How do british gas get away with it!

[andyg0507]

Fitted a boiler for a customer late last year, alpha intec 28x, system was flushed when installed all worked perfectly, customer had garage converted into a living space so i added them another radiator, whilst i was ON holiday customer wasnt get much heat to rad, last in line of 12 rads, bg went out touched it said you need a powerflush £600, i turn up check rad luke warm, stat in hall way was set at 20, room temp 27, turned stat up rad is now that hot you cant touch, moved stat to a colder place and customer is now having to turn heating off its that hot.

But the thing thats really really wound me up is on the bg sheet he left it asks are parts availabe for boiler and hes ticked yes then scribbled it out and put no, how on earth can parts not be available for a boiler thats under 1 year old, its an utter DISCRACE:32:

 

[AWheating]

An offically they do not get commission for selling other services

its there standard responce now "you need a powerflush" and then if you dont pay them to do it and you have a fault later you get "i was not flushed correctly". like a powerflush will stop things breaking down.

ITS SHAMEFULL!

 

[mountainman]

Big Corporate Image, huge advertising budget and a brand name that Joe Public knows and trusts.
Need I say more!

 

[andyg0507]

they really should change there name to dick turpins gas services!!

 

[villa_tom]

I'd say this is more to do with the engineer who got to the job, not BG as a company. Yes they offer 'X' amount of extra services but in reality who doesn't. To me this is more of a training issue for the engineer that attended the job, not a chance to slate BG just for being BG and offering all thei services. In this instance it was wrong to offer a power flush, but that doesn't mean all BG engineers are cowboys and they are bad as a company. I've been contracting there for a few years now and I'm twice the engineer i was when I first joined.

There will always be people that don't do the job properly which ever company you look at. In my experience of BG they don't just offer power flushes left right and centre, they tend to get the job fixed and offer flushes when it's honestly needed, and I don't blame them. If I was personally covering some ones system and kept getting call outs and parts failing because of sludge then I'd definitely say have a power flush as its the main reason behind all your problems. I'd be interested to know of the bloke left a quote behind for a flush, as I'd bet my life he never as it's only a fault on one rad and BG wouldn't flush it anyway due to this minor problem. My bet is that he just wanted a quick exit and couldn't be bothered, which is the real issue here. At the end of the day people will always have their opinion of BG, some good and inevitably bad, bu from what I have seen they are a decent firm. Look at the amount of customers thy have, surley their doing something right.

 

[andyg0507]

Tom if you work for a company and dont do the job right or miss inform then which ever company you work for is going to get the flack, i do agree with you that its the engineer not the company, but the company should make sure there engineers are trained for what they are doing, and i have seen the quote first hand, if you read my op what really angered me was the fact that he had put that parts for the boiler were not available for a boiler that was less than a year old, how does that work?

I appreciate you sub to them and probably do your job right but when you have customers screaming down the phone at you because they think what british gas have said is gospel and its total rubbish it gets to you.

 

[villa_tom]

Tom if you work for a company and dont do the job right or miss inform then which ever company you work for is going to get the flack, i do agree with you that its the engineer not the company, but the company should make sure there engineers are trained for what they are doing, and i have seen the quote first hand, if you read my op what really angered me was the fact that he had put that parts for the boiler were not available for a boiler that was less than a year old, how does that work?

I appreciate you sub to them and probably do your job right but when you have customers screaming down the phone at you because they think what british gas have said is gospel and its total rubbish it gets to you.

Thats fair enough, but in my experience BG training is second to non so if an engineer is still dishing out misinformation then that's more down to morals than anything.

As far as the tick boxes go on the sheet, I've gotten it wrong plenty of times, sometimes customers have pulled me on it and I've apologised and corrected myself. It's easily done as there are loads of tick boxes and I'd say this is more human error than bad advice

 

[Backboiler]

Would you work for them Andy0507?

 

[andyg0507]

Thats fair enough, but in my experience BG training is second to non so if an engineer is still dishing out misinformation then that's more down to morals than anything.

