British Gas boiler repair

robp · 11 December 2007 at 8:24PM

I'm so mad!

Our boiler stopped working last Friday, so I called BG that evening and made an appointment for the Monday.

I had to go away with work for two days, so my wife arranged to stay at home. This is awkward as we are both self-employed.

She stayed in all day and no engineer turned up. At 5pm she rang them and the rep said no appointment had been made!

They re-arranged for Tuesday and my wife had another day off with no pay. Again, no engineer turned up.

BG don't seem to want to help, and keep telling us that engineers are being re-prioritized to more important work.

The annoying part is, BG came out and fitted a new circuit board to our boiler about 4 months ago, and this part is meant to be guaranteed for a year. From what I can see, it's the circuit board which has gone again so they should come and fix it!

I had a call from them at 5:30 in which they said no engineer will be coming to us tonight as the one they had lined up has been re-prioritized again. They said that they would get a customer services manager to call me within the hour so that I could air my grievance.

You guessed it....no call yet.

We cancelled the BG insurance policy because they had let us down like this twice. They keep mentioning that they can see we have cancelled a policy with them (this was also to do with us moving house, not just poor service). Why do they think this constant poor service is going to attract us back?

I feel a letter to BG, OFGAS and Watchdog is overdue.....:mad:

planemad · 11 December 2007 at 8:41PM

BG are terrible! They are always on watchdog at least twice a year.

Sound like its time to get writing!

Terrylw1 · 11 December 2007 at 10:17PM

Here's the MD's details:

Phil Bentley
Managing Director
British Gas
Millstream
Maidenhead Road
Windsor
Berkshire SL4 5GD

Also, you could go to Energywatch for help or Ofgem (no Ofgas) but Ofgem will be slower. You can call Energywatch or submit a complaint on line and they will liaise with your Supplier to resolve it within a timeframe.

Why Watchdog? Energywatch will help you, WD won't. You could complain to them or the media in general which makes these companies resolve things quickly.

robp · 11 December 2007 at 11:10PM

Update!

BG man turned up at 21:30 this evening, after they had told us no one was coming. Good job we didn't go out for that curry......

He's taken a look and decided it might be the pump which he can't fix.

We now have to wait for them to arrange another appointment which will mean yet more time off work.

Ho hum, at least someone finally arrived and the fault might be rectified now they know they can make some money out of us.

We've made the decision to never use them again if possible.

robp · 12 December 2007 at 12:57PM

BG Manager just called to say no engineer can make it out to us now as they are swamped with calls from people who have insurance with them.

Obviously I complained about how they have treated us, and she said she will get her senior manager to contact me.

I said fine, but am now going to get a local engineer to come out and fix the problem.

I've run out of patience with BG. They will not be getting any more of my money.

Terrylw1 · 12 December 2007 at 10:52PM

Could you in any way get them to agree to pay the bill since you are speaking to a higher manager? I know it's very frustrating but you don't want their incompetance to land you with a further bill if you can avoid it somehow.

SwanJon · 13 December 2007 at 11:25PM

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Here's the MD's details:

Phil Bentley . . .

Also, you could go to Energywatch for help or Ofgem (no Ofgas). . .

Phil Bentley is the MD of Energy, I think its Chris Weston for the Services (boiler repair etc).

Not sure Energywatch cover boiler repair, but it might be worth asking.

BGS have customers who pay them monthly to look after them in circumstances like this, and will be given priority - it's why they pay.

What would you be saying if you'd called a local plumber who'd said/done exactly the same thing?

wolvesinwales · 13 December 2007 at 11:45PM

Just caught sight of this from the front page and it's reminded me that i took out a service contract on 23rd October and have still heard nothing from them about the required initial inspection.

robp · 14 December 2007 at 10:49AM

Local engineer came out yesterday at 9am prompt and took two hours to find and fix the problem.

Job done.

emeraldbugle · 14 December 2007 at 12:39PM

Interesting, we booked a call out from BG. We then cancelled it a few hours later as the heating fired up. Then we returned home the next day, there was a card saying the engineer had called. We then moved house and cancelled the agreement, I received another letter saying the engineer had tried to call again!!

What more can I do, than ring and cancel!

bazza1603 · 16 December 2007 at 11:59PM

We bought a new house and the heating wasnot working very well. It would warm up and then go cold. The British gas enginneer was called out under my coverplan and he had us worried that that the system was blocked and needed replumbing in copper instead of plastic. Hardly what you want to hear if you have only been living there for 3 days.

We ran a local gasman to quote for the above job. Within 2 minutes he told us the it was the diverter value which cost £70, as the central heating was only warming up when the hot water was heating up. We replaced the pump as well, as it didnot sound good for another £60, and a modest £150 for doing the work and refilling the system with chemicals.

Cheaper than the £4k to £9k British gas told me it would cost. The daft thing is by turning the tempature up on the water cylinder told us the heating system was fine. Hardly a mind intestive test once you know what you are doing. Why didnot the British gas man know?

What do I pay my money for Homecare for again?

British Gas boiler repair

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