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British Gas: Incompetents or Liars?
You decide...
If you have a British Gas Homecare package, it could end up costing you a fortune in wasted time off. And, unless you have unlimited patience and unlimited phone bill, you really don't need the stress. They continually confirmed an appointment and then failed to turn up. When complaining, we were told - we don't do evening appointments. We said, yes you do, you offered it. So are they incompetent or liars or what?
The sad thing is that all British Gas had to do was deliver what it had suggested. If they had phoned us back with a weekend appointment as they said they would - no problem. If they had delivered on the evening appointment they themselves offered - no problem. If they had turned up at the appintment they had confirmed three times - no problem.
But no - they delivered nothing they promised. And failed to tell us the truth on a number of occasions for no good reason.
Is there, as MBH says, any reason why we should let these people into our house ever again? And also, how much compensation should we go for?
Summary - in reverse order so the most recent is at the top
11) A phone call from Customer Liason! Hooray! But not to the daytime number. A callback elicits the statement that BG can't do what it promised and doesn't know why it promised it.
10) Head of Operations tracked down. Doug Richards does not work at the address he sends letters from. But we found him anyway.
9) A response from BG! Only 33 minutes from email to Mr Chmarny. Will refer me to Customer Relations Manager and Legal Department. How nice.
8) A response! Not from BG, but from very helpful JT with email for BG's Public Relations Director - so off I go to relate to him.
7) By 10pm, no phone call. So make a complaint via web form and call the number given. They tell me what I was told before couldn't happen and transfer me to hold for too long. Hmmm no change there then.
6) It's Monday 20 June. It's about 8.15pm. I'd better check they are going to turn up. They say No - and will get someone to ring back. They don't
5) On Saturday 18th, we get a letter dated 17 June another wrong date so I ring to check. Yes, we are definitely booked for the 20th in the evening.
4) We get a letter dated 13 June with another wrong date. MBH rings and gets confirmation that it's the 20th as arranged.
3) on the 26 May, we get a letter with the wrong date so MBH rings to get confirmation. BG offer a weekday evening - OK, fine, it's the 20th June 6pm - 10pm.
2) Then in May 2005 BG ring to book a service. We say we can't do weekdays, BG offers weekend and a phone call to arrange. No phone call.
1) This story has a prologue stretching back 15 - yes, fifteen - visits. Wasting days of time off work while they continually fail.
And now the story in gory detail...
1) This story has a prologue stretching back 15 - yes, fifteen - visits to fix a boiler which had been covered by British Gas for years and regularly serviced by them. Eventually, they have to call in a proper Vaillant Engineer who points out the parts had been fitted wrongly. And fixes it in about 30 minutes.
Me and MBH have wasted days of time off work while they continually fail. And we don't want to dothis again. Even if our respective work would allow it.
2) Then in May 2005, British Gas Homecare phone us to say we needed a service. We are nervous and make them promise not to break the boiler they had only just repaired. (Actually, British Gas hadn't - Vaillant had.)
MBH (my better half) points out that we both work so this would have to be a weekend call. British Gas promise to get someone to call back with a weekend appointment. Guess what? No-one calls.
3) on the 26 May, we get a letter from BG saying they had arranged for a Yearly Service and Maintenance Inspection on Friday 10 June. This is a) not the promised phone call and b) not a weekend.
Spotting the inaccuracies, MBH phoned BG, explained their previous conversation and reminded them that we both worked during the day. The BG lady said OK, would you like an evening appointment. MBH agrees - what a good thought. BG offers Monday 20th June. MBH agrees. Fine, bung it in the diary.
4) We get a letter dated 13 June. It says they have arranged Yearly Service etc on 23 June. Hmmm. MBH rings up to remind them of 1), 2) and 3) above. Oh, says another BG lady, that's right: our system says you have got an appointment on the 20th, we'll cancel the one on the 23rd. Fair enough.
5) On Saturday 18th, we get a letter dated 17 June. MBH calls, too busy, so I call later. Speak to nice BG lady who can see (now) FOUR appointments on the system and explains this by saying (proudly) "it's a very advanced computer system" (!). I explain 1), 2), 3) and 4) above - further explaining how much time off we had already taken this year through British Gas.