As far as the tick boxes go on the sheet, I've gotten it wrong plenty of times, sometimes customers have pulled me on it and I've apologised and corrected myself. It's easily done as there are loads of tick boxes and I'd say this is more human error than bad advice

yes i can understand that, but as ive said in my previous post some customers think that what bg engineers say is final and its not always the case and sometimes makes us normal engineers look like numpties, im sure the training is second to none and also have friends who who work for bg and are very happy there, this certain customer explained what the engineer did on arrival which consisted of touching a radiator and then leaving a quote ect.. and im preety sure bg dont train you like that, but how are the people above meant to know that there engineers arent up to scratch or doing there job properly?? the customer will either say yes we'll have the work done or leave it and get another firm in, either way bg win.

 

[andyg0507]

Would you work for them Andy0507?

In all honesty i probably would because its secruity, but im very passionate about my job and would do it properly

 

[mountainman]

My recent experience with BG Tom is I lost a boiler change to them 2 weeks ago 'cos of their extended credit.
I fitted a shower in the same property this week and the cust had a nightmare with BG.
New WB combi fitted in three hours, powerflush quoted for but not done, Magnacleanse quoted for but not fitted.
Damaged lead to copper joint under floor which took 24 hours without water to repair because evidently the engineers (3 of em) didn't know what to do.
I was apprenticed to BG many years ago and we had our trade drummed into us, it appears to me that some of their current batch of engineers are either incompetent or so disillusioned with their lot in life that they don't give a monkeys about their customers.
Rant Over (maybe)

 

[andyg0507]

I'd say this is more to do with the engineer who got to the job, not BG as a company. Yes they offer 'X' amount of extra services but in reality who doesn't. To me this is more of a training issue for the engineer that attended the job, not a chance to slate BG just for being BG and offering all thei services. In this instance it was wrong to offer a power flush, but that doesn't mean all BG engineers are cowboys and they are bad as a company. I've been contracting there for a few years now and I'm twice the engineer i was when I first joined.

There will always be people that don't do the job properly which ever company you look at. In my experience of BG they don't just offer power flushes left right and centre, they tend to get the job fixed and offer flushes when it's honestly needed, and I don't blame them. If I was personally covering some ones system and kept getting call outs and parts failing because of sludge then I'd definitely say have a power flush as its the main reason behind all your problems. I'd be interested to know of the bloke left a quote behind for a flush, as I'd bet my life he never as it's only a fault on one rad and BG wouldn't flush it anyway due to this minor problem. My bet is that he just wanted a quick exit and couldn't be bothered, which is the real issue here. At the end of the day people will always have their opinion of BG, some good and inevitably bad, bu from what I have seen they are a decent firm. Look at the amount of customers thy have, surley their doing something right.

Tom in relation to your last few sentances, yes they are doing something right, they have millions of pouds to spend on advertising and homecare schemes, but does this mean that engineers can go into peoples propertys and give a diagnosis without finding what the real probem is, and to be honest checking a room stat is basic stuff, im not stating that all bg engineers are like this far from it, but with a backing from a big company like bg/capita whos going to argue, its only cause were in the trade and see it first hand that we get angry to some things, to me a multi million pound company should be making sure there engineers are the most clued up, thourough engineers there are, and there not, so whos to blame?

 

[topdog]

I hope the millions of pounds British Gas spends on advertising helps me,
As I purchased my domain name in feb 2012 but I am sitting my ACS exam and then I will be
doing my website: Great Britain Gas.com

 

[andyg0507]

I hope the millions of pounds British Gas spends on advertising helps me,
As I purchased my domain name in feb 2012 but I am sitting my ACS exam and then I will be
doing my website: Great Britain Gas.com

topdog, cant see how bg advertising scheme will help your own business, great britain gas is a bit different from britsh gas.

 

[cdodds2004]

i have done soooo many powerflushes for people when its debatable at best that they need them but they have them done because they are on contract with them! its a joke really! i went to a boiler last week a old vaillant condensing combi! the black paneled front one and they had put a BAND G rating on it LOL come on man!

