british gas work good or bad

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All comments aside it would be good for a report back from the op on the outcome of this.
 
Doodlebug said:
By the way System3, I'm more than happy to deal with any customer complaints, as long as I'm given a work request number, that's all I need. I would never ask for customer details as that is confidential, but any job can be traced via a work request number.
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Again that's admirable that you want to both help and defend your employer, but you shouldn't have to do this. So far your companies complaint procedure has failed dismally having taken 2 weeks for a return visit, that has still not rectified the problem. It's as if the OP's problem with his condensate was not deemed to be important enough.

Let me describe my customer service. I had surgery last Tuesday and was back at my customers bathroom installation the next day. That's the main difference between a small business and a large conglomerate like British Gas, the smaller business will always "push the boat out" to make sure his bread and butter business doesn't suffer through a bad reputation while BG being the size that they are can in many cases swallow up complaints without much damage to either their workflow or their reputation.

Unfortunately in the case of any business, it's easier to get a bad reputation than a good one. People love gossip and bad news creates that. That is why most small businesses cannot afford such a terrible customer service as the OP has received.
 
Hahahahaha, this thread was bound to happen. I'm just gutted I've missed the best bits!

Bet the OP is glad he paid well over the odds now. What a rip.
 
ok so i see peeps defending bg and blaming subbies.
so a customer had an issue with bg and contacted me to service their fire.i attended but was unable to complete service as closure plate was fixed behind a marble panel(serviced by bg for ten years prior to me)so was unable to inspect catchment space,she got her son to remove marble so as i could proceed with service and to my horror i found the chimney full up to the letter box opening,cleaned it all out complete with 6 dead birds,took photos and notified heard nothing.wonder why?1 mistake maybe 10 i dont think so.
 
wards said:
ok so i see peeps defending bg and blaming subbies.
so a customer had an issue with bg and contacted me to service their fire.i attended but was unable to complete service as closure plate was fixed behind a marble panel(serviced by bg for ten years prior to me)so was unable to inspect catchment space,she got her son to remove marble so as i could proceed with service and to my horror i found the chimney full up to the letter box opening,cleaned it all out complete with 6 dead birds,took photos and notified heard nothing.wonder why?1 mistake maybe 10 i dont think so.
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I had this a few weeks ago. "Serviced" for 6 years by BG, I took it out to find a full catchment space and the customer said the fire had never been removed during the previous services.
 
By the way not here to argue,just point out that they are not the A TEAM they make out to be.
 
system3 said:
Again that's admirable that you want to both help and defend your employer, but you shouldn't have to do this. So far your companies complaint procedure has failed dismally having taken 2 weeks for a return visit, that has still not rectified the problem. It's as if the OP's problem with his condensate was not deemed to be important enough.

Let me describe my customer service. I had surgery last Tuesday and was back at my customers bathroom installation the next day. That's the main difference between a small business and a large conglomerate like British Gas, the smaller business will always "push the boat out" to make sure his bread and butter business doesn't suffer through a bad reputation while BG being the size that they are can in many cases swallow up complaints without much damage to either their workflow or their reputation.

Unfortunately in the case of any business, it's easier to get a bad reputation than a good one. People love gossip and bad news creates that. That is why most small businesses cannot afford such a terrible customer service as the OP has received.
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You see this is what I'm struggling with here, I really can't see how this customer has been ignored, it just doesn't make sense, British Gas are now working harder than ever to retain customers and grow the bushiness, in the past the company have been losing as many customers as they have been gaining so as you can imagine with there being a lot more big boys out there trying to muscle in and take customers from British Gas (you've seen and heard the adverts), the company have had a wake up call, that they need to grow and not stand still, there's too much competition now. I would be very interested to find out more about this case as this really wouldn't be allowed to happen on my patch. I know as much as you about this case, all I can do is read the first post and make assumptions, we have no hard facts on this at present, so until we know more, I think we need to sit back and watch this space, I'm still waiting for a pm so I can help with this. Work request number is all I need.
 
