British Gas Home Wreckers (British Gas HomeCare)

Member Name: sanguina

Product:	British Gas HomeCare
Date:	05/08/05 (2445 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: terrible customer service , unqualified, dangerous engineers

My flatmate and I have had nothing but trouble from British Gas "Home Care".
Our landlord has a British Gas Homecare agreement, and it seems like a complete waste of money.
Since living here, we have had to call them out 4 times so far, each time we have had more and more trouble actually getting them to send an engineer.
Firstly, our boiler broke down, it was about 6pm and the middle of winter, we could get no heating, gas for cooker etc. Our landlord phoned, and we were told they would not come out. Eventually, when the engineer finally turned up (around 11pm) he gave us abuse and refused to fix appliance, as he said that our landlord had lied and told him that we had a "young newborn baby with severe asthma" in the house. We did not approve of him lying, but lets face it, if it takes that serious circumstances for them to consider coming out, that is pretty ridiculous.
There were another 2 occassions at least when the boiler was supposed to be fixed, on one occassion, it broke down again literally 15 mins after the engineer left, and they refused to come back out.

The most serious incident to date, and the main reason why I would not recommend British Gas Homecare insurance, occurred around 2 weeks ago or more...
We were having a small problem with the timer on our washing machine, which gradually became worse, until none of the clothes were being spun. The landlord contacted homecare.
Eventually they sent an engineer, who on the first visit had a very bad attitude and was completely uninterested in fixing the appliance and / or hearing what was wrong with it. He said (without even looking at machine) that he required to get a part, and would come back on the Friday. (This was on a Monday), so another week with broken machine.
On the Friday, the same engineer returned, and confirmed that it was a problem witht he timer, which could be easily fixed, but for some reason he still insisted on taking apart the washing machine and fiddling around inside it for almost 2HOURS!!! I suspect they must get paid by how many hours they spend on a job.
He then went on to say that again he needed a part for the machine and would return the following Monday. We were now seriousely unhappy with the service provided, but looked forward to the machine being fixed the following week.
My flatmate asked the engineer if we would be able to use the machine in the meantime, to which he replied "Yes it is totally safe to use it, it will be just the same as before." That night we used the washing machine and within 5 mins of it being switched on, it went on fire! It's just lucky we were here at the time, or it could have been very serious./ The fire brigade were called out and we were all very shaken and distressed at the thought of what did happen, and what could have happened.

That night, we had many phone calls with both British Gas, and our landlord. British gas assured both us and the landlord that there would be a "full investigation" done into the engineer. They also stated that we would be provided with a replacement washing machine on Sunday. We were told that someone would phone at around 11am to tell us when the machine would be delivered.

On Sunday we had no phone call, and nobody appeared, so at 4.30pm we decided to phone them. The customer service representative on the phone was so rude and unhelpful that I actually had to hang up on him. Shortly afterwards we were phoned back by the manager (probably fearing a severe complaint would be made) who told us that the cause of the fire would have to be investigated before we could get a replacement, and that it may still be up to the landlord to pay the full cost, even if their engineer WAS responsible!
I told the manager that there was no way we could wait for weeks / months until investigations were done, and that we needed a replacement machine straight away. The manager assured us that it would all be completely resolved by the Monday (the following day.)

On the Monday I was luckily off work, and waited in again all day, only to receive no phone call or engineers visit. When my flatmate returned home we again had to waste time phoning both them and the landlord. They gave us and the landlord completely different information. The sitution eventually got so confused that in the end the landlord was phoning us to try to find out what was happening.

We were told that an engineer would come out to investigate the washing machine on the Thursday and that we were not to "move or touch" the machine. Even when we explained to them that the machine was taking up the entire floor space of our very small kitchen, we were advised that if we touched or moved it, then we would not be able to get a replacement. When we pointed out that the fire brigade had actually wanted to put the machine outside, we had asked them to leave it in (at our own risk) to save it from being destroyed any more, they were completely unimpressed, and simply said thatw e better not "tamper with the machine" or create false evidence.

Whent he engineer arrived on the Thursday to investigate the machine, he actually thought that he was sent to fix an appliance. He had no idea of what had already went on and actually stated "They dont tell me anything". He said that he was not qualified to open up a washing machine and that he would phone his colleague, who was able to look at it. We assumed that he was phoning his colleague to come round at that time, however after his phone call, the engineer said "He will be round tomorrow". He did not even bother to ask if anyone would be here. Luckily, my flatmate was off work that day and would be able to let him in.
This was now a whole week after the incident, and still nothing had been done,w e had been greeted with nothing but bad attitudes.

When the other engineer came out the next day (at 8am instead of after 12 as arranged), he said that it did not look like it had been on fire at all. We got very angry and insisted that it had, and that he could easily check with the fire brigade records. He said that in order to get a replacement, he would have to say that we didn't know what the fire brigade had done to it, and stste to his boss that the fire brigade had poured water on it. (Which they had not) In this way, British Gas could absolve themselves of all blame, by reporting thatthe fire had been caused by brushes overheating or something, and the actual damage being done by the fire brigade.

We were eventually informed that we would get a replacement machine, however it is now a week later and we still do not have it.
At first, the landlord was told that the full cost of the machine, delivery etc would be paid by them , then they said he would only get £125 towards it, and they never bothered to contact us.
Originally we were told that the new machine would be delivered on the Wednesday, and then the Friday between 8am and 12. Well it is now nearly 3pm and the machine is still not here. Both my flatmate and I have to work tomorrow and are now going to be faced with a long walk accross town to get our washing done yet again.

Summary: I would never advise anyone to get this insurance.