British Gas

Extremely disappointed with my recent Boiler repair experience. I have been really happy with my BG homecare (3 properties) and energy supply.

I had the boiler serviced by BG engineer in October 2022 and it`s been all good. However the boiler stopped heating the water recently and on 20 July i called out for a repair. Engineer attended on 24 July, fiddled a bit cleaning the heat exchange, marked the job as completed and sent an invoice. Well, next day -no hot water again. I called BG and explained the problem, raised a complain and they booked a revisit. However it`s the same engineer- A******y and he didn't bother going to the property but called the resident instead, saying the system needs a power flush. And of course it`s not covered by the homecare cover but A******y suggests we contract him for the service privately. And there we go again! I called British gas, raised a complaint and insisted i have a SECOND opinion, by a DIFFERENT engineer as i believe the problem is in the boiler itself, the radiators are working perfectly. Appointment booked. It`s been 10 days without hot water and i am excited to receive a message from BG that the engineer is on his way. But...nobody turns up. Instead a visit, i get a call from the infamous A******y who insists he knows what best for my boiler and that a power flush of £1100 will fix my boiler problem. He insists he`s sent me a quote which i have never received. A******y seems oblivious to my argument that all radiators are heating perfectly and it`s just the hot water to the shower and the sink that`s been affected. Instead A******y insists I take his number and contact him privately instead! According him, everytime I book repair it increases my premium ( Total nonsense), so best to keep BG out of the loop and deal with the engineers privately!
The audacity of it it`s shocking!
It seems to me that British gas contracts engineers who use the opportunity to sell their chargeable services to homecare holders and neglect the actual investigation and repair. All they want to do is to sell their lifetime guarantee powerflush though you might actually need a new boiler. When i said that to A******y who was very quick to suggest a quote for a new boiler. I was stunned and asked " What i should get then? Power flush or a new boiler". His answer was -"Whatever you like".?
And i am supposed to trust this people with my boiler and heating system?
So i have another visit booked for Monday and I wouldn't be surprised if A******y gives me a call in the morning to tell me I should trust him instead, buy his private service and stop making fuss with British gas:-)

It is sad that British Gas are solely focused on profit and oblivious to their customers` needs and lower quality of service they provide.

Date of experience: 04 August 2023

Good evening
Please treat this as a formal complaint, which I will also make through your online channels and by telephone when your call centre opens at 9am. I am putting it here too so people considering taking out your services or renewing them can be aware of your poor service levels and the obvious contempt you have for your customers and, to a degree your staff, as you do not equip them with what is needed to respond to customer queries. I will detail the background to the complaint and the steps I would like you to take to put it right. I have been a long standing homecare customer for well over a decade and have always thought it provided a good service and peace of mind when there is a problem. Your service is a very poor imitation of what it once was, and on today's experience, pathetic and not fit for purpose and the £300 a year charge.
Our boiler broke on Tuesday evening and we have no means of heating or hot water. I logged on to the system and booked the first available appointment of Thursday between 8am to 6pm. My partner has taken a day off work to wait for the engineer to arrive. He is self employed and lost income for the day. It got to late afternoon and we were expecting to be told the engineer would be with us on the next call. I called the call centre to see where we were in the queue. You were unable to provide any information - please consider why you have a call centre if you cannot deal with basic queries such as the arrival time of an engineer. I asked what I should do if the engineer did not arrive as expected. I was assured this was unlikely to be the case but if this did happen I would be notified and a prompt resolution offered. At 5.45 approximately, I received a call at work which went to voice mail. In the call you offered no apology and advised an engineer has been rescheduled for Sunday. Today is Thursday, tomorrow is Friday - why are we not at the top of the queue for a rescheduled appointment. On the performance of today, there is no point me having boiler cover - I pay for this so any problem can be resolved quickly. I would have been better advised to not pay for boiler cover and call a local engineer.
This is what I would like you to do to resolve this complaint.
1. You have failed to fulfill your appointment commitment. I should not have to wait until Sunday, you should be offering an appointment as soon as possible, in this case Friday morning.
2. Details of how to claim for a days lost earnings.
I await your response. I hope some of your senior leadership team read this review and reflect on how your service levels have deteriorated. This used to be an exemplar service and is now shockingly bad on todays experience.
Date of experience: 05 January 2023

Very unprofessional services. Would never recommend British gas to anyone. They handled my switch very poorly. At the time of sales, I was told i would get a smart meter within 2 weeks. However, no one contacted me and upon chasing them I was given appointment with the engineer and was rescheduled 3 times after waiting through the appointment window. Upon 4th appointment I was told by the engineer that british gas doesn't even have smart meters that are compatible with storage.
In short, they're highly unprofessional and don't keep their words. They're all about hogging customers but don't care about their customers at all