TBServices said:
I had this a few weeks ago. "Serviced" for 6 years by BG, I took it out to find a full catchment space and the customer said the fire had never been removed during the previous services.
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Im not going to lie, I've been behind some British Gas engineers and found the same, they get a very angry phone call from me. I'm tired of saying this now but, I will say it again "I know British Gas aren't perfect" (forget the A-Team adverts) but show me a company the size of British Gas that doesn't make mistakes.
 
wards said:
By the way not here to argue,just point out that they are not the A TEAM they make out to be.
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I agree but only from my experiences however that accounts for only a small percentage of the work that bg carries out.....

P.s im drunk:):beer:

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
 
Customer has not been ignored, but taking 2 weeks as the OP has said to return to fix a mistake that should not have happened in the first place is NOT good customer service.

For the sake of the OP, I also hope that the situation gets resolved.....and soon.
 
villa_tom said:
I learnt very quickly not to listen to a word a customer says. I had a woman say to me once, that fires never been taken out like tht before.

'Yes it has dear, I did it last year' I pulled the leisure plate off and sure enough as always I'd signed the back.

I think customers will always say what you want to hear. It's a psychology thing I think, they want you to feel good so you do a good job.
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Actually, she asked me why I had taken it out, I think she thought I didn't know what I was doing at first lol.

The catchment space was literally a foot deep with soot and twigs.

I can tell from your posts (Tom and Doodle) that you obviously take your work seriously and don't cut corners, but its pretty obvious that many of your colleagues do.
 
system3 said:
Customer has not been ignored, but taking 2 weeks as the OP has said to return to fix a mistake that should not have happened in the first place is NOT good customer service.

For the sake of the OP, I also hope that the situation gets resolved.....and soon.
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I'd have been round the following day, regardless of the day/time it was. That's the difference.
 
Doodlebug said:
Very true, I've lost count how many times a customer has said "what's that?" (Pointing at my u-gauge) I've never seen anyone do this before, the engineer last year never did this" and sure enough, when I look at who was there last, yes it was me and I know for sure that I did use my u-gauge last year as I know 100% that I do the job right every time.
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rule 1 : never trust a customer
rule 2 : always trust your sense
rule 3 : get paid and move along
 
525 views and over 80 replies. Wow. I'm not great b.g fan. They stitched me up years ago and never forgiven. However. If this thread hadn't contained b.g in the opening post it would've received half a dozen usual responses of "get the installer back". End of. There's not much more to say really.
 
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I'm sure you are a very good and conscientious employee Stephen but you know yourself what some of your colleagues and even management are like. Some ITL's and SM's only get the promotion because they are better at brown nosing and paperwork that they ever were at their job.
Keep fighting the fight mate.
 
TBServices said:
Actually, she asked me why I had taken it out, I think she thought I didn't know what I was doing at first lol.

The catchment space was literally a foot deep with soot and twigs.

I can tell from your posts (Tom and Doodle) that you obviously take your work seriously and don't cut corners, but its pretty obvious that many of your colleagues do.
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We could say that about any firm though TB. BG get put in the spotlight as they are one of the big players in all of this and their mistakes get blown up massively compared to other firms.
Weve all seen bad install/services/repairs by all sorts of firms big and small, but only the BG ones seem to get reported on.
 
villa_tom said:
We could say that about any firm though TB. BG get put in the spotlight as they are one of the big players in all of this and their mistakes get blown up massively compared to other firms.
Weve all seen bad install/services/repairs by all sorts of firms big and small, but only the BG ones seem to get reported on.
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Yes, and its because they charge over the odds and market themselves as "the gas board".

If joe bloggs does a bad job, it's cos he's crap/lazy, and he'll get a bad rep and eventually fold. If British gas do a bad job, their rep doesn't take a dent, and they can happily continue charging over the odds and offering bad advice on power flushes.

I genuinely believe workers like yourself and doodlebug are in the minority within BG.
 
