British Gas Boiler Repair Fiasco

shinyhead

Hi,
I wonder if anyone can help me. I have British Gas boiler and central heating cover, and have done for longer than I can remember. On the few occasions I've had to call them out in the past the service has been excellent-I think anyone can appreciate that they can't carry every boiler part that exists in their vans and will have to order, so the longest delay has been at most a couple of days.

I am sitting here at home waiting for call 4 or 5 from one of their engineers after the boiler packed up about three weeks ago. Shan't bore you with it all but basically it still doesn't work and after each visit another fault appears.

In short I'm very disappointed with the service I've received this time and wonder does anyone out there know if I can claim compensation, especially as it's a combi so we've not had anything approaching reliable heating or hot water apart from the electric shower?

lic

I don't see why you cannot complain to a supervisor. Just ring and ask them, failing this ask to speak to theare manager.
But be very aware, that if the tell you, you need a new boiler, get a few quotes, as I have heard they are very expensive for new boiler installation.
You could tell them that in view of the poor service and the fact the faults have not been recified properly that yo are considering employing a non BG engineer to fix the problem, then send BG the bill.

maple41

My 82 year old mother is also having similar problems with BG on a 3 star service plan. BG engineer has been out twice to fix the boiler, last time 2 engineers plus "manager". Decided that fault requires new parts, promised to come back today. She has just phoned me to say despite new parts boiler still not working. They did leave her 2 small electric fan heaters, but she hasn't had hot water or heating for over a week now. Boiler condensor type is only 11 years old so shouldn't need a new one should she? Do wonder what she pays £200 a year for service contract for.
Any suggestions for senior contact name at BG appreciated.

shinyhead

Hi All,
Not long after posting OH took call from BG -very apologetic but the required part had not been ordered. OH kept cool and mentioned compensation. Changed their attitude immensely. Engineer booked to come early pm next day when part arrives. Turned up late but all changed - this engineer knew what he was doing and found what the real fault was within a few minutes. Needless to say it didn't have anything to do with the faults reported by previous engineers. Anyway goes without saying it needs different parts and the guy is coming back tomorrow pm to fix. Don't mind that so much particularly as same engineer will be coming to fix.

I'll post again when its fixed!

shinyhead

The BG engineer arrived just after 2 and has just left. I think he changed almost everything!! Result is boiler now working as it should again.

Whilst this engineer who has come out the last 2 times has been brilliant IMHO the others seem to need more technical training.

We've collected all the dates and times since 10 March when this all began and plan to complain big style to BG particularly to reclaim my wife's lost wages when she had to wait around for them to come.

Will post again when we get any reply to this.

shinyhead

Our heating ran great from the time the engineer sorted it to about 2pm next day. Same symptoms came back. Have a sneaky feeling that one of the many new parts the guy fitted has unfortunately failed. Can't really blame BG for this- except it won't be looked at till Wednesday!

shinyhead

The saga continues... Engineer turned up in morning, thinks the fault is when demanding hot water it won't then go back to heating. New part(s?) ordered and will be back friday.

shinyhead

Engineer turned up with part(s?) and OH tells me it's now fixed. Fingers crossed but won't be holding my breath.

Canucklehead

Good afternoon: I hope that is the last you see of BG 'engineers' for awhile...unfortunately some of them tend to be parts changers rather than diagnosticians.

HTH

Canucklehead

mute_posting

Canucklehead wrote: »

unfortunately some of them tend to be parts changers rather than diagnosticians.

Rather unfortunately that is very common in many "technical" roles nowadays - the art of fault finding is dead

Even worse, some "technicians" claim that it is because "it's all electronic these days" - what a load of tosh, it's because they are too stupid or just plain lazy to look at a diagram and work through the logic of how something "should" work and determine how it is "actually" working differs.

MP

shinyhead

It all seems to be working as it should be- last night heating worked and this morning.

Thanks for your posts guys, One of the BG men did seem very determined to diagnose the problem but I think we had a couple who may not have been so.

It's fingers crossed!....