Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be furious it British Gas?

20 replies

create · 29/12/2010 16:58

I received a letter on Christmas Eve stating that "For safety reasons we need to inspect your gas meter...we've not been able to access your meter ...and have not heard from you despite leaving a number of cards..."

It went on to day someone would call today 29/12 and that I should either call to re-arrange or make sure someone is in or "we would have no option but to apply to a Warrant issuer for authority to enter your property...."

I have two major issues with this. First I have never received any of the "number of cards" and second no-one has turned up today!

So I've kept DC's cooped up indoors all day for no reason at all and will have to do it again after I've had the heated conversation with British Gas and they give me another date.

AIBU?

OP posts:
JetLi · 29/12/2010 17:52

No YANBU - go into print as well - write to the daft sods. Do you know where your gas meter is? Can you read it yourself & pass on the reading?
Give them all holy hell about not turning up today thoughy, the useless feckers Angry

JamieLeeCurtis · 29/12/2010 17:54

Ironic since you can't seem to get them in the house when the heating's broken.

JamieLeeCurtis · 29/12/2010 17:55

Their customer service is crapola, IME. Watch out for them trying to sell you a service contract when you phone up to complain

trixie123 · 29/12/2010 17:56

oh god - they are utterly utterly useless. As soon as this issue is sorted, change suppliers. We had endless issues with them - taking 7 visits to fix a boiler - taking 18 months to sort out a closing bill when we moved etc etc. My sincere sympathies.

sixpercenttruejedi · 29/12/2010 17:57

YANBU, what did they say when you phoned?

TheCrackFox · 29/12/2010 18:04

British Gas has to have the worst customer service skills on the planet (perhaps, joint first with BT).

Have you thought about changing suppliers, although, to be fair the competition isn't much better.

KatieMiddleton · 29/12/2010 18:08

They are shit. I won't have anything to do with them even if they are cheapest because the aggrivation, frustration and general crapness isn't worth it.

fairtradefloozy · 29/12/2010 18:56

I had this in a previous property so I phoned to say WTF (nicely) because it did get to the stage where I had the warrant officer .. becuase they dropped the warning notice through the door while I was away for 3 weeks ... They asked me to prove that I didnt have the cards. I asked them to tell me when they tried to "acccess my property" ... all the times they tried were during the day and I work FT. Anyway, they put a new meter in (the safety thing) and then my gas bill went up. Funny that? Hate BG. Passionately.

And when I took them the watchdog thingy I won my case and they had to give me compensation. Mwhah ha ha ha

Mytholmroyd · 29/12/2010 20:35

YANBU!!

We have also had endless trouble with British Gas - we had to go with them when we bought the house as the supply was cut off and they wouldnt reconnect it until we paid a £200 "bond" which we would get back at the end of the first year - although we had been good customers with bills to prove it for years previously. We swapped after the year but have been hassled by them ever since (12 years!).

They are constantly ringing us up and have "taken over" our supply twice since without us signing anything (as Jamie Lee said) - I just got a letter from our existing supplier saying sorry we were leaving! All we did was have a short conversation along the lines of "no we do not want to swap to you" and I have had to get the Ombudsman on the case.

I am just rude to them now (they ring about once a week Angry). Even if they were cheaper than our current supplier (they are not) I wouldnt swap back!

Give them hell for me!

Nevereatyellowsnow · 29/12/2010 21:41

Yanbu, british gas are shit! Ime if you phone to make a complaint they are useless but I actually had a nice phone call from a very apologetic man from the complaints department when I sent in a written complaint and he finally got the issue resolved. I've switched supplier since having major issues with them (looong story) and will never use them again!

AlmightyCitrus · 30/12/2010 00:56

I had a letter like that a few years ago. Phoned the gas/electricity supplier and they came and checked the meters. About a week later I had 2 coppers and 2 gas/electric men hammering on the door mid afternoon with a court issued warrant to enter my home and inspect my meters. BANG BANG BANG "Open up this is the police, we have a warrant to enter your property"
One of the gas/electric men was the guy who had checked our meters just days before. I was so upset by it all and never got an apology.

YANBU!

Original poster
create · 30/12/2010 18:59

Marvellous, so it looks like there's a good chance the next thing I hear will be the police at my door Shock

I've written to Siemens who are "working on behalf of Bristish Gas" with a copy to Bristish Gas customer services, as I don't think I'll manage a conversation with them without losing my temper...

OP posts:
lifeinCrimbo · 30/12/2010 22:06

Hmm my last supplier was so appalingly awful that I only communicated with them through the complaints page of their website. Like Nevereat I found this worked very well and things got resolved. Also, their 'customer services' phoneno was some sort of premium rate line and I was NOT going to pay them more for their incompetence!

Mytholmroyd · 31/12/2010 18:34

That's awful almightycitrus Shock

donnie · 31/12/2010 18:39

no, you are not being unreasonable. British Gasare a bunch of slimy incompetent wankers. They are so useless and shite they make a room full of lobotomised baboons seem intelligent. One of the best days of my life was when I told them very loudly to F**K off and that I was taking my business elsewhere. Twas a moment to savour, yes indeed.

Honeydragon · 31/12/2010 18:47

They flooded my house
They said it couldve happened regardless.
Not if they'd fitted the correct part it wouldn't
They finely advised they would have compensated us buy as we changed suppliers it was no longer their issue to in investigate - despite putting holes in two ceilings and leaving me homeless for a month and sleeping on the floor of my kitchen with dc for another month

Twats

nymphadora · 31/12/2010 18:51

They kept billing dh £100 a month for gas & electricity for an empty house. Not answering calls or letters. I eventually got hold of the account & switched it. We now pay £80 & live there Grin

flootshoot · 31/12/2010 19:58

YANBU.

We have a homecare contract with them and they phoned after our last service for 'feedback' - which was a thinly veiled guise to try and get me to upgrade to a more expensive deal. The guy on the phone would simply not give me a straight answer about how much this would cost even when I asked him straight out 'is this a free upgrade or will it cost me more?'.

Needless to say we were upgraded regardless and in the end DH phoned them and gave them hell for not listening to me.

IAmReallyFabNow · 31/12/2010 20:00

I waited in all day for them with a 2 year old who was bouncing off the walls. At 5.50 my husband rang. They said they had been and no one was in. No one can come to my door without me seeing them. Turned out they had finished the previous job at 5.50 and didn't want to start another one Angry.

flootshoot · 31/12/2010 20:01

Oh, and my neighbour spent 18 months trying to get them off his back about unpaid bills - endless phone calls, ;etters etc. and theys till sent him bailiffs threats etc. He was with Southern Gas Hmm.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread