Today’s trip - spoiled by the Gas Board...

[bruce1530]

Got a day off work today, and had planned some cycling adventures.... but those plans were thwarted when my central heating broke down. I have a British Gas service contract, so a Lunchtime service call was booked - which means sometime “between 10 and 2”.

10.00 Waiting.

13.30. Phone call from Service Lady. Apparently “the engineer who had been rostered to deal with my call was not qualified to work on my type of boiler”. I pointed out that it wasn’t actually a boiler fault, it was a broken motorised valve, which wasn’t even in the same room as the boiler! And they knew what type of boiler it was when the call was raised. She said she’d speak to the engineer and get back to me. She didn’t.

14.00 The 2pm deadline passes.

14.45 Phoned them. A 28 minute call, mostly with me on hold while they were trying to get through to the local service centre. Eventually, they said the would keep trying, and would call me back shortly. I said I would be raising a formal complaint.

16.15 They haven’t called me back yet.

Wasted day.

 

[classic33]

Phone back, asking how do you make a claim for their engineer failing to show. The system is in place, don't be fobbed off by a reduction in any payment.

 

[Racing roadkill]

Got a day off work today, and had planned some cycling adventures.... but those plans were thwarted when my central heating broke down. I have a British Gas service contract, so a Lunchtime service call was booked - which means sometime “between 10 and 2”.

10.00 Waiting.

13.30. Phone call from Service Lady. Apparently “the engineer who had been rostered to deal with my call was not qualified to work on my type of boiler”. I pointed out that it wasn’t actually a boiler fault, it was a broken motorised valve, which wasn’t even in the same room as the boiler! And they knew what type of boiler it was when the call was raised. She said she’d speak to the engineer and get back to me. She didn’t.

14.00 The 2pm deadline passes.

14.45 Phoned them. A 28 minute call, mostly with me on hold while they were trying to get through to the local service centre. Eventually, they said the would keep trying, and would call me back shortly. I said I would be raising a formal complaint.

16.15 They haven’t called me back yet.

Wasted day.

Sue them. It's the only way.

 

[bruce1530]

The system is in place - apparently the standard offer is £22 - which is hardly compensation for a day off work. At this stage, I just want the thing fixed, at a time that is convenient to me, and not too far in the future. But since I can’t get any more time off work this week, that means in the evening.

The annoying thing is that I could easily fix it myself - but the part costs about 80 quid, and I’ve been paying for a service contract for a boiler which apparently the majority of BG engineers are not qualified to work on

 

[steve50]

If you were to break the terms and conditions of your contract with them ( eg;refuse to pay your bill ) they would come down on you like a ton of bricks and put the pressure on including threatening you with a ccj.
Shoe on the other foot, they are breaking their contract with YOU, you have every right to lodge a very strongly worded official complaint including loss of earnings , time wasted on fruitless phone calls etc.

 

[Rooster1]

You can't plan anything if it involves Plumbing, Heating, Electrics, Gas etc. They always give you a window of time that goes from midnight to midnight. Not useful at all.

 

[Dave7]

British Gas = rip off.
I needed a new boiler.
B G were offering some £600 discount incentive so I got them in for a price.......£3600 WITH the discount.
I got it done for less than £2K with a 5 year Worcester Bosch waranty and the guy did a really good job.

 

[raleighnut]

British Gas = rip off.
I needed a new boiler.
B G were offering some £600 discount incentive so I got them in for a price.......£3600 WITH the discount.
I got it done for less than £2K with a 5 year Worcester Bosch waranty and the guy did a really good job.

Ditto here.

 

[vickster]

I had issues with BG years ago. Wouldn't touch now with a v long barge pole

 

[ufkacbln]

How do you have 'loss of earnings' on a day off work?

As @classic33 says there is a complaints system in place - I suggest the OP use it.

Simples

You would have to take a day as leave, to recover that you need to take unpaid leave

Hence you are out of pocket for a day's work

 

[Mrs M]

Ditto here.

Snap

 

[vickster]

Unless he has to stay home to wait for the engineer on another day and no further leave remaining?

 

[bruce1530]

So the 2 promised “call backs” never happened.

I am aggrieved that:

a. They appear to have been taking my money for a maintenance contract for years, when only a very small percentage of their engineers are able to work on my boiler (I believe there is 1 in the area!) - in the past I have had a number of times when engineers have turned up to do the annual service, only to look at the boiler and say “sorry..., will have to get someone else to look at it”
b. They knew what type of boiler I had when arranging the service call, and assigned it to an unqualified engineer.
c. They said they would be here between 10am and 2pm, but didn’t call me to say that there was a problem until 1.30.
d. The person I spoke to at 1.30 said that they would call back “shortly, once they had phoned the engineer”. They didn’t.
e. The person I spoke to at 3pm said they would talk to call controller and phone me back. They didn’t
f. Most importantly, my heating still is not working!

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

British Gas have massively downsized their engineering force in the last few years whilst pressurising those remaining to do more service visits in the same time for the same money. My BiL used to manage the Service Engineers in Scotland before he was made redundant this year - it's a soul destroying job. I very much doubt the excuse about not being qualified, if nothing else all the British Gas guys were very well trained indeed.

 

[raleighnut]

British Gas have massively downsized their engineering force in the last few years whilst pressurising those remaining to do more service visits in the same time for the same money. My BiL used to manage the Service Engineers in Scotland before he was made redundant this year - it's a soul destroying job. I very much doubt the excuse about not being qualified, if nothing else all the British Gas guys were very well trained indeed.

I don't think it's about being 'qualified' or indeed about being capable of doing the work, more about the engineers 'Certification' to work on that boiler which is probably due to BG not paying for the engineers to attend a course that gives them that.