Warning for my UK friends/readers
Apr. 20th, 2007 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
percivalI just feel I have to warn people off. I've got to admit that emergency cover for central heating is very important to us. We bought our present flat after our landlady took ten days to get our heating sorted - she didn't have emergency cover in place, her plumber was useless, and she only got her act together when we threatened to call an emergency plumber.
So when we got our own place, central heating cover was one of the first things on our list. We went to Scottish Gas and plumped for Home Care 200. So far, the engineers we've had round were all very helpful, courteous, and efficient. We only had one emergency before this one, and that was fixed quickly.
This one, however, is in a different league.
We returned home from a 10-day trip to Germany on 5/4 to a chilly flat. After a phone call to Scottish Gas, we decided to have an engineer round on 7/4 (yes, Good Friday ...) because the weather was good, and hey, it would be fixed quickly. The engineer, a great chap, diagnosed a scorched fuse on one of the circuit boards. They didn't have the part just now, but he made an appointment for the following Tuesday, the one after Easter Monday. Fair enough, great weather, we can manage.
On Easter Saturday, a lady from Scottish Gas called to postpone our appointment indefinitely. Three calls to the call centre later, it's still not fixed, TWO FULL WEEKS after the engineer's visit to our flat. That's two weeks without central heating or hot water. We've now been promised a call within 48 hours three times. When I called again today (that was the third call), they were suitably apologetic, but again the Parts department was going to call me back. Well, I'm not holding my breath here, but this situation is certainly ridiculous. We'd apparently been booked in for April 27, THREE FULL WEEKS after the engineer's visit. This weekend, I'll write a formal letter of complaint. Each time I called, I had to explain that we were without central heating and hot water. Each time I was promised a call back ASAP, they would stress the urgency. But what can these poor people at the call centre do?
We can take these delays right now because it's spring, but what about winter? This Home Care 200 lark is definitely not working. Any suggestions for providers to switch to would be much appreciated - Scottish HydroElectric sounds mighty tempting at the moment.
So - stay away from Scottish Gas Home Care, it's not worth it!
So when we got our own place, central heating cover was one of the first things on our list. We went to Scottish Gas and plumped for Home Care 200. So far, the engineers we've had round were all very helpful, courteous, and efficient. We only had one emergency before this one, and that was fixed quickly.
This one, however, is in a different league.
We returned home from a 10-day trip to Germany on 5/4 to a chilly flat. After a phone call to Scottish Gas, we decided to have an engineer round on 7/4 (yes, Good Friday ...) because the weather was good, and hey, it would be fixed quickly. The engineer, a great chap, diagnosed a scorched fuse on one of the circuit boards. They didn't have the part just now, but he made an appointment for the following Tuesday, the one after Easter Monday. Fair enough, great weather, we can manage.
On Easter Saturday, a lady from Scottish Gas called to postpone our appointment indefinitely. Three calls to the call centre later, it's still not fixed, TWO FULL WEEKS after the engineer's visit to our flat. That's two weeks without central heating or hot water. We've now been promised a call within 48 hours three times. When I called again today (that was the third call), they were suitably apologetic, but again the Parts department was going to call me back. Well, I'm not holding my breath here, but this situation is certainly ridiculous. We'd apparently been booked in for April 27, THREE FULL WEEKS after the engineer's visit. This weekend, I'll write a formal letter of complaint. Each time I called, I had to explain that we were without central heating and hot water. Each time I was promised a call back ASAP, they would stress the urgency. But what can these poor people at the call centre do?
We can take these delays right now because it's spring, but what about winter? This Home Care 200 lark is definitely not working. Any suggestions for providers to switch to would be much appreciated - Scottish HydroElectric sounds mighty tempting at the moment.
So - stay away from Scottish Gas Home Care, it's not worth it!
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 07:09 pm (UTC)One piece of advice, passed on to me by my mother, was to always mention that you have a small child when on the phone to them. This puts you in the category of "vulnerable customers" and generally when we have done this we have had someone out with stuff the same day, the next day at the latest - including xmas day a couple of years ago! (and they were most apologetic when I called them at 8pm on xmas eve that they couldn't get anyone out to us that night)
no subject
Date: 2007-04-21 09:07 am (UTC)