British Gas Service. Or total lack of.

MeteredOut

Ivor_Bafflebrain said:

Addendum: After another two-and-a-half hours on the phone to Africa, and being passed through four departments, I got a call from someone in the UK. She was 'the despatcher' reponsible for allocating engineers. The engineer was on his way!  He turned up half an hour later, and when I explained what was going on, he shook his head in disbelief. It took him two minutes to reconnect the pipe, and a further four to verify my appliances worked. Fantastic !

Half an hour after he left I received an e-mail. It was from British Gas. An invoice for £135. To reconnect a pipe which British Gas disconnected. Go figure that one out.

I feel a strong letter coming on. I've had quite enough of phoning Africa.

Congratulation on finally getting it fixed.

I'd be interested to see what the T&Cs/service agreements say about who is responsible for reinstating a supply if it is auto-cut due to a storm. I wonder if there's something in there about it being the homeowners (or their insurers) responsibility.

I'd certainly be fighting it though. 

Ivor_Bafflebrain

Don't worry, I have no intention of paying. I was told by one of the African guys that his boss said there would not be any charge, given the circumstance. I just wish I had recorded the call.

Pretty sure the storm wasn't relevant in this case, except maybe low temperature, the meter has a battery in it and it hasn't been looked at in nearly ten years.

 The readings have been dubious for some months. I called Africa and told British Gas about it a while back. A nice man checked and told me that I don't have Smart meters. Where are the automatic readings coming from then? Sorry, sir, you are mistaken, you don't have Smart meters. I had to send him photos, at which point he gave in. Nothing happened, of course.

 In September I had three estimated readings in one day. All miles different. And oddly, the electricity was virtually the same reading as the gas. Then they all disappeared two days later. British Gas bills cannot be trusted in my humble opinion, but of course it's impossible to prove anything.

We pay silly money for our energy. No wonder the BG boss in paid £8million plus.

Footnote: I was told today that British Gas moved their call centres to Africa because they were getting too many complaints about them when they were in India. I give up.

Ivor_Bafflebrain

Will do. But please don't hold your breath, I think this may drag out a bit...

In response to the earlier suggestions: I did enquire of the local Gas Safe company, the guy just lives round the corner.

 He said he would have to inspect and test each the appliances in the house (boiler, hob, gas fire, all of which are about as complicated as a club hammer) before he could connect them.

 So it would have worked out more expensive !

Ivor_Bafflebrain

I forgot to mention, since my boiler is ancient and inefficient (think, Stephenson's Rocket) the engineer suggested I get British Gas in to talk through my options. So the sales guy will be here first thing tomorrow.

Wow. How's that for service...?

FreeBear

Ivor_Bafflebrain said:

I forgot to mention, since my boiler is ancient and inefficient (think, Stephenson's Rocket) the engineer suggested I get British Gas in to talk through my options. So the sales guy will be here first thing tomorrow.

Wow. How's that for service...?

Have a few large wet kippers to hand, and maybe a 4x2 clue bat.

When this BG sales guy has left, take a look at a heat pump from Octopus - I've heard of some getting cracking deals for less than £1,000. If you are wedded to a gas boiler, then someone like Boxt would be much more preferably than BG. But with an Elizabethan era boiler, you'd probably want new/bigger radiators all round, and possibly new plumbing too.

MeteredOut

Ivor_Bafflebrain said:

I forgot to mention, since my boiler is ancient and inefficient (think, Stephenson's Rocket) the engineer suggested I get British Gas in to talk through my options. So the sales guy will be here first thing tomorrow.

Wow. How's that for service...?

I'm frankly amazed you are/were going to let a BG boiler salesperson through your front door.

How did it go?

Ivor_Bafflebrain

I called him and cancelled the appointment. I took pity on him, didn't want him to get hurt.

Nevertheless he tried his best to convince me that British Gas are the best boiler installers in the world. He was talking to me from the UK, now that really was a novelty !

 FreeBear, thanks for the suggestions, I will investigate.

grn99

OP that's appalling service from BG - dealing with them myself on billing matters, so I'm not surprised, even after migrating away to Octopus they manage to bill their x-customers who have settled final bills for a non- existent meter, repeatedly. Speaking to South Africa (as I did again only yesterday) is problematic on so many different levels. I would have said once you're sorted and they've reimbursed/compensated you, move away, but they're the original Hotel California when it comes to that!!!

MeteredOut

Ivor_Bafflebrain said:

I called him and cancelled the appointment. I took pity on him, didn't want him to get hurt.

Nevertheless he tried his best to convince me that British Gas are the best boiler installers in the world. He was talking to me from the UK, now that really was a novelty !

 FreeBear, thanks for the suggestions, I will investigate.

I've always found that people installing boilers do their best work when they are in the same country as the home the boiler is being installed in, so maybe he's onto something after all!