Who the HELL are Transco?

Lawbag_2

I woke yesterday morning to a slight smell of gas coming from under the stairs, but it was coming from nowhere else.

I rang Transco when I got to work, and told them of the potential leak, and they sent someone round within the hour. I arranged for my wife to nip home and let them in.

When I got home I had quite a shock.

1. they had slapped an ID - Immediately Dangerous label on our gas fire in the lounge, one on our cooker and one on our gas boiler!

2. switched our gas off, replaced it with a modern one, but left the gas turned off.

3. I read the literature they left and no one would turn the gas back on until every item had been checked by a Corgi engineer.

My wife said they guy had turned up and disappeared within 30 minutes, waved his gas tester wand and "condemned" every gas related item he found.

I called in my regular gas engineer who then went over every single item, spent 2 hours checking the 3 Immediately Dangerous items and found no leakage. Turned the gas back on (as he is Corgi registered) and said that it was the gas meter that was leaking, and not the three appliances. He did it as a personal favour, but had we called in anyone else we would have been charged 2 hours labour plus whatever bogus parts needed replacing.

So my question is, who the hell are Transco to do as they wish, and what recourse do I have against their evaluation of my gas appliances?

CopperPlate_2

As far as I know Transco are entitled under the terms of the Gas Act to make forcible entry to properties in cases where leaks are suspected or to inspect meters, etc. If they are given this sort of power then I can only assume that they have the power to condemn, etc. appliances if they believe it to be dangerous. I'm sure there will be a complaints policy or customer service directorate listed on their website that you can vent your spleen to and hopefully get some answers?

CP

choosewisely

We had a similar problem when we moved into a new house, Transco I think are limited in what they can fix in your house and their job is to make it safe (cut it off!) until you have your Corgi man fix it.

I must say the Transco guy was brilliant with us and spent over an hour testing everywhere but as there were multiple leaks from both old appliances and rotting lead pipes he had to cut us off but made sure we had an electic immersion heater for hot water and as all our heating was gas he gave us a brand new electric fan heater.

I think they're suppose to come back and get the fan heaters but they never did - maybe I should post this on the freebies board!

Murtle

years ago I temped for a small local gas repair company. and they said to me at the time, as there were loads of transco ads on tv then - saying if you smell gas, call us and we'll fix it, that all they would do was turn up, turn it off and leave. You then had to call out a proper repair person to look at it to sort it out they had lots of business cause of it!!

Lawbag_2

TRANSCO themselves never actually turned up, but a Gas company under the TRANSCO banner. I got a letter from their company yesterday offering me their services....

Like hell I would use them..........

rosscobley

Transco used to own all the gas network in the uk up until the 1/06/05. they sold off parts of it to 6 other companys so now there are 7 gas networks. if you report a gas escape then they will attened within 2 hour for a controled escape and 1 hours for a uncontroled escape. they have the power to break in to a property if they think there is a gas leak. they will check the property and if they find a leak in a pipe that is easy to fix they will do it but if a cooker or fire is faulty they will disconnect it. if they cant they will cut you off until you get someone to fix. at the end of the day would you want your house to be blown to bits and maybe kill someone. it only take 1 unit of gas to blow a house up

odowdchr

rosscobley wrote:

Transco used to own all the gas network in the uk up until the 1/06/05. they sold off parts of it to 6 other companys so now there are 7 gas networks. if you report a gas escape then they will attened within 2 hour for a controled escape and 1 hours for a uncontroled escape. they have the power to break in to a property if they think there is a gas leak. they will check the property and if they find a leak in a pipe that is easy to fix they will do it but if a cooker or fire is faulty they will disconnect it. if they cant they will cut you off until you get someone to fix. at the end of the day would you want your house to be blown to bits and maybe kill someone. it only take 1 unit of gas to blow a house up

.....and they could be liable for missing something, which is also relevant. They don't want to get sued so it's easier to cover their backsides and condemn anything that looks out of the ordinary.
Had the same problem when my mum said she smelt gas in my garden. Called Transco and they came and condemned the fire in the living room, because it was an old 'fake stove' type appliance. Got a CORGI registered gas fitter in who could not pick up any leaking gas, stripped the unit and found it immaculate, rebuilt it, re-tested it, shook head in bemusement, took his money and vanished.

dag_2

I think Lawbag's biggest mistake was waiting until he got to work before phoning Transco. He should have phoned them as soon as he noticed the smell.

Transco will attend a reported gas leak within an hour, regardless of whether you report it at day or night. If they can detect a leak from the outside, and are fairly sure it's coming from inside the building, but no-one's there to let them in, then they will force entry. If they're refused entry, then they might call the police to help them get in.

However - not reporting leaks is not a solution. Even if the leak is reported by the next-door neighbour, a passer-by, the postman or a leaflet deliverer, Transco will still attend within an hour.

Gingham_Ribbon

A guy from Transco turned up at my house a few years ago wanting to change the meter to a new one. I hadn't received a letter and didn't let him in as I lived alone at the time and had never heard of the company. He started shouting at me in the street and saying if I was frightened he was going to turn the gas off I should pay my bills?!!! (I pay by dd and have never been behind.)

He scared and humiliated me at my own front door and refused to give me his name. I immediately phoned Transco and got a letter of apology and was told he was being 'retrained'. hmm. Didn't make up for my very nosey neighbours having a field day at my expense!

LittleJo

Hi,
To make it worse Transco is part of National Grid Transco which owns the electricity supply cables.
Jo

s.c.

Just one other thing AFAIK they own all the BBC transmitters now, both television and radio :eek:

In 1997 the Tory gov forced the BBC to privatise its Transmission groups, the domestic division was sold to the Texas outfit, Castle Tower Communications, later to become Crown Castle and this has just been bought by Transco.
http://www.crowncastle.co.uk/news/pr_28062004.shtml

s.c.

PS , the ITV transmitters were bought by NTL, and have just been sold to the Aussies .