This story started last September but the main part of the drama
took place in the cold of February.
We have been with British Gas Homecare for something like 15 years
and up till last September had never actually called upon them. In September, we contacted British Gas
Homecare about a long-running, but intermittent, problem with our heating. An engineer duly came out and fixed the
problem but while he was here, it started raining in the living room and dining
room. The engineer mumbled something
like "Oops, I forgot to hmm hmm!" as he ran up stairs to the boiler
cupboard. He did something in there and
left with damage to much of our living room and dining room ceilings.
We contacted British Gas about compensation and were told that it
could have been a coincidence and the offered us £50 good-faith, no-liability
compensation. After some humming and
hawing, we accepted that this was all we were going to get, took it and
redecorated the living room and dining room; completing this at the beginning
of November.
Not much more than three months later, we wondered why we had
bothered. On Sunday the 19th of
February, the radiator's and pipes leading to them seemed to be making a lot of
noise. Greg bled the radiators and there
was "an unlimited supply of air" coming out of them. Eventually, they seemed to be OK but, that
night, there was a distinct lack of hot water and then we were awakened by a
howl from the boiler. We called British
Gas and were told to turn of the system
and that an engineer was booked for Monday afternoon.
Monday was our first morning without heat and hot water. The Engineer arrived and said that there was
air in the system and the pressure was low.
He re-pressurised the system and left.
The radiator system is closed and, under normal circumstances, air
should never get into the system. If it
does, there must be a reason. On Monday
evening, substantial amounts of water started coming through the dining room
ceiling and a leak was discovered in the pipe leading to an upstairs bedroom
radiator. We logged another call. This was not treated as an emergency
although we had a leak that would have taken down our dining room ceiling if
left unattended. Instead, we were again
told to switch the system off and the engineer was booked for between 12 and 6
on Tuesday.
Despite being turned off, the water was still leaking, so we called
a plumber who drained the system and repaired the leak leaving us out of pocket
for this work.
Tuesday was our second morning without heat and hot water and the
start of Penny's new job. Stuart had
arranged to arrive home from work for 12.
However, the engineer called at 11:20 am. The only person in the house at that point
was a friend of our son who did not really know the situation. The engineer looked at the leaky radiator,
saw that it was fixed and left. He did
not check that the heating was working and did not leave a service report.
We did not realise that the engineer had been until 6pm came and we
called to chase him up at which point we found out he had been earlier. We requested another engineer and were
promised one by 10pm.
At 10pm we made another call as no engineer had arrived. We were told that we could not get an
engineer that night as only emergency calls would be made. We were offered a new engineer for between 12
and 6 on Wednesday. We asked to speak to
a manager and, eventually, were promised that a manager would call us back
within half an hour.
At 11pm we made another call and were told that no managers would be
available at this time of night. We were
offered another engineer to call between 8 and 1 on Wednesday and we
reluctantly agreed to this.
Wednesday was the third morning without heating and hot water and
another day off work for Stuart. No
engineer arrived during the promised time.
At 2pm, a manager called from Scottish Gas about the previous
incident that caused us damage last September.
I explained what was happening and she promised to chase it up.
At 4.15 I made another call to chase up the engineer and was told
that we were a priority and that one would be here within an hour and a half.
At 5.15 we called again. The
telephone operator tried to get the manager from earlier that day for me but
she was not logged in. He called me
straight back and tried to get another manager.
All the Managers were in a meeting.
At 5:30 he said that he would get a manager to call back within an
hour. He also said that there was no
record of a booking being made for an engineer for today. Directly contradicting the person on the call
at 4:15 who said we were on a priority and someone would be here within an hour
and a half.
We Called again at 18:15 and were told that a named manager would
call within the next 5-10 minutes and gave her extension number.
At 18.30 we explained that we had been being promised return calls
all day that had not materialised. We
were given the telephonist's number so
that if the manager did not call, we could call her again.
At 7.00pm, with the house now unheated for 4 days in below zero
temperatures we were told that they would not send out an engineer tonight as
it was not an emergency. I had gone out
at this time so Penny used her initiative.
She suggested that if they did not have an engineer out that night, she
would cut her wrists. She was promised a
call back in five minutes.
This duly arrived and at 7.30 an engineer arrived and had fixed the
problem by 8.15pm.
The next day we were offered £300 compensation as the first engineer
to call should have spotted the leak. We
are considering this offer.