British Gas Meter Ongoing Traumatic Saga

froggy2838

It is with an epic level of frustration I write this as I have absolutely no idea where else to go to get the issues caused by British Gas resolved.

My husband and I moved into a house which at one point in history had been two flats. As such there were two gas meters and two electricity meters of which we are paying standing charge on both. We requested our provider, British Gas, to consolidate our gas meters which we thought was a simple, fairly standard task.

The engineer arrived (late) to consolidate and remove the redundant meter. I showed him where the meters were and highlighted the meter I was told needed to be removed. The reply was "No, it's that one" pointing at the other meter. I mistakenly assumed the engineer must have had the correct information and let him continue with his work. Around 15 minutes later, the apparently correct meter was disconnected and the engineer had left. 

It turns out that the engineer had not only removed the incorrect meter, but he had undertaken no checks to ensure our gas supply was back online. We have since been left with a disconnected gas supply, no heating and no hot water since the morning of Friday 19th April.

Our real issues began when trying to get back in touch with British Gas for them to rectify this issue. My husband and I have spent countless hours on the phone to this company over the last week. We have been mysteriously cut off more times than I can count, referred mistakenly to the Gas Emergency Helpline, directed to Wales and West Utilities and once connected to a very confused call handler at The National Grid. An engineer from Wales and West Utilities did at one stage visit the property to thankfully assure us our house was safe and confirmed in no uncertain terms that this issue is firmly one for British Gas to deal with.

We have since been told we need to apply for a new meter to be installed where our old one was, and once that has been undertaken the old, redundant meter can then be removed. We are going round in circles trying to get the new meter installed, with the latest call handler assuring us we'll have a call back "within 48 hours". 

We don't know what to do, have no other numbers we can call and are thoroughly at our wits end. All of our cases and complaints are closed off without any resolution, or even a confirmation that these have ever existed being sent to us. We have no heating or hot water and are unbelievably continuing to be liable to pay British Gas a standing charge for the meter in our house which isn't connected to the gas supply and doesn't actually work.

Any help from the MSE forum on how on earth we can move forward with this would be hugely appreciated.

mebu60

I would suggest raising a formal complaint to British Gas CEO jana.siber@britishgas.co.uk

I would write it as a formal letter then attach to an email with Formal Complaint as the header. Also put Formal Complaint at the top of the letter with your account details. 

Set out clearly what you want them to do to resolve the issue (including compo for your distress).