British Gas-The Consumers Complaint List-In the Public Domain

At the time of writing I have been without a hot water supply in my house for more than 3 weeks. In essence the filthy radiator water flows out of the taps, and pollutes the cold water system, due to a failure of the heat exchanger coil within the hot water tank.

After one week from reporting the fault BG had visited and measured up for a new hot water tank, and had delivered it. However the fitting was cancelled "as you are not a priority case", so we had to wait until two weeks (from the initial fault date)for an engineer to arrive and say the tank would not fit. Ten days later the same tank is still here and we are told that the engineer should arrive next Wednesday (27th November 2002)to try to fit it again....that is one month from the initial fault and two weeks from the last attempt.

As an experienced mechanical engineer with more than 30 years experience I am convinced the tank will not fit, and I do not expect this team will arrive with the parts to make it fit.

I chased up and down the BG system and spoke with Janet Armstrong ( Manager of Planning) and Scott Mason (Duty Manager)and eventually persuaded them to send an engineer for a 30 minute visit this week just to check that they had all the parts necessary to make the tank fit. Initially they agreed to this, but later the appointment was cancelled " becuase we are confident we understand the problem and can make the tank fit".

I can never find anyone at BG to take responsibility...can someone tell me who I can contact to get this problem resolved??

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Editorial Comments

update on 20 November 2002
"Just to let you know that the BG fitter arrived today. Predictably he did not have the special parts needed, or an assistant which was essential. However I acted as the assistant, and he was very competent and inventive, and pleased to report that one month after the initial fault the system is now working ok.....

All you need is stamina..... Thanks for your help...."

British gas home care agreement is very expensive and does not provide an efficient service. The customer services are extremely rude and do not know what to say apart from the standard patter which does not always apply to every question. Read more
Samantha Crawthraw...4 November 2003
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Six and a half weeks ago I used the British Gas web site to register my interest in purchasing a new boiler, central heating system and power shower for a flat I am refurbishing. Read more
William Martin Hughes .. 12 November 2003
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The message from British Gas employee "Annon" says it all. They hate their jobs, hate us customers (even though we pay their salaries) and they feel the rotten "service" they dish out is all we deserve
Michael ... 20 December 2003
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Mr Calvert, I can understand what you must be going through as I have had countless appointments with British Gas as well with no engineer turning up or wrong information being given to the engineer and being left with 30+ days without Central Heating in the past 3 months, thanks to British Gas' customer service representatives who take down all your information - mobile number included - yet no one informing me of what the status of the complaint is.

Hope your problem has been resolved but in the future, the best way to get it resolved I have found is to just refuse to keep the phone down till they let the manager speak to you and give you a specific time that an engineer will arrive.R Prabhakar...10 December 2002
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I rang House.com on Wednesday 24th september to ask for a price for a service engineer to service my boiler and fire. I was quoted £72 by a lady, I later rang to book an engineer and spoke to a young man called Lee who told me that the cost would be over £100. I decided not to have my fire serviced. I was quoted £60, which I had to pay by credit card there and then. Once my payment card had been checked Lee rang me back and said that the service people will ring me the next day. It is now Friday and I have heard nothing I rang house.com 0845 600 5100 and hung on for 25mins in a queue.

(I appreciate House is busy, but what if I was an elderly person ringing?) I then went on line and found another number 0845 6001123. got through right away (so that department can't be busy!!) another man told me he would get a message to the right department today and they will contact me. Why is everything so hard for me, the customer to organise, and am I likely to have a call this week, month or year, now I've payed my money!!
Mrs Caroline Jenkin ... 26 September 2003
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