British Gas make a complete hash. (British Gas)

Member Name: The_Patriarch

Product:	British Gas
Date:	23/11/05 (2662 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None that I can think of . . . oh . . they have the word "British" in their name

Disadvantages: Customer Service (lack of), Prices, Attitude . . . oh everything really

The name "British Gas" always had that comfortable ,solid feel to it. To me it always invoked a sense of something reliable, but probably expensive. Quality service that wouldn't let you down. A company you could trust. Ok, probably a bit pricey, but you knew they'd come up trumps for you. In a way, something akin to the AA (the so called "4th Emergency Service). Best engineers, best service, best of British.. and all that.

Hey, I can already hear you sniggering ….

Now I admit I wasn't a customer of BG, as an adult, so my impressions of them were not first hand. These were just memories of living with the parents and what I envisaged when I heard the name. It just had that good wholesome feel to it. When you needed an emergency Gas engineer, you looked in the phone book for British Gas - not some local 'cowboy' Oh how naive of me...

Please note. I was talking in the past tense. Anyway, that was then, and this is now.

The truth, unfortunately, is completely different.

**** So who are British Gas? ****

To aid in our understanding we need a quick history trip and a summary of the information available from their website. If you don't give a flying toss about the history, then skip this section and go straight to "The Honest Truth".


***** Under the 1948 Act, which came into effect in May 1949, more than 1000 privately owned and municipal gas companies were vested into twelve area gas boards - each an autonomous body with its own chairman and board structure. The area boards became known simply as "the gas board", a term which some people still use when referring to British Gas.

In 1966 the decision was taken to convert Britain to natural gas. During a ten-year national conversion programme every appliance in the country was converted from town gas to run on natural gas. Visits were made to 13 millions homes and factories and 34 million individual appliances were converted.

The 1972 Gas Act paved the way for greater centralisation with the creation of the British Gas Corporation. Taking effect in 1973, the 12 old gas boards became regions, responsible for a particular geographical area. New names were given to reflect their new status. For example, North Eastern Gas Board became NEGAS.

The 1986 Gas Act saw the return of the gas industry to the private sector and the company's names changed to British Gas Plc. On 8th December 1986, £9 billion worth of shares were floated on stock markets around the world.

The Government then decided to open the domestic gas market to competition by 1996.

British Gas in 1996 announced plans to demerge its trading businesses and form two separate companies, which happened on 17 February 1997.

Centrica plc included:
British Gas Trading, Services, Energy Centres, Accord Energy

BG plc included:
Transco (British Gas's transportation and storage business), British Gas International, Exploration and Production (excluding North and South Morecambe gas fields), Research & Technology and Properties.

Since demerger the range of products offered by British Gas in Great Britain has been extended to include home security, plumbing, and kitchen appliance cover.

In 1998, British Gas started supplying its first electricity customers as the market opened to competition.

In September 2000, British Gas entered another new market with the launch of its telecommunications service.

In June 2001 British Gas extended its electrical servicing business across Britain with the acquisition of National Homecare. British Gas Services now provides cover for heating and kitchen appliances. *****


**** The Honest Truth ****

So, as you can see, British Gas have got their mucky little fingers in lots of pies! British Gas now compete with a whole host of other utilities providers some of whom are good and some are complete crap. Most, if not all, now offer dual fuel so you no longer have a separate Gas and Electric company. Many will even provide your phone service as well! As you may have read in the history bit, British Gas now do electricity, telephones, plumbing and Kitchen Appliance cover. Is there no end to their talents?


In my opinion, the whole industry needs sorting out by Energy Watch, or whatever they are called. How many of these companies have salesmen cold calling at your front door? All of them. And bloody irritating it is too! I don't even bother being polite with them anymore and just tell them to p**s off!

Anyway, I digress. This is about British Gas. My opinion is based on three experiences.

Cold Calling Salesmen
Heating and Plumbing "Homecare" cover plans
Kitchen Appliance installation.

But not on the actual supply of Gas or Electricity to my property (heaven forbid)!


