British Gas - a new height for customer non-service. Just venting.

FoxEye · 22 Oct 2020 at 19:44

Just adding my experience that British Gas are indeed one of the worst companies to deal with you can imagine.

Try getting the email account tied to a property/account changed. Lol. Something that simple they make into a complete nightmare/ordeal, of being locked out of your account and unable to make any changes. Including changing the email (which belongs to someone who no longer lives here).

It's little wonder they go out of their way to stop you being able to contact a real human being. Everything is automated, and there's no "contact us" details on their website, beyond the automated helpline (which is useless and sends you in circles).

Made my own thread about how crap their CS is last year.

theone8181 · 22 Oct 2020 at 19:45

Werewolf said:
Except your local tradesman will likely charge ~£75-100 for a service and anyone with any sense gets their boiler services every year, at which point a service contract starts to make sense, as it only takes one additional call out every few years to make up that difference (and then some).

One of my neighbours ended up going with BG cover after her normal guy failed to fix her boiler something like 4 times, BG did a guaranteed fix/service for about £100 with a 12 month warranty on the work, IIRC the parts they used had a trade price in the region of £300 (a small leak had damaged the main board and damaged several other bits, so they replaced the leaky part and everything else that was damaged).

Why? We've never had our boiler serviced, and it's cost ~£500 in repairs over 11 years. How much is your service contract every month?

Werewolf · 22 Oct 2020 at 19:59

theone8181 said:
Why? We've never had our boiler serviced, and it's cost ~£500 in repairs over 11 years. How much is your service contract every month?

Christ.

You've got a gas appliance you've not had serviced in 11 years.

Seriously?

Do you at least have a (working, tested and in date) audible Carbon Monoxide alarm in the same room?

The legal requirement for any building that is rented is that it should be serviced and tested every year, the sensible way as a householder to deal with a gas appliance is to get it serviced and tested every year and have a CO alarm (I'm not too worried about the boiler dying, I'm worried about it killing me

).

We pay around £14 a month for our boiler contract, vs ~£100 for a local gas engineer to do a service.
It's paid for itself several times in that when we had an issue last year the expansion vessel, valve and a couple of other bits were all replaced under that contract, in the past they've been out to replace other parts including the next day over the Christmas period when there was an issue that was stopping our old boiler from working.

Drollic · 22 Oct 2020 at 20:04

You should try eon, booked to have smart meters installed and they don't show up with no email or phone call. £50 off my bill please or I take it further

They now contact me with the generic spam about an appointment as if this never happened of course.

bainbridge · 22 Oct 2020 at 20:06

Oh well, maybe it's not so bad being in an all electric house after all.

Yaayuh! · 22 Oct 2020 at 20:42

I have just ordered up a new boiler and radiator fittings with British Gas, confirmed today in fact, for install end of November.

Sorry if I stole resources from you

Angilion · 22 Oct 2020 at 22:18

theone8181 said:
Why? We've never had our boiler serviced, and it's cost ~£500 in repairs over 11 years. How much is your service contract every month?

It's a gas boiler. I have a service contract primarily to get it serviced. Because it's a gas boiler. If things go wrong, they'll probably fail in a safe way. Probably. But maybe not. I don't cross my fingers with things that might kill me. I also have 3 carbon monoxide detectors. Why? Because I can't detect carbon monoxide. I doubt if I'll ever need them, but spending maybe £80 every 10 years is small price to pay in case I do.

My boiler service contract will also cover repairs and replacement, but that's not the main reason I have it. I'm not even sure how much it costs and that's not the point. I'm paying for peace of mind. Or I would be, if BG actually provided the service I'm paying for.

Angilion · 22 Oct 2020 at 22:20

Yaayuh! said:
I have just ordered up a new boiler and radiator fittings with British Gas, confirmed today in fact, for install end of November.

Sorry if I stole resources from you

My appointment was confirmed too. It didn't happen. Maybe yours will. Maybe it won't. Who can tell?

theone8181 · 23 Oct 2020 at 06:19

Angilion said:
It's a gas boiler. I have a service contract primarily to get it serviced. Because it's a gas boiler. If things go wrong, they'll probably fail in a safe way. Probably. But maybe not. I don't cross my fingers with things that might kill me. I also have 3 carbon monoxide detectors. Why? Because I can't detect carbon monoxide. I doubt if I'll ever need them, but spending maybe £80 every 10 years is small price to pay in case I do.

My boiler service contract will also cover repairs and replacement, but that's not the main reason I have it. I'm not even sure how much it costs and that's not the point. I'm paying for peace of mind. Or I would be, if BG actually provided the service I'm paying for.

I've got 2 next to it. It's a boiler from the 90s, there's not much to service on them.

bainbridge · 23 Oct 2020 at 09:05

theone8181 said:
I've got 2 next to it. It's a boiler from the 90s, there's not much to service on them.

I wonder how a gas customer would stand from an insurance perspective if the side of the house being blown off was attributed to an old faulty boiler which had no service history. Along the same lines, the house we recently bought had no electrical certificate and to complete the sale we had the choice of waiting for it to be done or moving in. It was during lockdown and we moved in. I wonder how we'd stand if a faulty wire caused a fire?

Werewolf · 23 Oct 2020 at 10:23

theone8181 said:
I've got 2 next to it. It's a boiler from the 90s, there's not much to service on them.

Well apart from the burner to ensure it's operating properly and burning cleanly, the gas valve to ensure it's shutting off correctly, and the seals around the unit to ensure it's not leaking fumes into the room...

I'm old enough to remember the public service warnings about faulty appliances that weren't burning cleaning, for some reason they rang a bell with me (maybe because at the time my bedroom had a boiler in it).

The fact the boiler is now at least 20 years old would be worrying me rather a lot given it's lack of service.

Yaayuh! · 23 Oct 2020 at 10:28

Angilion said:
My appointment was confirmed too. It didn't happen. Maybe yours will. Maybe it won't. Who can tell?

Oh for sure, probably will change, I just wondered whether or not they prioritise sales over services. But they're probably two separate groups.

413x · 23 Oct 2020 at 13:29

Hades said:
Increasingly, companies use twitter, etc to tell customers about things but delete your tweet if you actually send them one. Look at some major companies and it's all one-way traffic now.

Have seen this too on Facebook.

There's one particular company who are constantly 'we are sorry to say we are closing down please but are products at this discount before its too late'
Month after month is the same ad

Every single comment is 'oh no so sorry to hear this, I'm going to buy 2'

I commented against it and it was rapidly removed.
Should be like amazon. Bad reviews stay

BUDFORCE · 23 Oct 2020 at 14:50

Just stop using them. If everyone stops using them they won't exist.

I don't pay BT, British Gas, Virgin media or any of these useless companies a penny.

No sympathy.

gary996 · 23 Oct 2020 at 17:18

wouldn't touch British Gas with a barge pole. Low life (female bits)

Stu999 · 23 Oct 2020 at 18:14

bainbridge said:
Oh well, maybe it's not so bad being in an all electric house after all.

Just the cost!

operator400 · 24 Oct 2020 at 13:54

There was a headline in one of the papers about a month ago which basically said. People are getting sick and tired of companies/organizations
blaming their poor service on covid.

Has anyone got a phone number at BG where you can actually speak to a human being. I set up a service plan back in Dec 2019 for my brother who
has Alzheimers. Feb and April appointments cancelled. Just got a letter saying they are ready to do his first service and to contact them to arrange a date.
The app doesn't work, the number on the letter is just an automated number. At the end of it says your boiler isn't due for a service for more than three
months we will be in touch goodbye.

Dirk Diggler · 24 Oct 2020 at 14:21

Angilion said:
I'm paying for this. Paying every month. I'm now wondering why.

Cancel the direct debit. The annual service is just a tax to pay for a future repair that you would actually need.

LoadsaMoney · 24 Oct 2020 at 17:55

Serviced my old boiler yesterday.

She still wasn't happy.

Pawnless Endgame · 24 Oct 2020 at 18:16

Just adding to this thread - if you have an old boiler, hang onto it! My boiler came with my 1992 house, and I've been told not to change it just for the sake of wanting a new boiler. This is because they don't make them like they used to. This advice has come to me from several people now.