British Gas customer services: Fareham couple get trapped in tap saga until Streetwise intervenes

Eleven years ago they splashed out on a new boiler and took advantage of British Gas’ impressive Homecare 4 parts and labour cover to avoid unexpected bills for boiler, plumbing, central heating, and home electric repairs.

In late March the Fareham pensioners had no hesitation in calling out a British Gas plumbing engineer to replace a washer in their kitchen mixer tap which had sprung a leak.

‘Following the visit, we discovered the engineer had damaged it. He couldn’t fix it and needed to get it replaced,’ explained Frances. ‘We’d been left unable to use our hot tap, just boiling a kettle for hot water. There’s no way we should have been left like that.

‘Another engineer finally turned up a week later with a replacement for the original £200 Blanco tap, but we protested when it emerged they weren’t able source a like-for-like specification tap but insisted on fobbing us off with a cheap substitute £42 minimal spec lookalike from B&Q.

‘The engineer was adamant we’d have to take the matter up with British Gas because they validate replacement parts. He told us they’re not willing to replace them with one of the same make and spec, but only with one that looks the same.’

What really left the pensioner couple angry and exasperated was the fact they’d been led down this administrative cul-de-sac with a faulty bathroom tap two years ago.

Despite paying £650 a year for the comprehensive peace of mind parts and labour cover, and more than £4,000 over the previous years of membership, they still found themselves having to fork out for the emergency tap replacement.

‘We ended up paying the difference for the bathroom tap, they refused to pay for it all. That’s why we took the view that as they’d damaged the kitchen tap this time around we were determined to not let them get away with it’, said Frances.

‘Because of its age there wasn’t an exact replacement. We looked around and told them where they could buy a comparable cheaper tap, but even though they would be saving money they were still having none of it. They were just trying to blame us to pass the buck.’

Determined to make a stand and brassed off at facing the hassle of another repetitive saga, Frances called the British Gas plumbing customer services.

However, there was no pretence of customer service when the 73-year-old received the cold shoulder treatment and was told the turnaround time for dealing with complaints was an incomprehensible six to eight weeks.

Feeling like they were going around in circles with weeks slipping away and no settlement in sight, Frances emailed Streetwise. When we contacted British Gas top boss Chris O’Shea he was commendably apologetic and agreed to appoint a customer relations team member to look into the matter.

At the end of April they hoped they were able to see the back of the dispute after the company agreed to supply and fit their chosen replacement.

But their confidence quickly evaporated when a British Gas engineer who should be ashamed of doing nothing for the firm’s customer relations image, got shirty on the phone after they changed an inconvenient pre-arranged appointment to fit it.

Matters reached boiling point when they ended the call angry and upset after he repeated the obvious 100 per cent nonsense they were to blame for damaging the original faulty tap.

Yet another wrangle surfaced when they found themselves battling for three weeks chasing head office staff to provide a receipt for the replacement tap to verify the manufacturer’s five-year product guarantee.

The engineer who fitted it was polite and helpful, but all his efforts to comply turned into a protracted shambles.

They found themselves left in no man’s land and following emails flying back and forth took the bull by the horns and contacted the manufacturer and supplier who finally helped them come up with the relevant paperwork.

‘It was an absolute nightmare. We were left so frustrated and angry we tried to back out of the Homecare cover but were told we’d be clobbered with over £117 to quit but we won’t be going with them again.’

‘When we tried speaking with them all we got was passing the buck. Sometimes we’d be sat on the phone for more than half an hour before someone would answer. Every time you got though we were told we’d got through to the wrong department.’

We asked head office to explain why the Homecare peace of mind promise had fallen down, and why the Hayes’ minor leaking tap problem had turned into a major incident that took almost three months to resolve.

British Gas apologised for an acceptable standard of service.

A spokesperson said: ‘We were sorry to learn of the Hayes’ experience. We reviewed the work carried out on the kitchen tap and arranged another appointment to ensure it was up to our usual standards.

‘We do try to get parts from the original manufacturer or our approved suppliers. If this is not possible we’ll try to find replacements of similar functionality but not necessarily the same features or an identical make or model or type of fitting, but we’ll only accept responsibility for our workmanship.’

The couple said they were relieved and grateful to Streetwise for stepping in.

They’d been getting nowhere for frustrating weeks on end and couldn’t see a resolution in sight

As compensation, they accepted an offer from British Gas of £90 off their remaining nine £26 monthly Homecare plan 4 payments, and £30 compensation for the hassle.

Frances said: ‘I can’t thank Streetwise enough. We wouldn’t have got anywhere without your help. Without you we’d have still been fighting them. It would have gone on and on. They kept messing us around and we’ll never do business with them again.’