Emergency plumbing, been on hold for almost 40 mins.

[StillNoWater]

Anyone know how to contact british gas engineers?
Our pipes burst yesterday meaning we needed to turn off the water. We called homecare who said they would send someone out within 24 hours.
We hadnt heard anything at the 24 hr point and called again. Apparently they had sent someone out at 3.30am! Dh did have a missed call at that point but was obviously asleep and missed it. We had no idea we had to wait up until that time or we would have! So it was rebooked.
They were meant to turn up before midnight.
No contact so far.
Just after 11pm we called for an update, as hadnt heard anything. Yes its vefire midnight but thought if he is running late or whatever.
I have been on hold to the emergency plumbing number (the only one still.takong calls) for 42 minutes now.
We have no toilet ffs.
Anyone know how we can contact british gas?? Or do I wait up? Or assume they arent coming and get some sleep before work tomorrow, risking miss another engineer??

Well its after midnight now. No call and no engineer.
Still on hold. 51 mins.

Why not put your phone on loud and go to sleep? They ring when on they're way. Maybe sleep downstairs on the sofa if you're worried about missing them.

Emergency plumbers do come out at any hour though! Wouldn't be much good if they only came 9-5!

Ignore most of this if you know it and have tried it already, I am sure you already have - I had a burst pipe this week and my OH was away and I panicked a bit - but didn't know some of this stuff though. My burst pipe was on an outside tap and it was jetting everywhere. I managed to turn off at the stopcock (thank god I had heard talk of where it was). My first ignorance (bless me) was that the toilets have at least one flush in them (whilst yelling that no child can use the toilet). My second ignorance was that there is an isolator near lots of plumbing so you can turn off the water to "just that thing" I have attached a photo, and I simply needed to get a screwdriver to it to turn it, but I really did not know it existed. It does, of course, depend on the quality of your plumbing, if there are isolators, and where the leak is. My third ignorance was that faced with bad toilets, I turned the stopcock back on, and filled buckets from the leak so I could then "flush" the toilet manually by pouring it down (this does, of course work, but (in retrospect) my OH said, why didn't you just fill the cistern with them and flush it like normal). I then called an emergency plumber, who came out within 2 hours and just turned the isolator (that I did not know existed) and got charged £85 much to eye rolling from my now back OH, I suspect if it had been an inside pipe they would have had to have done more. I also had bottles of water in the car (an expensive flush maybe !), plant pots full of water and neighbours I could have appealed to for water. Did I do any of these things?, no I didn't, I just panicked. We've never trusted homecare or bought it again when they let us down spectacularly over a very cold winter, citing "busyness". Good luck x

obviously you currently don't know where your main water shut off valve is but you really should tag it attach a wrench to it if need be for next time.
i'd be calling a plumber not gas but you must know your contacts somewhat.
toilet: wearing gloves empty the bowl yourself and place the contents into a double large plastic bag (large black). once your bowl is empty you can place the large bag into the toilet bowl itself like a liner. put the seat down and use the black bag as a toilet until the water is back up and running.
another alternative if you have snow or ice is to melt some (it take a lot of snow to melt enough to fill the back of the toilet tank) but you could flush it that way as well, or go out and buy some water.
i'm in canada and when conditions are concerning for the pipes to freeze we leave the hot water tap running slightly. running water doesn't freeze, the hot tap fills from the cold and keeps more of the system from freezing up.
based on the way the wind blows you can go looking for the frozen spot (you can see frost often on the copper pipes) the part that squirting isn't the part frozen it will near and warm it up gently with a hair blow dryer.
good luck

Call finally got answered at about quarter past midnight. They had apparently made a note the water was off and someone had to come in the morning with the parts to fix it, so the engineer we were waiting for was never actually coming! How they knew what parts they will need without a site visit, I have no idea. The emergency guy was apparently only ever to turn the water off, not fix it. Something they hadnt ever told us.
So, still no water, and they will turn up today sometime before 1pm.

Thank you for the tips above. We dont have an isolated valve for this part, hence all the water being off. I did look for one but it goes into the roof of the outhouse and is all enclosed.
Big bags deployed. Snow is an excellent idea! It has also made me think of the water butt in the garden! <idiot>
I had gone and bought 30litres of water after work so we have had that.
At least I got some sleep!

good luck moving forward, hopefully not to expensive a repair. -25C where i am today. pipes fine.

So, the guy didnt turn up!
We got a call from dynorod to confirm our appointment, all good.
Didnt turn up.
Called and chased dynorod said BG had cancelled.
Called BG. They couldn't see why, but rebooked.
Called DR, they said we had been assigned to George.
George has still not turned up.
On the phone to BG now, apparently there is a one to two hour call waiting time.
Joy.

I suspect we will have another emergency guy who will only be able to turn off the water...which is obviously ready turned off two days ago.

So three days of non water and counting....

Pray for George!

Okay Prayers for George happening!

Been on hold 59 minutes now so hopefully half way through the queue.
Also contacted BG on twitter. After half an hour they have responded saying the job is still in place for tonight. I have messaged back asking if it is repair or water turn off. If it is just to turn the water off, that is already off, then there is no point and they need to resign.

Over an hour 10 minutes and someone is checking what George is going to do or where he is. Waiting with anticipation!

George is apparently aware of the job and should be out by midnight. He is also aware we have no water so there shall be no tap turning, which is good.
So, we shall continue waiting.

Hope everything goes ok. We contacted British Gas last night as toilet not flushing properly. They booked us in for today between 8am and 6pm with Dynorod. Waited all day, no one turned up. Rang Dynorod, "oh, we are not coming today. Too busy with vulnerable customers." Fair enough, but they didn't bother to let us know. I rang BG and complained. They apologised and said Dynorod won't be able to get to us until new year. They will only send someone if the toilet packs up completely. Not sure why we are bothering with Homecare. Good luck.