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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Bloody British gas's stupid home care service

11 replies

iphoned · 08/05/2012 20:43

I know I'm not being unreasonable. We pay over £32 a month for their home care service, so when our boiler started playing up last week I phoned them up to send out an engineer. They gave me an appointment date for ONE week later (today).

I waited all day and phoned up at 4pm and was told the engineer would be here by 5pm. So I waited until 5.55 and phoned again and was ts someone would call me back. At 6.10pm I received a phone call from them telling me very matter of factly that the engineer had refused to come out to me and that no one would be coming to fix my boiler today!!! I basically lost it and did a bit of loud talking and how bloody ridiculous their service was. Then I phoned up and lodged a formal complaint.

I'm so pissed off. I havent had hot water for a week. I have a 4 month old and 4 year old who haven't bathed properly for the past week. And less said about me the better. How can they do this? U pay so much money a month but this is the service I get? I want compensation for paying money for a service they can't even provide properly. The bastards.

OP posts:

FatherHankTree · 08/05/2012 21:35

That's utterly crap service. It's sounds like they're ripping you off with the charges as well, I thought the Homecare 400 (supposedly best homecare deal) was around £20.

We had a problem a couple of weeks ago, where the engineer had left our boiler in an unsafe condition and they came to fix it within 2 days. Have they given you a reason why it's taken so long?

RedHelenB · 08/05/2012 21:59

Never ever had a problem with then - always been out to me asap, even on weekends. And for only £13 a month. Maybe it's worse in some areas?

UnnamedFemaleProtagonist · 08/05/2012 22:07

I've had this for years and they always come the same day or within 12 hours if its closing time. Ring back and kick off and say you have a baby.

BIWItheBold · 08/05/2012 22:09

They've always been brilliant with us - and we have a very dodgy boiler so they have been called out on very many occasions.

BellaVita · 08/05/2012 22:11

Always been good to us too - been out in the same day.

FatherHank, we have HomeCare 200 and it is more than £20 a month.

Melfish · 08/05/2012 22:15

When we lived with my parents and the boiler broke I called homecare. I said there were old age pensioners living there and BritishGas weren't that bothered, when I told them there was a baby they said they'd come later that morning. Definitely emphasise the baby is under 1.

FatherHankTree · 08/05/2012 22:31

BellaVita, we pay around £17 per month for Homecare 200; I thought the cost was standard, but maybe they set the charge dependent on where you live/what boiler you've got.

AuntieMaggie · 08/05/2012 22:37

Sounds like it might be a local problem with the engineer - call back and tell them you have a young baby.

We've always had a great service.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 08/05/2012 22:39

I'm TBH. We've had BG servicecare for years.
Once they didn't come out because the engineer had finished and gone home but he called into Head Office but they didn't phone us (breakdown in communications)
And when we had a pidgeon behind the fire they couldn't remove the fire itself so cut our gas supply off (in case I was daft enough to light it).
My DC were both under 6 yo at the time. We had no gas (it was a cold Feb) but we have an electric cooker and shower.
We were Mon-Wed with no heating, even with 2 young children. DH and I had to sleep with the DC to keep them warm at night.

Original poster

iphoned · 08/05/2012 22:50

They've told me someone will be out first thing tomorrow morning, but what I would like to know is why they didn't send anyone out the next day last week? I have Homecare 400 along with one of their extra emergency covers. I need to have a look at what we're paying for again, as DH dealt with it. I do think we are being overcharged with something we don't need..

I think they may have given me no importance because we still have our heating. But hot water is more important than heating at this time of year! I'm just thankful this didn't happen in January when DS was born...that would have been hell.

OP posts:

5Foot5 · 08/05/2012 23:45

We used to have British Gas Homecare. Then a few years ago we needed our boiler replacing and relocating so we had someone from British Gas to advise us. He said that the best place for the new boiler was in our walk in airing cupboard because it had an outside wall for the vent. He also gave us a quote for the work.

We went to another independent heating engineer who gave us a quote for exactly the same thing but he was cheaper so we went with him. When we came to renew the Homecare policy they refused us because they said that where the boiler now was was inappropriate - despite the fact that this was exactly where one of their own engineers recommended.

Maybe we had a lucky sacpe!

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