a crap and low service (British Gas Network)

Member Name: pontecaille

Product:	British Gas Network
Date:	18/06/02 (1121 review reads)
Rating:

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>>>This work is more like a complaint rather than a review on the company but I am sure you will appreciate the bother we were in for a while.<<<

I am not really the kind of person to complain when something goes wrong but when paying for a service I expect quality and customer care in return. With British Gas or Scottish Gas whatever they want to be called like, I have been so much messed around that I decided they needed to be reminded to treat customers as individuals and not just like another number to add to their client list. And it is also a very good way for me to get rid of all that accumulated frustration through those long weeks. I would have never thought to encounter problems with B. Gas as I used them in the past and have been more or less satisfied. The only downfall was the price really so far anyway…

*To start with I have to say we recently moved into our new home (well about 10 weeks ago) as I wrote it in my profile.
When you are about to move you have to make sure you know the supplier of the new property so that you can make the transfer. I phoned 10 days before the move the gas and electricity company suppliers of the new property in order to get us connected.
The answer was very short: phone back on the moving day with meter details for the gas.
For the electricity I had to phone another number and go through several options before getting someone to help me. When choosing the right options I found myself disconnected 3 times. The 4th time was finally the one but I got put on hold. Not getting any words back after 5 long minutes I hung up. I called again but couldn’t get through so I rang my partner at work and asked him to try. He managed to get to know we had to clear the outstanding balance if any at all before thinking of having an account with them. (Apparently it is part of the policy to clear off other’s debts problems to get a service…)
What a start I tho
ught but fair enough if it is what we have to do.
*I had to call the electricity department again to see when an engineer will come and remove the prepayment meter but once again the answer was not there to make me feel happy. We have to open an account with the company (taking about two weeks) and then we have to phone back to make arrangements. OK we’ll do that. It is getting quite confusing isn’t it?
On the moving day I phoned them up and gave details of the reading as per requested to a young man who put them into the system.
He said he would send a welcoming pack with our account number and also a Direct Debit form so that we can arrange a suitable monthly payment. We have been waiting 2 weeks for those papers to come. Of course we phoned several times in between first because we were sent mail to the address with through before ringing back.
He also advised to get in touch with the meter board which I did but also said my partner has to phone back on the 15th to arrange a credit check. He said he would take two weeks to get an account up running this is why Stuart has to phone on the 15th.
Stuart phoned around that date and gave few details but also gave readings because the computer didn’t seem to have record of any at all since we moved in.

Few days after we received a letter addressed to the occupier and not to our name asking us to get in touch with them, as they don’t hold any records for this address.
Stuart managed to talk to one staff that said our account was a bit in a mess and didn’t understand why. After a long while on the phone Stuart gave again meter readings details and explained the matter. This kind lady said she would get things sorted out by phoning the electricity meter department and get someone to come over to change the box. If she comes to be unsuccessful she assured us she would phone two days after and let us know of the situation. We are still waiting to hear from
her. (That is a lot of waiting don’t you think?)

*So here we go again trying to go through the touchtone options and reach a department who can finally tell us what is going on. When finally through someone we were told we had a provisional account for gas but for electricity we can expect to be on power cards for another 28 days which is to me totally unconceivable. We were told again to phone the electricity and speak to someone who will tell us when an engineer will come. We left 3 messages on the automated answering machine due to a busy line and guess what, no feed back from the board.

*I wrote a complaint letter to the head manager in Glasgow and still wait for a positive answer. Stuart also managed to talk on the phone to the line manager who apologized for all the fuss but they had a clerical mistake at their end they couldn’t sort out so we were the black sheep in the story. That still doesn’t explain the incompetence of the whole service. Everybody was saying, it is fine, we’ll get something out of it and nothing happened. Only promises.

*To finish off with my moans, we got a £5 cheque to pay towards our high phone bill from British Gas but we are still waiting to get an account with them. So I started the necessary steps to switch to another supplier.
And if everything goes fine we should be finished with them very soon, hopefully…

I was expecting so much more from them but I have to say the service is not worth the money you are paying. I wish they would train people in a more competent way and give them the tools they need to practice their work.
And finally I wish they wouldn’t take us customers for stupid folks.

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