She said she had cancelled the wrong appointments and kept the one for Monday evening 6pm to 10pm. I asked her to confirm this - I said we would be very unhappy if it didn't happen because of all the aforegoing. I stressed that MBH had made special work arrangements to leave early to get back by 6 so it would be really, really irritating if they didn't turn up. Are you sure? I asked her. Yes, she said. This coming Monday in the evening? Yes she said - there would be no problem. Okey dokey.
6) It's Monday 20 June. It's about 8.15 (they're all shouting at each other on Eastenders so all is well). We think we'd better just check so call BG. After 10 minutes on hold, I get through to a Simon Wells who says, no, you don't have an evening appointment - in fact BG doesn't do evening service appointments.
Huh? They were the ones who offered the evening appointment in the first place.
I explained, somewhat wearily, 1), 2), 3), 4) and 5) above along with the previous story and asked to speak to a supervisor. Put on hold.
Eventually Simon Wells came back and said there wasn't a supervisor available (BG doesn't have a supervisor for this sort of thing?). I told him I didn't believe him. He insisted and said that someone would ring me back.
That's an hour ago and guess what - no callback.
So what next? Turn up at Centrica at 9am tomorrow morning with a camera, journalist and make a row? Dunno yet - will sleep on it and let you know...
7) By 10pm, no phone call. So make a complaint via web form at www.house.co.uk and followed up via the phone number given 0845 600 5001. They say they are the webhelp service and can only put me through to the service line (and in any case BG wouldn't be ringing back at this time of night.) So no callback as promised by S Wells. And no point to ringing the number given as they can't help. Good grief. I did hang on for a while listening to the same bland worthless recorded wittering but gave up and went to bed.
I emailed this website URL to house@house.co.uk , media@centrica.co.uk and communications@house.co.uk . No response by lunchtime on 21 June.
Also found this excellent website grumbletext where I posted a whinge. I commend it to anyone who wants to complain to faceless corporations.
8) A response! Not from BG, but from very helpful JT (thanks, JT) who gives me the email for the Public Relations Director - a Mr Anthony Chmarny who, apparently, can be emailed on Anthony.chmarny@centrica.co.uk and Anthony.Chmarny@service.britgas.co.uk I shall try that and see what happens. I also googled him and his number is 020 8734 8275.
9) A response from BG! Good Lord, that was quick (33 minutes). A first. Mr Chmarny (according to his email, he is Media Relations Manager, not PRD: my apologies) requests my full address details, which he gets. And includes a little comment that, well, read for yourself:
Charming. First Class Media Relating, I call that. Will they let me maintain this site in the chokey? Will I get bail? How will they service our boiler if I'm inside?...
10) Head of Operations tracked down. Doug Richards. Well, we had to, since none of the above had got any response. There are many organisations who make it easy to contact them - and there are some which hide behind forms, switchboards and websites. If you have ever tried to get a response from British Gas, you know what category they fall into. Still, they're not quite as bad as O2 (but that's another story).
Anyhow, thanks to Google and a few phone calls, it gives me great pleasure to tell you the real address of Doug Richards - the Head of Operations who signs letters appearing to come from Area Service Centre, Swallowfield One, Wolverhampton Road, Oldbury, West Midlands B69 2BG - actually works at British Gas Services, 3 The Square, Stockley Park, Uxbridge UB11 1BN tel 020 8734 8000 and we think his email is doug.richards@centrica.co.uk . We sent him an email and if we get a response, it will be posted here.
11) A phone call from Customer Liason! Hooray! But, sadly, to our home, not daytime number. Those of you who have read this far may remember we're not at home during the day. A simple fact British Gas seem unable to grasp.
Nevertheless, I call the Customer Liason Number and leave a message. Should you need it, to save you the same hassle we had finding it, the British Gas Customer Liason number is 0116 250 3974.
A nice Mr Haddon rings me back. He tells me he really works for British Gas and is not outsourced. He says that BG will not fulfil promises of evening or weekend servicing as this is not possible. He accepts that we were offered this on several occasions by BG but is unable to explain why. He says BG is unable to fulfil what it promised.
The best he can do is to offer us £20 compensation and a 2-hour time slot during the day. I tell him BG already used up all our time off and workplace goodwill this year. He was unable to escalate the complaint. I asked him for their Complaint Resolution procedure and he advised us to write to ... wait for it ... Area Service Centre, Swallowfield One: the very organisation which reneged on it's promises in the first place!
He also got the address wrong ...
That concludes the update for today, Tuesday 21st June. What will happen tomorrow?