 

[desrob]

I hope the millions of pounds British Gas spends on advertising helps me,
As I purchased my domain name in feb 2012 but I am sitting my ACS exam and then I will be
doing my website: Great Britain Gas.com

hA HA HA AHA HA HA HA,your funny.

 

[mcniven]

Hahaha desrov

 

[mcniven]

That's suppose to say desrob daft ipad

 

[stevetheplumber]

how can you explain 3 bg engineers recomending powerflush for a wb combi with the red light flashing pump failure ?

 

[tamz]

how can you explain 3 bg engineers recomending powerflush for a wb combi with the red light flashing pump failure ?

Kudos

Greed

Ignorance

The current economic climate

Management pressure to sell

Take your pick

 

[GrahamM]

Fitted a boiler for a customer late last year, alpha intec 28x, system was flushed when installed all worked perfectly, customer had garage converted into a living space so i added them another radiator, whilst i was ON holiday customer wasnt get much heat to rad, last in line of 12 rads, bg went out touched it said you need a powerflush £600, i turn up check rad luke warm, stat in hall way was set at 20, room temp 27, turned stat up rad is now that hot you cant touch, moved stat to a colder place and customer is now having to turn heating off its that hot.

But the thing thats really really wound me up is on the bg sheet he left it asks are parts availabe for boiler and hes ticked yes then scribbled it out and put no, how on earth can parts not be available for a boiler thats under 1 year old, its an utter DISCRACE:32:

This so called "Engineer" was a Muppet. Plain & simple! In all walks of life including work places, you do get them.
For the record this boiler is fully service listed by BG and all parts are available. Again- he was/is a Muppet!

Thats fair enough, but in my experience BG training is second to non so if an engineer is still dishing out misinformation then that's more down to morals than anything.

As far as the tick boxes go on the sheet, I've gotten it wrong plenty of times, sometimes customers have pulled me on it and I've apologised and corrected myself. It's easily done as there are loads of tick boxes and I'd say this is more human error than bad advice

Like Tom I have experience subbing for them, and have learned a fair amount over the past few years, but I have had a few bad experiences with their "highly trained" engineers leaving a number of potentially dangerous situations for which I have been lumbered with in past.
They do get away with murder (excuse the expression) and cover each others behinds. Very, very rarely will one of their own get severely reprimanded for leaving a dangerous situation, but I would be out on my ear.
I have said this before on here, there are a lot exceptional BG Engineers, but unfortunately there are some bad. The pressure Engineers are under to make performance quotas and sales does not help. The management are constantly on Engineers backs looking for sales leads etc.

how can you explain 3 bg engineers recomending powerflush for a wb combi with the red light flashing pump failure ?

Were you actually involved directly with this?

 

[MRDrip]

BG visited OAP of 82y in Feb this year and got her to sign a document saying the flue had failed inspection and the system had been turned off. He told her not a problem just a few bolts missing and it was fine to use it. . The OAP had a few days earlier been in hospital for an eye opp so had no idea what she has signed. I phoned BG 3 months later to ask what the hell they were doing = not problem as far as they were concerned.
And guess what OAP has just paid them yet another years service contract fee.

 

[topdog]

topdog, cant see how bg advertising scheme will help your own business, great britain gas is a bit different from britsh gas.

Its all about google search engine & how it works, TRUST ME........will come up on the same page as them...when someone uses a search engine

Read more: http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/g...-do-british-gas-get-away-2.html#ixzz1yiatCfKx

 

[PowerFlusher2]

Kudos

Greed

Ignorance

The current economic climate

Management pressure to sell

Take your pick

That's FIVE BG engineers, Tamz!

 

[Unregistered]

I have an RD628 rebranded British Gas boiler. It suddenly stopped the heating then the hot water failed, red lights on etc. British gas engineer came our and replaced the pcb board and still the smae problem. He came back and replaced the woring harness and all seemed ok.
Now the hot water is running eratically and the red light on the reciever is permanently on.
THe engineer said the scheme i am on is free for the 'first repair' then it is charged. I stated that merely replacing an item is not repairing it, if the the same problem is still there.