Utterly, utterly terrible service (British Gas HomeCare)

Member Name: Paul_Martin

Product:	British Gas HomeCare
Date:	03/01/08 (537 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: £1000 wasted. 2 weeks without heating/hot water.

We have a "homecare 200" (boiler/radiators) contract. We bought this years ago because of the promise that most cases are seen the same day, the remainder the next day.

Boiler failed (no heating/hot water) in the early hours of Dec 22nd. Rang Homecare at 7.30am to be told earliest appointment was Dec 28th. We were then rung back to be told engineer instead coming later that day. Engineer did not turn up.

We were rung in the afternoon to be told engineer was not coming on December 22nd, but would come the morning of December 24th.

We were left a phone message in the evening to be told engineer was not coming on December 22nd, but would come on January 3rd.

We rang up to find out whether engineer was coming on 24th or 3rd; no record of the booking on the 24th. Waited until January 3rd. Engineer did not arrive - phone call at 5.35 to confirm this. Now booked for all day January 4th. Not optimistic that this one will eventually arrive.

We've had this scheme for 4 years - cost approx £1000, I think, over that period. A new boiler would've cost £1500 and presumably would not have involved weeks without hot water. Any of a bunch of local companies would've come out and fixed it in a couple of days for a few hundred quid.

UPDATE - I forgot to add that I tried to use British Gas' online complaint webform thing to make a complaint when it turned out we would have to wait until Jan 3rd, and twice it returned a server error when I submitted the form!

Summary: Once this is resolved I will never, ever give British Gas another penny.