**** Door to door Sales ****

I was surprised to note over the last few months that BG were "cold calling". It was not what I expected from the company. The first time, I saw the British Gas identity card and stupidly thought it was someone checking the meter. I had a pleasant enough conversation with the BG Cold caller, but it took ages to get it into his thick skull that I was actually quite happy with my current provider. "They're French, you know" he said, as if that should make all the difference to me. So's the bloody Arsenal team I support!

A few months later and a different caller. He also explained to me how SWEB had now been re-branded EDF and that they were "filthy French". I was much better sticking with a British company, he said. In addition, he steadfastly refused to believe that I wanted to pay "higher charges" for my fuel. He was very difficult to remove from my doorstep - much like dog sh*t on my shoe. I found him rude and over persistent.

Yes, I'm naïve. British Gas are as bad as the rest when it comes to the hard sell. I had thought it was only Npower that were hard to dislodge from the doorstep.

**** Household Cover Plans. British Gas Homecare ****

After some recent problems with our boiler, I began to wonder if it might not be a bad idea to take out some sort of cover for the boiler and heating. I'd had plenty of junk mail in the past and remembered that one had been from British Gas. I phoned them up and got straight through to a very pleasant lady. She agreed to send me a quotation in the post. Wow. It was quick. Came next day. However it seemed expensive! My quote from them for their Homecare plan was £279 for the year! A bit much for me, but I put it in the "In Tray" to think about.

Meanwhile, my Dad has asked me to act as Agent for a property he rents out. He has a Homecare agreement with British Gas on this property. They paid their annual visit and found a small problem with the flue. I was asked if I wanted them to quote to fix it. Hang on a minute…. It's a Homecare plan, right? It covers parts and labour, right? Er .. Yes …but NOT the flue!
In addition, even though they've just been and done their annual "service", it doesn't count for a Landlords Certificate. No, you have to pay someone else to come and do that.

So, I'm asking myself. What do they actually do for all the money you pay on a Homecare plan? Not much, it seems.

Never mind, I'm still mulling over that quotation…..


**** Gas appliance installation ****

Disaster! It's a Saturday morning. We could smell Gas in the Kitchen and we had to call out Transco. Quick as a flash (well half hour actually, but that is good) they sent a very nice man, who pinpointed our problem to the gas hob. Thank God it wasn't the boiler! Now, unfortunately, the Gas isolation switch for the hob is behind the cooker. Our "very nice man" isn't quite so good anymore because he's not allowed to pull out the cooker (if only I'd known how easy it was). He has to cap our gas at the meter. That means we have no hob, but also no heating either!

Get the phone book out. This is an emergency. I know … we'll call British Gas!

Well, no problems getting straight through to another nice lady on the phone. I explain the situation and, yes it's an emergency as we need the heating for our baby, etc, etc. Great she can book us an engineer! Mind you it'll be £132! Phew, but "OK" says I. Oh… but he won't get to you until Monday.

Well, Okay, Monday will do. We can get by with no gas hob and I've got other heaters. Anyway, I'd rather have British Gas than some local cowboy. That's it then, all booked in for Monday, between 8am and 1pm. Of course it means the Better Half has to stay in, but it's only the morning …… isn't it?

Don't you just wish that life was that simple?
Guess what? No engineer! Hmm … No phone call either! We made three phone calls that afternoon (at 1.15pm, 2.30pm and 4.30pm) and each time were told that the Planners would contact us and to "bear with it".
Guess what? Yes, you guessed it …. No phone call .. At all .. From anyone. And, of course, no engineer.
Finally, at 6pm, I made another call to be told that as it was after 6pm, no engineer would be coming out now. Instead we were given a two hour waiting slot the next day.
Guess what? They never turned up the next day either!

I won't go into all the phone calls and emails we made. The unanswered complaints or the levels of frustration we experienced. In the end I had a local CORGI registered guy re-connect the Gas on the Tuesday, I bought a new gas hob and had this fitted by a different local CORGI registered guy on the Thursday. Total cost (less the new hob) of less than £100.

All I can say is that British gas provided an awful and inept service.

Remember that Homecare quotation sitting in my In tray? Well, we ran out of toilet paper one day ……..

The moral of the story, my friends: AVOID BRITISH GAS.

Thanks for reading.

Summary: BG are expensive and lack quality Customer Service