Do as they ask but do not expect them to do as they say. (British Gas)

Member Name: sit2020

Product:	British Gas
Date:	26/02/02 (1969 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: see text

I have often looked at statistics and thought no that cannot be the case, one such being that moving house is one of the most stressful things we do. Well I can assure you that really is the case. It seems no matter what way you turn and try to organise, stop problems and therefore reduce stress, something will manage to add to the growing stress account. One company that really managed this being British Gas, let me explain.

We had discovered that if you sign up to British Gas for both your gas and electricity and opt to pay by direct debit the saving are substantial. So a few days prior to our move I contacted British Gas and furnished them with all the relevant details (new/old address, moving date, contact phone numbers etc). Here they started to impress me with how efficient they were, told me as the property I am moving into is a card meter (you have a card that you take to various outlets and you have money charged onto the card this then gives you credit when you place the card back into the gas meter) and they would send a card to the new address ready for when we move in.
I have tried to make this sound as easy as possible but the reality is, it takes more than one phone call and the length of time getting through all the automated questions they ask Agggghhhhhhh.

The day of the move…

After the loading, packing unloading you are very tired and stress levels are running high. We met the previous occupants who showed us where the meters were and that they had left us over £12 on the meter, we thought that nice of them. That evening the Gasman came, he read the meter took the old card reset the meter to zero and told us we should use our card. This was the start of a farcical situation, we had not received our card. He then set the meter to give us £4 of emergency credit. This being a Friday in a centrally heated house, with £4 for cooking, washing and heating. I might add at this point my partner is expecting and we have
5 children to keep warm and fed.
The best thing we could think of was eat take away meals, keep the coal fire full and find as many blankets as we could, after all it would soon be Monday.

Monday.
The first thing was check the post, no gas card. Onto the phone I go. I was quite calm when I spoke (maybe it was the cold numbing me) and I believed them when they said the card should already be with me, that they would look into it and phone me back. Wrong.

The rest of the week, to save you getting bogged down with another thousand lines, I will gave you a rough guide.

In excess of twenty phone calls,
Handed from operator to operator.

WE are so sorry,
WE do not know what has happened,
WE cannot understand it,
WE have sent your card,
WE will send you a card,
WE will get someone out to you.
We will phone you back
WE will send out someone who can give you emergency credit (can only be £4 and must be used before they can send out the man to credit £4 again).
They apologised, made excuses, even blamed previous Gas operators, they should not have told you that etc etc.

As the weekend approached we still had no card and we could not keep the house warm on emergency credit, that’s when an operator actually called one out. We went out and bought 3 calor gas heaters, these really helped as our children’s noses started to change back to pink instead of blue.

By Friday I contacted the Gas and Electricity suppliers ombudsman, the man I spoke to phoned back after having spoken to British Gas. British Gas have mentioned the compensation word to myself and to the ombudsman (time will tell on that score) but apart from spending a fortune on take away food, extra coal, phone calls and calor gas heaters, we cannot make up for the disappointment we felt, having moved into our dream home and not being able to enjoy it. I was off work that week, to try and get the unpacking done,
well most of that time was spent being given lame excuses by British Gas.

Saturday, over a week after moving into our new home, we got our gas card.
Now we are working out our options, do we take British Gas as duel suppliers, I know that this does not happen to everybody but at the moment I do not feel that I trust British Gas, so for now we will keep our options open and see if they can get things right in the coming weeks and months.

Summary: