British Gas - where would we be without them?

from WinCustomize Forums

On Monday, my gas meter was due to be changed due to it's age.

So at 6pm an engineer arrived, who, I am since told by British Gas, was fully qualified. Given an IQ of about 31, qualified in what I don't know.

He tried to restart my heating by repeatedly pressing the transmitter reset button, which now has pencil marks around it. All that did was disable the heating. He left me then, saying that it would eventually restart. No it didn't.

So I called British Gas. They had the audacity to say my heating was faulty and they could send an engineer out at a cost of £150.00. Following a few choice words they insisted it was nothing to do with them.

After 5 hours of no heating, reading the boiler manual, and several restarts, I gave up. The last restart must have reset it because after an hour the heating came on, on it's emergency mode. From there its easy to set the transmitter, so my heating was working.

Tuesday I phoned the complaints line and told them what had happened, and what I thought of British gas.

I had a call this morning from another engineer wanting to come and fix it. I said there was no need as I had got it working. I explained what had happened and his comment was the engineer who came had not followed the boiler manufacturer's recommended restart procedure. No sh**...

So, if I hadn't fixed it myself, I would have been three days without heating thanks to an engineer who hadn't got a clue how my boiler worked. If he wanted to test the gas supply, all he had to do was turn the hot water tap on... duh!

So there you go. That's why British Gas has one of the worst customer service records in history.

If a British Gas engineer ever sets foot on my property again, I have a piece of lead gas pipe ready and waiting ;)

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Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Reminds me of "I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help you."

Put your track shoes on and run like hell.

You might attach a copy of instructions to the gas meter....but the shmuck probably won't know how to read anyway. X| XD

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I dumped British gas years ago, for similar reasons. Occasionally they call me up to ask if they can be my supplier again....... after about 5 minutes they wish they hadn't.......... B[]

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sounds like the average British tradesman, no one cares anymore, so many of them do not take a pride in their work. At least you have gas, none out in the sticks.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

:rofl: gotta love idiots

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Sounds like the average British tradesman,
End of quote

It's not just in the UK... here in oz as well. What with dwindling apprenticeships, 6 week training courses and a lot of theory but little to no practice, qualified, experienced, competent tradesmen are a thing of the past... add to that mass production and bugger all being hand made any more, and you've more or less got a throw away society where hands on repair will soon become something we only read about in history books.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I could have done the meter myself. 10 mins it took - turn off the gas, undo two pipes, remove meter and replace with new meter, fasten two pipes, turn gas on, check gas pressure.

So, ten minutes to do the job, ten minutes to f*** up my heating.

Probably did one of those online courses ;)