British Gas Homecare

[Ian Stirling]

[Mary Fisher]

That's a very interesting reply.

I wonder what others think?

Mary

[Brian G]

This has not been my experience, other than when I had to replace my boiler some years ago because spares were no longer available (beginning of December) - and then most of that waiting time was because BG were trying their hardest to get the spares. Once it became obvious that this was not possible, a new boiler was ordered and fitted within a few days by them (fitting took half a day with free TRV's thrown in).

What is one persons priority is not anothers, take it from me.

With regards to 'priority', *most* houses have alternative heating in them, either a separate gas or electric fire or coal fires that can be used in emergencies - so it is rare that a house is left entirely without heating - and in those cases, then it is fairly easy to hire some temporary fires. With regards to hot water, many houses have electric immersion heaters in the hot water cylinder which can be used instead of gas - combi's and their derivatives excepted of course! Otherwise boil a kettle!

Even with a 'full complement' of engineers, some people will have to wait for the engineer to call. It is also unreasonable to expect any company to carry every spare part for every type of boiler that is fitted in houses - although BG is trying to remedy this as far as the can by using their 'own brand' or replacement parts where possible.

What would be interesting would be the details here with regards to the type of fault and the customers expectations rather than that bland statement.

I cannot speak for others, but in my own experience, I have never experienced a 'poor service' - problems yes with late arrivals (but they have always telephoned to let me know), spare parts and the odd 'sods law' fault that defies several attempts to fix (but they have always succeeded). But on every occasion, the service has been good, the engineers polite, the work done to a high standard and I have always been kept informed.

As a matter of interest, I worked within a housing repairs environment from

1971 to 2001 (when I took early retirement) and in that time, I have lost count of the number of 'stroppy' customers who caused many of the 'poor service' problems themselves - being out when the workman has called and point-blank denying this, failing to listen to what they have been told, agreeing to a repair procedure and then changing their minds, physically threatening the workman, and myself as their foreman for no other reason than they are violent, ( the have been shouted at such a close range that I have had their spit all over my glasses) and I'm 6 foot tall and built like the proverbial brick crapper - the list is endless.

See comments elsewhere!

By the way, I am not a British Gas sycophant, I just have an empathy with them having spent many years in a housing maintenance environment between

1964 and 2001 and I have a vast experience of the different types of customer reactions - with many of the complainers shouting long and loud for absolutely nothing, and using the 'attack is the best method of defence' syndrome to hide the fact that either they had caused the problems or, they were hoping to kick up enough of a stink so that they would be paid a bit of 'compo' just to get rid of them.

When I read stuff like this report, I tend to think it's like these 'builders from hell' programs on the TV - you only see/hear about the minority of bad experiences, you are *never* shown the majority of good builders at work - that's not newsworthy enough is it?

Brian G

[Andy Hall]

Oh, yes.....

I keep a box of cardboard for writing stiff letters.

[Andy Hall]

Comfort factor for SWMBO.

She felt differently after that episode.

[John Rumm]

and... ?

[Weatherlawyer]

Now's the time to change to one of the cheaper suppliers then. Or leave it a bit and malke sure they did a decent job. If the engineer was anything like the Onstream clowns they sent to me the OP was very very lucky.

Then I moved to Power Gen who just put up their prices more than BG just did. But at least I just got =A320 credit from them for failing to turn up and replace the meter. I never heard a thing from BG when they failed to turn up a few times.

Some you win. Some you pays yer money.

[Dave]

This house, built circa 1977 has no chimney, no immersion heater, electric fire, portable gas fire, or any other way of heating water, or ourselves.

I have invested in a small generator, so as to power up the gas central heating and the TV to keep SWTSMBO happy if the electric goes down.

For a bath? How big would the kettle be?

Dave

[Andy Hall]

They should check into that before accepting a contract.

Which of course provide more margin.

>

[Brian G]

I understand your point of view here, but after dealing with many people who have lost all their possessions through fire or flood and have not had insurance, it is my opinion that it is far better to pay the premiums 'just in case' rather have no cover at all - and most of these disasters have come right-out-of-the-blue as they say.

There was a time when my thoughts were perhaps along your lines, until I landed a job that involved dealing with the after affects of these personal disasters, and I have been to far too many where the 'survivors' have been left with nothing but the clothes they stood in (very often only their night clothes in the middle of winter) and who didn't have insurance or the finacial means to recover these items. That changed my opinion, and I would advise any householder to take out at least a bare minimum of cover - myself, I pay for the best cover that I can afford and hope that I never have to use it, but it's there if the unthinkable happens.

BTW you spend far less on property insurance over your lifetime than it would cost to rebuild your life, property and renew your possessions if disaster strikes (acts of god, wars and civil unrest excepted).

Just the ramblings of a weary old maintenance foreman :-)

Brian G

[Guy King]

The message from Dave contains these words:

I've done that before now - though for the kids. You don't need it all to be boiling you know - unless the kids have been /really/ naughty. About a dozen kettlefulls will provide enough for two smalls to splash about in for twenty minutes or so.

