To think that British Gas Homecare policy is a fraudulent scheme ?

[ThinkingtheUnthinkable]

Repeatedly cancelled appointments (mostly with no notice). People book annual leave time off work to wait in only to find it wasted or they turn down a shift to be in for an engineer who cancels last minute so they're out of pocket 'cos they could have worked that shift after all.

If an engineer eventually turns up after waiting over 2 months (caused by 2 arranged but cancelled appointment during that time).

Repairs that don't fix the problem so you have to wait another umpteen weeks with no heating or hot water before someone else comes and has another try.

Service staff who "don't do repairs" 'cos they're not trained for that apparently, so they find a problem during their service visit (which isn't even annual now so more problems can build up causing more breakdowns) and leave you having to wait for a repair engineer who may or may not actually bring a needed part with them.

Online chat help staff who promise a manager will ring you back but of course the managers NEVER ring back, so it's all lies.

Being told that because of excess demand at this time of year (coupled no doubt with Gas staffing issues) you can arrange your own repair by a certified heating engineer and British Gas Homecare will refund the cost but then it turns out they won't, so it's all lies.

Being told that customers must respect/understand that British Gas Homecare has to give priority to the more vulnerable but then seeing online that people's 80 year old parents still have to wait weeks for engineer visits and they too get cancelled so it can be months for them in an unheated house/no hot water. Besides that, they're running a business charging all homecare customers on the same basis, it's not like it's the NHS.

They're making millions by ripping their homecare customers off.

Please can some one suggest a reliable alternative service provider as I'm done being a British Gas Homecare policy customer.

Funnily enough when I tweeted them, suddenly people showed up who could fix the problem

Not Baxi. I can’t tell you how bloody useless they have been. Absolutely shocking. Cancelled an ‘all day any time’ appointment without telling me and I’m self-employed so had turned away a full day of work to be at home for the entire day. Plus another dozen things which made me furious.

To the poster who mentioned Homeserve...they are even worse....the reviews on them are absolutely shocking.

@myusernamewastakenbyme

To the poster who mentioned Homeserve...they are even worse....the reviews on them are absolutely shocking.

That was me-we must be lucky, as we've never had any problems with them.

We were happy with British Gas Homecare (though they did persuade us to buy a new boiler so there wasn’t lots of risk for them) until Covid when they didn’t turn up for services even when booked.

Went right through the complaints process after waiting in for appointments rearranged on the day or when they just didn’t turn up despite saying in the app they were en route. No joy at all and so many broken promises!

We sold our house and couldn’t get them to come to service the boiler despite numerous promises and a five times cancelled appointment, and the purchasers reasonably wanting to see the yearly service documented! On moving day they swore blind they’d come out, knowing it was the last chance, and my husband waited at our old house all day without success. You can imagine how glad we were and how helpful that was….🤬 Luckily there was a gap between moving out and completion and they finally came then after another slew of complaints and phone calls. Then were really surprised that we didn’t sign up for the new house!

The alternatives are often no better. My friend is on day 6 of no heating whilst she gets passed between plumbers, insurance etc

BG are notoriously rubbish in every way. I used to have regular dealings with them when I worked in Housing, (responsible for void periods between tenants).
Their customer service is abominable.
Bills go missing all the time (back when most were paper) and BG sell them on to Credit Agencies before you can blink and the first you know is a letter from the debt collectors.
Payments also go missing, they actually have a "missing payments department" these are so frequent.

We also dealt with other suppliers, depending on who the previous tenant had been with and NONE were as bad to deal with as BG.

I'm another in the self-insure camp. These plans are around £15-25 per month and don't cover everything. Our central heating is about 20 years old. The local guy I use used to be the area engineer for the manufacturer. He's been out twice in the last 2 years, first for a diverter valve that cost me about £90 and again for a replacement PCB that cost around £160 (including labour but plus VAT).

Apart from that it costs around £90 for service.

If I'd paid for cover I'd have been up to £3,000 over 10 years. That's getting on for the cost of a new boiler so I'd rather the bulk of it was in my bank account in case it's needed.

@Saucery

Plus covid has made the job difficult, staffing and parts issues are a major problem. Yes, my local gas engineer company are very overstretched. It can take 48 hrs for them to get someone out rather than their usual same day or 24 hours. Still faster than BG.

Don't expect a combi boiler to be without faults or last more than 10yrs.
20 years and counting here. Supplied and fitted by local gas engineer after recommendation from friends and family.
Serviced by local company and faults repaired quickly and efficiently. Diaphragms seem to be the main thing that wears out, but not excessively.
Still better than BG.

Your experience isn't the industry norm, I know, my business is in this area. A 20 yr combi will be a rare beast. Often boilers will have more than one fault. I had a call on Xmas day, the heat exchanger was leaking/split. Parts plus labor the repair cost is £700. British gas is maintaining or attempting to maintain millions of Plumbing and heating systems. With a multitude of variables. The combination of covid and their employment policies has made their business model very, very difficult. I think BG is dealing with a backlog and trying to prioritize.

Pointless comparing BG to bob sniff Plumbing and heating, it's not the same scale of business.

Oh nonwe were due to take this out after a bad experience with Home care - don't think l will bother

British gas is maintaining or attempting to maintain millions of Plumbing and heating systems. With a multitude of variables.

Well they don't appear to be trying very hard! The service was awful prior to covid - how do you excuse the lying and bullying from engineers?

Pointless comparing BG to bob sniff Plumbing and heating, it's not the same scale of business.

You're right. Bob would most likely be far more reliable!

If BG can't deliver they shouldn't be offering the service. Much of the problems stem from their 'fire and re-hire' calamity in early 2021.

I have taken auto renewal off my policy and won't be proceeding with them. Two services cancelled in two years, both booked months ahead.

I'm with PinkSparkly, it is Bob going forward here from now on, especially as I have had to bring in Bob to do the last two services on my boiler!

They're awful !! Didnt turn up for services, then when my boiler broke they wouldnt cover as it hadnt had its service which was overdue because THEY DIDNT TURN UP! 3 times I had tried to get the service. They then told me that the reason they didnt show up was because my service was booked in February and they're too busy in winter months to do services

Thermostat didnt work so wasnt getting the message to the boiler to switch the heating on they repaired, it broke again 6 weeks later. Turns out it was the wifi hub that was broke as well as the thermostat and replaced. The thermostat they gave was horrible, cheap and nasty.

Funnily enough, when we employed BG to put central heating in our house to the tune of several thousands (it was a previous warm air system) they couldn't have been more helpful and had the engineers at our door within days to do the job which took a week.

After arguing with them over the "no servce" debacle I cancelled and am now with Homeserve who couldn't be more helpful and quick!!

I’ll be sticking with Bob too, as the British Gas endorsed list we were given contained 1 on holiday, 2 rang out, 1 retired and 1 dead (particular thanks for the last one as I had to speak to his widow asking if he could come and look at my boiler). The one we did get hold of was a seedy, unpleasant man who reckoned we needed new radiators throughout the house as well as a new boiler. The ‘Bob’ we found said that was a load of absolute bollocks and those radiators are also still going strong.

We use Safegas