British gas home service plan

parent13

Hi got a service plan with British gas.  I got an email from them suggesting my boiler service is due and to make an appointment which I did weeks ago for today.  Had to attend hospital with my vulnerable daughter so got my retired mother to stay in all day waiting.  However no engineer has turned up.  Went on chat to be informed that it was cancelled and that they have given another date and time without informing me. Totally not happy.  Am I entitled to compensation? 

diystarter7

Compensation for what losses?
I agree its not good but can't understand the compo claim.
Either way, good luck and I agree that it is not great, especially from a company like BG, so
thanks for sharing.

parent13

Loss of my mother's time. 

pochase

When and how did they contact you to cancel?

parent13

They didn't.  Just didn't show up 

pochase

If it would be a meter appointment you could expect £30. No idea if the service people fall under the energy ombudsman?

lopsyfa

This seems to happen a lot with BG. Happened with us about 3 years ago, I was out of the country and my wife had to take time off work and nobody showed up. No communications at all for a month after that until I came back into the country and called them.

And this was for a standalone boiler service not as part of a service plan. So they took the money and didn't bother to show up and no communication. When I called a month later to ask why they didn't bother to show up, they were very apologetic and offered £30 back without me asking. So I will ask you to call them to complain and ask what they can offer for the inconvenience. 

Just seems like a poorly managed company if they are just giving out compensation for basic things that could have been avoided with better communications. You see this also with the many complaints about their billing/meter reading system.

Chloe_G

This happened to my elderly mother who pays a large amount every year for Homecare.  I'd had to beg work for a day wfh for the visit; they didn't turn up and the only way to complain seemed to be an online chat (which my mother would not have been able to do on her own).  The service was already severely overdue by this time as it had been impossible to book an earlier one which makes a mockery out of the whole 'you must have your boiler serviced yearly' rule.  I think they did pay her a small amount of compensation in the end, but only after I'd given them a bad review on a review site which triggered them contacting me for details.