Inappropriate contact from British Gas engineer?!!

[PandaEyed13]

Bit of a weird one!

Has anyone had a gas/electric engineer respond to a call out at their property - and then had the engineer call and text their personal mobile number weeks after the work?!

Had a problem with my gas meter at my house last month and British Gas sent multiple engineers on varying dates to try and fix the issue, 4 engineers in total on 4 separate dates over the past few weeks, the issue got fixed and resolved last week, job done, lovely stuff!

Over this past weekend though I had 2 missed calls from a mobile phone number I didn't recognise. I didn't answer because it's just my personal philosophy not to answer to unfamiliar numbers, I assumed they were cold calls and forgot about it.

Yesterday morning though, I got 2 more calls from this number. Then a text - "Hi there B, (not my real name) it's 'Dan' (not his real name) from British Gas, call me back..'

Erm...that's weird right?
So when I cast my mind back, 'Dan' was engineer number 2 from visit number 2 about 3 weeks ago!

I can remember him being very friendly, really helpful - to the point of being almost above and beyond. He didn't cross any boundaries on the day. He was a teeny tiny bit vibey, like the absolute smidgen of a flirt, but not in a way that made me uncomfortable, he was just treating me a bit 'damsel in distressy,' which I didnt think much of at the time, I just wanted the work done! He even offered to call my DH for me at his work and explain what work he was doing at the house so I didn't have to bother trying to suss out the jargon to relay back to him. I said no thanks, but me being married became known information!

Fast forward 3 weeks and he's called my personal mobile number from his 4 times and sent a text asking me to call him. This is weird, yes? Boundary crossing? Call-out engineers never do follow up calls right? None of the other 3 engineers who came to my house have contacted me! I called my mum right after and DH on his work break and both freaked out, like "what if he's a nutter, he knows where you live!" etc etc.

My mum advised to reply to his text saying "no thanks, I won't be calling as the work has been completed at our property now, but thanks for your help on the day" and then to block his number if he replies to that or calls again. So I sent that text this morning and no reply as of yet. DH wants his number to call him though and ask what the F he wants! I spoke to British Gas this morning and they said it's not commonplace for call-out engineers to make contact with residents of properties they have attended or to make follow up calls and do I want to start an investigation. I said I didn't know because I haven't heard anything else since I sent my "thanks but no thanks" message a few hours ago, so they said call back if I get anything else.

I don't want to get anyone in trouble if it's all innocent, or antagonise anyone if it's not!

And DH is chomping at the bit for me to pass his number on so he can ring him, which I'm also reluctant to do?

Ideas, opinions? Anyone else had the 'friendly engineer' hit them up? I tried to Google whether engineers do this and there's absolutely nothing, so I'm thinking - no, they don't! Even if he is just following up on the day, it's still inappropriate and boundary crossing right? How he got my mobile num, I don't even know, he's a call-out engineer not a call centre agent with account access!

Didn't know where else to post this so went with AIBU, although I don't think I am to be freaked out!

A man once offered to buy me a drink which was nice, but I didn't want to spend any time talking to him because I didn't fancy him. But I didn't want to be rude either, so I said: "Thanks, but I'm in a round with my friends".

At which point he said: "You fancy yourself don't you? But you're too ugly to rape."

I thought: "That escalated quickly." I also thought: "What a good job I am in a public place with my friends."

Some people don't take rejection very well even when it's politely delivered and not even aimed at them. I guess that is the reason for some of the responses on this thread.

Couldn't have put it better myself

This thread is insane, but does help answer why so many men get away with being so shit: because some women stomp all over the women who call men out for their shitness. To those women having a go at people calling out creepy men - raise your standards, or at least leave the rest of us and our higher standards alone.

It’s an account of the situation. These ‘drama’ accusations are really weird. Men don’t get accused of of it.

Seems like a few men on here alright though.

Their shitness?

It's commonplace for engineers in various industries to make follow up calls given that customer feedback is so paramount these days, they're appraised on it and it's part of continuous improvement. He might not have wanted to be calling but it's his job.

Would this thread exist if the engineer was a woman?

It's surely normal to answer your phone or otherwise determine the reason for the calls before assuming you're being "hit on"?

It's commonplace for engineers in various industries to make follow up calls given that customer feedback is so paramount these days, they're appraised on it and it's part of continuous improvement. He might not have wanted to be calling but it's his job.

@MaryMcCarthy what rot. It isn't. Particularly in the case of British Gas. I've had a contract with them for 30 years. What happens is the engineer turns up, looks at the boiler and checks the flue outside and asks to see the radiators in each room. Last time he said my boiler was getting a bit old and I should consider another one and gave me a rough estimate and referred me to British Gas.

Then they fill in a form about what they have done. No British Gas engineer has ever offered to phone my hubby to explain because I am not stupid and there is The Form.

No British Gas engineer has ever called me back after a visit. I would regard this as highly irregular.

BG have confirmed he shouldn’t have done it. It’s literally against their rules, and for good reason. So you’re clearly wrong about the circumstances here.

