British Gas Chaos Leaves Thousands Without Heat

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British Gas chaos leaves thousands without heat

http://money.guardian.co.uk/utilities/story/0,,1728603,00.html

Saturday March 11, 2006
The Guardian

Thousands of British Gas customers have been left without heating or hot water for days - and in some cases weeks - during the coldest part of winter because the company's HomeCare insurance operation is in chaos.

A whistleblower who works for British Gas has revealed that staff were told customers without central heating "no longer constituted a priority", even though they have paid around £200 a year for emergency call-out insurance.

More than 3.4 million people have such policies promising "expert boiler care", but thousands have endured long waits in the cold for engineers who often fail to arrive or don't have the correct parts.

The whistleblower contacted the Guardian after reading our report on how it took British Gas three months and seven appointments to fix a minor problem in an oven in Surrey.

He says call centre staff deal with similar instances every day, and every "third or fourth call is currently from someone complaining about the poor service they have received".

He reveals that appointments to fix boilers are frequently cancelled without informing the customer. Around Christmas it was taking the company six days to fix some boilers - longer if new parts were required. While the system was unable to cope, he says the company continued to press staff to sell policies to new customers.

British Gas admitted it has experienced problems with its HomeCare operation, but denied several of the whistleblower's claims.

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British Gas insider turns up the heat
Homecare insurance guarantees a speedy response if your boiler breaks down. But leaked documents seen by Guardian Money reveal how the British Gas cover has fallen into chaos, often leaving vulnerable customers waiting days in freezing conditions for the repair man to arrive. Miles Brignall reports

http://money.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1728073,00.html

Saturday March 11, 2006
The Guardian

A long-standing worker at a British Gas call centre has turned whistleblower to expose how its HomeCare operation has slipped into disarray. In November, as winter began to bite, the service fell into such chaos that British Gas told call centre workers that customers without heating or hot water should no longer be treated as a priority.

The insurance policies - which typically cost £192 a year and rise to £293 a year - have been sold to 3.5m million households.

They are advertised as providing "expert boiler care" and offering "peace of mind". They are particularly popular with the elderly or anyone who doesn't wish to find a plumber in an emergency.

However, according to the British Gas whistleblower, and letters to Guardian Money, little peace of mind is being offered: just long waits, and in some cases appalling customer service.

As one internal British Gas document bluntly states: "We are experiencing extreme difficulties in meeting our customer requirements."

The whistleblower says:

· British Gas told call centre staff in November that: "No heat/no hot water customers should have appointments booked on a non-urgent basis." This lasted for around eight weeks.

· A significant number of 80-year-olds were left without heating for several days during the recent cold spell, possibly putting lives at risk.

· Over the past two months, customers have had to wait up to six days for an engineer to come out. If parts were needed, it would often be several more days before a boiler was repaired.

· The management system that books engineers and controls the distribution of parts is in chaos - jobs are regularly cancelled without informing the customer, who may be waiting for the engineer in a cold house.

· Call staff are still being pressured to sell new policies, while the system is struggling with existing claims.

British Gas says this winter has been its busiest on record and admits that at times it struggled to cope. It says it conducted 2m repairs in 2005 and that 60% of customers were offered an appointment the same day.

It said the vast majority of its 3.4m customers are very satisfied with the company's response to fixing breakdowns. It adds that it recruited around 1,000 new engineers in 2005 and will invest a further £30m this year in recruiting another 1,000 engineers.

The whistleblower contacted Money after reading our report of how it took British Gas three months, and seven appointments, to fix a minor oven problem for a customer in Surrey.

He says he comes across similar instances almost every day. He described the kitchen appliance cover as "very poor value for money" because customers have to wait up to eight days before they even see an engineer, and aren't normally phoned if the engineer can't make the appointment.

He also describes long waits for central heating boiler repairs - even though customers have paid for HomeCare insurance.

"We regularly come across pensioners being left several days without heat. In the past few days, I've seen an 88-year-old without heat for eight days, another 80-plus-year-old without heat for five days, and another whose appointment was changed to another day by the planning department without their knowledge.

"A terminally ill customer had their job closed by somebody in the planning department and not even rearranged."

He alleges that every third or fourth call into British Gas's four customer service centres is currently from someone complaining about poor service.

"When I first started working here, the standard call-back time for a complaint was 90 minutes. Obviously this didn't always happen but it was the standard of service aspired to. Now following a complaint it currently takes around three days for a call back from a 'manager'. Although the people who deal with complaints have the title of customer liaison managers, they are not actually managers as such - they earn roughly the same as the people who answer the phones."

He says there is a "vague threat of losing your job" if you fail to sell enough HomeCare policies.

"I'm frustrated at the lack of action by high level management to combat the appalling level of service being given by a company that is making millions from these products," he says.

His comments also help to explain Guardian Money's postbag of complaints about British Gas. Readers have told us they have experienced long waits without heating, engineers not turning up to appointments and problems getting parts - all things described by the whistleblower.

Chris Weston, managing director of British Gas Services says: "I'm confident that we deliver among the highest levels of service in the industry. But there is always room for improvement and I know that our customers have come to accept nothing but the best from a trusted brand like British Gas.

"We've had a tough winter, the coldest in nine years and the highest number of breakdowns on record. Clearly for some customers things have gone wrong, and I apologise for that, as I understand the frustration that a service failure causes. Our call centre staff and engineers worked around the clock - and continue to do so, to try to ensure that we can meet the high expectations of our customers."