So in the TV commercial where all those engineers have big heads on wee bodies get fired out at light speed in their vans must have ended up in the Milky Way instead of the OP's house.
 
system3 said:
So in the TV commercial where all those engineers have big heads on wee bodies get fired out at light speed in their vans must have ended up in the Milky Way instead of the OP's house.
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I auditioned for the advert, was so funny, shame I didn't get the part. lol
 
villa_tom said:
I heard it was a random draw
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When I went to the extraordinary event for the new uniform, me and a couple of other lads auditioned for it just for fun, didn't expect to get the part and didn't. Lol
 
villa_tom said:
Not the minority mate, I've never met a bad BG bloke to be fair. Some don't really talk to me as I'm a contractor but that's up to them. But when I'm stuck and I need one of their lads round they have been more than helpful and showed me things that I never knew.

Bad engineers don't last two minutes at BG mate, I've seen it happen. Leaks on jobs are par for the course really. I've done jobs and he to go back ask haven't tightened up a nut fully. Ok there or full blown house damaging leaks, but I've done it, I'm human, but I've been back fixed it, apologised and all is good.
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I serviced a customers boiler about 2 months ago and to reach the boiler which was up high above washing machine, I supported myself off the ladders by putting my foot on the washing machine. I got called back, customer said "washing machine hasn't worked since I left" I immediately knew I must have been to blame, apologised and told her to get a quote for repair and phone me. She phoned me next day (on my rest day) to say the washing machine needed a pcb and would cost £400, I contacted my manager who reimbursed the customer all costs. Now this is what should happen when we get it wrong, were all human and mistakes do happen, if anyone on here states they have never cocked up, then I applaud them.
 
Doodlebug said:
When I went to the extraordinary event for the new uniform, me and a couple of other lads auditioned for it just for fun, didn't expect to get the part and didn't. Lol
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it was probably that wig you had on
 
just got boiler and fire service job, cos cust has to ring bg to come and do the work and they turn up 6 months later, so job done every 18 months not 12 so ends up paying for the years that no service done
nice :yes:
 
Yeah, they make quality products. Not cheap though.

Our last washing machine lasted a week out of the warranty period and the engineer who came round to fix it, basically said, it's not economically worth repairing it. Can't remember what was wrong, but I had tried repairing it myself to no avail. So binned it, and bought another one from Curries. This one is now a month or two outside of the warranty period. So I'll probably need a new one soon. First one was Indesit, new one is Whirlpool I think. £320 if memory serves me right. I don't use the thing, not my domain.
 
Doodlebug said:
I serviced a customers boiler about 2 months ago and to reach the boiler which was up high above washing machine, I supported myself off the ladders by putting my foot on the washing machine. I got called back, customer said "washing machine hasn't worked since I left" I immediately knew I must have been to blame, apologised and told her to get a quote for repair and phone me. She phoned me next day (on my rest day) to say the washing machine needed a pcb and would cost £400, I contacted my manager who reimbursed the customer all costs. Now this is what should happen when we get it wrong, were all human and mistakes do happen, if anyone on here states they have never cocked up, then I applaud them.
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You were stupidly gullible on this occasion.
 
Dannypipe said:
Yeah, they make quality products. Not cheap though.

Our last washing machine lasted a week out of the warranty period and the engineer who came round to fix it, basically said, it's not economically worth repairing it. Can't remember what was wrong, but I had tried repairing it myself to no avail. So binned it, and bought another one from Curries. This one is now a month or two outside of the warranty period. So I'll probably need a new one soon. First one was Indesit, new one is Whirlpool I think. £320 if memory serves me right. I don't use the thing, not my domain.
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At least they can be bought for a days wage these days. My mum said their first washer cost almost a months wages, but lasted 25 years lol.
 
I remember as a lad (in the 60's ) my ma had a radiogram (a big teak wireless) that still had the price on the inside if the door. 87 guineas (£91.35) for a wireless in 1960?
 
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