylw1

Hi Poppy,

Ok, the meter is owner by the operator but your Supplier contracts them for appointments so thats just an excuse.

Have you tried calling the emergency number on the bill? I honestly don't know on the gas side, but maybe they can offer you an emergency appointment due to the fact that you have young children.

Ofgem has rule about young children being in a house off supply so they may come and do something temporaily until a normal appointment can be made.

Worth a try.

Maybe someone more knowledgable on the gas side will see your post but it's getting on a bit.

If BGas is still open maybe it's worth speaking to a manager and tell them about your children to see if the emergency route is the best way to go.

The no appointments thing is garbage. Suppliers can always pay extra is the operator has an available engineer. The emergency engineers are usually on call people so they attend with a few hours.

dellxps

not too sure about how prepayment meters, but im pretty sure that you will count as a vulnerable case, due to the fact that you have young kids. Ask to speak to a manage, and someone should be able to book an emergency call out for you.

There will always be emergency slots available! hope bg are still open, and good luck...if you don't get anywhere, make sure you all sleep in the same room,stay close and wear layers....i swear i shouldn't be having to give out advice like this in to people with 8 month old kids, bg should get off their backsides and do something:mad:

if bg are no help maybe you could try spending the night at a family members? sorry i couldn't help you any further.

Terrylw1

If you have a bill the emergency number is on there. They have to be on there per Ofgem.

Usually being off supply in winter qualifies in the case of elec, certainly does having young kids as Ofgem have a policy based in children under X age (can't remember which but an 8 month old would qualify)

The only reason I would be a bit stuck on this is that it's possibly a faulty key/card. The engineer could also give you another though.

Since its cold tonight why not remind BGas that the press are always happy to print cases like leaving babies in cold house and see how fast they respond.

If they are not open, call the emegency number off the bill and speak to Transco.

duchy

I'm down as been vunerable with my supplier as I have a son with a disability and didn't get an appointment time at all just told "within 24 hours" when my meter did the exact same thing a couple of weeks ago. I rang at 9am and they showed up about 4pm. I was told not to go out at all unless I called them as their engineers would ignore notes left (ie knock on neighbours door for access) despite the fact the ruddy meter is accessible without entering the house. Fortunately I wasn't working that day but if I had I'd have been forced to take the whole day off-and they still could have not turned up til the following morning.

the_other_mce

Hiya - I'm sure they have to offer you an emergency appointment. Tell them you have a child under 1 in the house. Also mention that you will be emailing the most senior person you can tomorrow morning if the gas isn't sorted. I think they have to get someone round in less than 4 hours. If all else fails - tuck the kids up with you and make sure the baby has enough coversin their cot and look forward to some compensation in the post. If you don't get a decent response from your supplier contact the ombudsman in charge of them. PM me if you want their addresss.HTH

SwanJon

Terry's right - this will have been passed on to the operator to send someone round.
Sunday night has to be a killer - they are down to the minimum team in the call centre, and I imagine the operator are similar. These guys don't deal with these calls during the day, so they may need prompting.

However, if you can get hold of them, check the terms & conditions.
Been a while since I checked it for gas, but for electricity, one standard of service (i think) is that they will egt someone round in 3 hours (4 at weekend) for a similar situation with an electricity pp meter. Is probably something similar.

I'd keep calling. It might just be that they don't want to make a promise that they then rely on the operator to keep.

poppyscorner

Thanks to you all for your replies I have since my first post rang BG again they insist it is not their responsibility and they will not do anything about it the operator agreed with me that it stinks but hey won't do anything anyway she gave me the number for the national grid who apparently own the meter they were just as helpful (i.e not at all) and they said they have no responsibility as the contract between them and BG only states that they work until 5pm on a Sunday:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

As a last resort I have rang transco who are not interested as it is not a gas leak.

I have talked about ofgems regulations and they accept it but still won't come out BG said I can't complain about them as it is not their responsibility and NG(national grid) said I can't complain about them as my issue is with my supplier and the contract they hold with them something that is out of their control.

BG are a disgrace and I really want to make a stink about this because I am obviously not the only person who they feel free to do this too they seemed to have the attitude of why was I making a fuss about it.

Thanks again any advice on where to take this next would be great

(a very frozen) Poppy x

paul.m_6

From a gas fitter. ring transco 0800 111999 tell them you can smell gas . they will be round in 2 hours. it may not be a fair thing to do but neither is the way they are treating you.

dmg24

Transco no longer exist, it is all part of National Grid. If an engineer comes out to a false leaking gas report, they will bill the customer and they will not fix the fault.

poppyscorner, is there anywhere else you can go tonight? If you are in Nottingham you are all very welcome to my sofa. I would ask my Dad for more advice but as it is the meter I don't think he will be able to help (he works on the supply side).

Terrylw1

Either way regardless of anything the emergency number is there for anything out of hours. You then get through to an incident centre who have on call engineers.

You sometimes have to argue a bit with them though as they can be very unhelpful.

Lots of bad press potential here for them & BGas