[Brian G]

Hello Dave,

"For a bath? How big would the kettle be?" That's simple, it is not essential to bathe unless there are specific medical reasons to do so, and then once that is known, your repair becomes the 'priority' over all others - so the others must wait unfortunately!

Hard but true in the event of 'having to prioritise'.

That should set the ball rolling somewhat, but it's a fact.

Brian G

[Geoff Beale]

I'm certainly not one who makes a business of making claims but in my experience insurance companies take a dim view of paying out on ANY claim!

They have only ever settled when forced by a court or the Insurance Ombudsman. Their trading policy appears to be to never make a reasonable offer, and always to delay settlement for as long as possible in the hope you will give up on your claim.

Perhaps I have just been unlucky.

ps Joe - sorry about the email - pressed the wrong button!

-- Geoff Beale Extract digit to email

[Brian G]

It's impractical to have an engineer 'hanging on a coat peg' just waiting for a call.

Sods law being what it is, you will have far too many in the quite periods and not enough in the very busy periods (and that is my personal experience of emergency maintenace works).

At the end of the day lets face the fact that BG is a private company and they have to make a profit and it makes no difference to the quality of the repair.

Brian G

[Andy Hall]

There shouldn't be prioritisation. At the very worst, it should be first come, first served, but in reality there should be adequate staffing to be able to attend either the day after the fault is reported or the day after that.

[Guy King]

The message from "Brian G" contains these words:

My parents in law had the mains feed to the cold tank in the loft come apart (not burst, actually fall off[1]) while they were away over Christmas. They were still moving in and all the ceilings were down, all the new carpets which hadn't even been walked on yet (apart from the fitters) were trashed etc.

There's times when you're glad you've got insurance.

Where it doesn't make sense is to cover things that should be dealt with by maintenance in the first place - or lowish value things like washing machines.

[Andy Hall]

Yes it is, and you don't need to do it.

BG has a large enough national business that it should be perfectly possible for them to move staff around if need be.

Secondly, they should have subcontract arrangements with local firms to fill any shortfall.

I have also run service businesses and what one does not do is to set the customer's expectation at one level and deliver on another, contract or no contract. BG are guilty of doing exactly that with their advertising and are trading on past glories.

The real problem is that they don't have their service products properly worked out. THey should have different levels of service with different response and time to fix commitments at different price points.

If I really thought that BG could provide a good service along these lines of guaranteed response then I might be willing to pay a good premium for it. However they don't and I don't want to pay a relatively high price for a service that might happen in two days time or next week.

Unfortunately it does. They buy the cheapest and crappiest pumps and valves as one example. It's a false economy because they end up having to make more return calls.

[Brian G]

Hello Andy,

It's not always possible to have sufficient staff for that and then 'prioritisation' is the only way.

Back in 1985 if a remember rightly, during one of the coldest winters I've ever known, the local authority that I was working for had some 20 -25 plumbers and apprentices and around 120 staff in total. During a one week period when the thaw set in after a fairly long freeze, we had something like 2500 burst pipes (in many houses of there were multiple leaks, the record I believe was something like 20 ) and it was impossible for the plumbers to attend them all (we were working 24 hour days then) and as a consequence, we had to use all trades just to get to the properties and turn the water, and in many cases, the electricity off and leave the tenants without water etc for a number of days along with houses in various states of flooding.

Believe it or not, it was only after the army had offered to lend us some of their plumbers and electricians after that week, that we were able to get things quickly back under control - and even then, some of the houses didn't get fully repaired until a month or so later.

In cases like that, prioritisation was all that we could do, and even then, that wasn't enough for some of our worst tempered tenants - and these usually were the ones with only relatively minor leaks that could be safely left with buckets under them - and sod the tenants who had every room flooded, complete with dropped ceilings.

Brian G

[<me9]

At the price they charge, they should be round within 24 hours, regardless of the age/infirmity of the customer, and fix it within 48 hours. The able bodied customers still pay the same for the privelige, so should get the same cover. If not they should get adeqiuate compensation to get an alternative remedy.

I wouldn't touch BG with a barge pole, from past experience (more leaks than a collander in days of yore). The current system has cost me about £200 in repairs in about 15 years -- about a years premium to BG.

[Brian G]

Andy,

In my experience that is NOT the case, but I suppose there has to be exceptions wherever you go.

With regards to waiting - I have NEVER had to wait more than a day for the initial visit and often they have called on the day that I made the call - my record is making the call at around 8.00am and the engineer banging on my front door at 12.30pm 'demanding a cuppa first'. :-)

But I tell the call centre what the symptoms of the fault are and whether it is an emergency (to me) requiring urgent attention, or it can be left until an engineer can fit it in.

I must admit though that over the years (as part of my job), I have built up a fairly good working relationship with most of the gas engineers in my area and in fact, I'm on first name terms with several of them as they have called so many times in the past - not so often now since my old Potterton Neataheat boiler was changed a few years ago - then they were calling almost twice a month in the depths of winter to repair it.

With regards to the quality of the materials they use, it is very, very rare for them to have to return because a new part has failed - my last pump lasted over ten years and that was only changed as part of a powerflush and airing cupboard re-pipe that I had done (powerflush paid for, airing cupboard re-pipe free).

Brian G