An engineer making a genuine follow-up call would be trained to follow a clearer approach, making it evident for the sake of the customer precisely why the call was being made — never, ever just a cryptic “Call me” with no explanation.

So it is very obvious this guy wasn’t legit. And equally obvious that you’re reaching interpreting selectively as an excuse to have a little jab at the op for being, what, vain or something? Does that make you feel smug in some weird, unhealthy way?

I mean fgs, no wonder women continue to struggle to assert completely reasonable boundaries against dodgy people.

I can't understand people insisting it is ok for any workman to do this. Either they are men who do this or women who are gullible.

Would this thread exist if the engineer was a woman?

Well no, because BG said he shouldn’t have called so the thread wouldn’t exist because no creepy woman would be calling the OP.

All this “oh he COULD have been calling about XYZ” is also crap. If he was actually calling about a lost spanner he’d leave a VM, not crap himself when the OP’s husband phones him and oh yeah HIS EMPLOYER WOULD CONFIRM that was ok

Would this thread exist if the engineer was a woman?

@MaryMcCarthy No. For nearly 60 years I have been a woman. For nearly 40 years I have done a job where I have visited hundreds of people including women in their own homes. In that time there have been fewer than 10 complaints about me. None of them has been upheld.

What is your point?

You have just demonstrated my point. You need to raise your standards, or at least not try to make the rest of us lower ours.

I'd be concerned now that he has behaved inappropriately: what has made him take the decision to NOT document that he was ever at your house.

This behaviour looks almost like a criminal MO - I hope someone would join the dots at BG if there were other complaints against this engineer for contacting women he "never visited but did", because if there are, someone should be following up to check those women are ok.

So it's confirmed that this engineer was hitting on the OP?

What have British Gas said in response to the accusation?

It's not common at British Gas, as confirmed by them to OP many updates ago.
Their policy is to have customer service agents make any follow up calls.

If it was part of his job, why did he hang up on OP's H?
Then ring OP back AGAIN, after that?

If the engineer was a woman who was acting in a strange manner like this, not giving reasons for her multiple calls & texts, & hanging up on OP's H when he rang to ask what she wanted, then sure, this thread would exist. But women don't usually act in such a predatory manner, so the situation is less likely to have occurred.

Why do you need to know? The OP didn't like his behaviour and felt so troubled by it she reported it to his employer. They can take it from there - either further investigation or decide that it was a misunderstanding.

That there was no record of one of his visits, because he chose not to document it. That he should not have been making follow-up calls. That the job was closed & there was no reason for any BG rep to contact OP. That the matter would be referred & the engineer questioned about it.

Occam's Razor.
He was hitting on OP.

^ All of which has already been explained in the OP’s own updates.

God forbid you should have to bother glancing through those before blustering onto the thread though.

This is the thing. I don't think people quite get that isn't a man and a van running his own schedule. If the OP answered a feedback call and said there was still an issue, they aren't in a position to choose when to come back. And do you really think BG would ask repairers to report feedback on their own job? "She said I was great." Aye right.

It's amazing what people will do and have done on this thread to diminish what happens to women all the time.

"you're overreacting"; "You really reckon yourself"; "why did you tell your mum and your hubby? Aren't you a big girl?"; "because of you the poor guy might lose his job because he lost his spanner"; "it's your responsibility to provide incontrovertible proof like you're Miss Marple".

Why? The bloke seems a bit weird. Is that so hard to understand? Or have none of you ever been wanked on by a man on a crowded train or had your leg touched by a driving instructor who was just showing your the gears or had a colleague standing right next to you reading something on your screen while stroking his cock at the level of your head?

Or as someone I mentioned earlier who came into my house to paint the walls and kept stripping off in front of me and when I directed him to the bathroom said: "I'm not shy!" I thought I was overreacting and being silly but when I mentioned it to my husband he said: "WTF?" which made me feel even sillier. I called the painter's boss and two days later there was another painter. I have no idea whether he is working for the same company. All I care about it that I never had to be alone with him in my house with a semi.

I don't know whether the people who are scoffing are captured women or men in disguise. All I know is that I don't want creepy men near me.

I think some of them are

I dropped out of this thread for a day or so but got an email that it's still going. I'm so glad it's taken a turn for the sensible, because it went off a cliff at one point with some of the insane things I read, was called and was accused of - my fave being the comment that asked if I'd considered that the engineer was calling to tell me my husband was shagging his cousin! Yeah, I'm the fantasist!

@limitedperiodonly you took the thoughts right out of my head and put them into words, I was thinking how lucky some of these posters have been live in a world where they seemingly have never had their arse slapped by a total stranger in a supermarket or been followed home by a group of lads calling "show us your tits!" I genuinely hope it stays that way for them, I really do!

Ring him and let us know what he wants!

Anyone who doesn’t see a problem with this needs to ask their employer for data protection training, stat.

@BelindaMelinda Mayyybeee but it's a bit of a stretch, isn't it?

It's weird. He shouldn't have your personal phone number. If a follow up call was needed it should be done by BG and if he'd left a tool behind also should be followed up by BG.