BBC Watchdog - British Gas

[Hybrid]

I don't work for BG but when a boiler is getting on in years I advise that the customer starts putting some money aside for a replacement in the event that it carks it. That's not disingenuous, it's sensible advise.

If you want to trawl ebay and ring around for weeks on end you'll probably be able to find a part for any boiler. After all that there's no guarantee that some other component isn't coming to the end of it's life and will soon need replacing.

 

[Millsy 82]

When is the best time to upgrade?

As a general guide, boilers over 15 years of age are likely to be the least energy efficient and most difficult to source parts for if they should break down unexpectedly. Therefore it might make sense to replace an old boiler sooner rather than later.

[DLMURL="http://www.domgen.com/newslines/issue_2/boiler.html"]Newslines: Is your boiler ready for retirement?[/DLMURL]

But do they take into account that you are removing a highly reliable boiler with only a few parts and replacing with a newer boiler which even the best boilers are not going to last as long and be as cheap to fix as the original.

All that I am saying is you CANT give best advice just because of the age of the appliance. It should be also on condition and if it is their best option.

I have been in this trade long enough to know that the boiler may not be as efficient but it will more than likely be more reliable.

 

[Gary71]

Needing a laptop to take the case off pmsl
Yes If I come across a boiler which is new to me, then I will look at the manufacture instructions, isn't that what they are there for? The one thing with working for British Gas is I can't say to a customer "sorry, don't work on them" which Is what a lot of local firms tend to say. At British Gas we have to work on every appliance out there as long as its service listed. I went to work in Derby for a couple of weeks to help out in that extreme cold weather we had and I came across a boiler called a Wolf, thank god it wasn't service listed lol. Have you ever heard of a boiler called a Wolf?

I was a we once, so I know what it's like to work as a BG service engineer , so when I talk about credibility it would be from my experiences working as a BG engineer.

The point I was trying to make albeit badly is for you to ignore the negative impact privatisation has had on your job and some that do it, is as bad as those who think every BG engineer is a PC driven fruitloop needing a CD rom to be told how to start the van in the morning.

I have two wolfs I have to service soon for my sins.

 

[Doodlebug]

I don't work for BG but when a boiler is getting on in years I advise that the customer starts putting some money aside for a replacement in the event that it carks it. That's not disingenuous, it's sensible advise.

If you want to trawl ebay and ring around for weeks on end you'll probably be able to find a part for any boiler. After all that there's no guarantee that some other component isn't coming to the end of it's life and will soon need replacing.

At last someone who can see common sense, thanks Hybrid.

 

[petercj]

At last someone who can see common sense, thanks Hybrid.

Advising someone to put some money aside for a new boiler when the current one is getting old is good advice.

However, when a customer of BG has paid for Home Care over a number of years, possibly right through the life of their boiler, it won't be surprising if the customer wants to keep the boiler going as long as possible.

Which is when a conflict of interest arises, i.e. having taken the HC payments over the years, BG want to get the aging boiler off contract.

Telling a customer that "our supplier no longer keeps the parts" may be very convenient for BG, but the customer is likely to want them to look a little further afield than right under their noses.

 

[Gary71]

At last someone who can see common sense, thanks Hybrid.

Very good advice from Hybrid, but how would you equate that to BG's corporate ethos which would prefer their engineers to make the sale of a new boiler at the first opportunity, it was like that 25 years ago when they used to give us turkeys for Christmas if we sold enough, then moving on to training days where they tried to turn us in to salesmen with leaflets.

If you lean towards Hybrids way of thinking then fair play to you, but there's enough wearing the same uniform as you still chasing the turkey.

 

[Doodlebug]

Advising someone to put some money aside for a new boiler when the current one is getting old is good advice.

However, when a customer of BG has paid for Home Care over a number of years, possibly right through the life of their boiler, it won't be surprising if the customer wants to keep the boiler going as long as possible.

Which is when a conflict of interest arises, i.e. having taken the HC payments over the years, BG want to get the aging boiler off contract.

Telling a customer that "our supplier no longer keeps the parts" may be very convenient for BG, but the customer is likely to want them to look a little further afield than right under their noses.

We don't try to or want to take boilers off contract, on the contrary in fact, we take boilers on that are very very old but just advise the customer that there is a likelyhood that we may not be able to fix it, ie: if we can't get the part.

 

[Doodlebug]

Very good advice from Hybrid, but how would you equate that to BG's cooperate ethos which would prefer their engineers to make the sale of a new boiler at the first opportunity, it was like that 25 years ago when they used to give us turkeys for Christmas if we sold enough, then moving on to training days where they tried to turn us in to salesmen with leaflets.

If you lean towards Hybrids way of thinking then fair play to you, but there's enough wearing the same uniform as you still chasing the turkey.

British Gas Technical service and repair engineers DONT sell boilers, we advise on the need to think about replacing the boiler and then ask the customer if they'd like an adviser to give them further advise on what boiler to go for and what the cost will be. I personally think British Gas are way too expensive on the installation side of the bussiness.

 

[tamz]

We all know (well some of us do) that BG promote (very heavily) "sales through service" They pressure their army of 000's of service engineers to offer best advice (ie sell). They offer inducements to sweeten this. Is this wrong? Probably not. Every company needs sales to survive and everyone likes a bonus on top of their wages but the pressure to sell is pushed hard from the top down. If you are not hitting your targets you will be pulled up. Some of the guys (mainly older) have the balls and experience to ignore the pressure and only sell if it is really necessary but most succumb to it.
It is not the engineers who are at fault it is the company policy.
When is a service not a service?
Because of the number of calls they do in a day the engineers are somewhat restricted to what they can actually do on each job before they are over their time so BG pioneered the use of analysers (when some were still testing for leaks with a match) as it was a way of checking if a strip down service was actually required to save time. We all know as they did, 9/10 RS boilers need very little cleaning so why not test before stripping it? How many who do a full service to the MI's open the case and think they have won (another) watch because it is as clean as a whistle so why do something that is not necessary? If a FGA indicates it needs stripped it will be (bummer eh lol)
A company the size of BG will have more complaints than most because of the sheer volume of numbers. Yes they employ a lot of numpties but they also have a lot of VERY good well trained engineers. Even i've employed numpties (one for an hour) and i personally vet them!
They are definitely not the company they once were when they were public owned but they are now a PLC answerable to shareholders looking for a profit. Their ethics on some things are questionable at times but it is easy to have a dig at them.
BG have done a lot for or this industry including keeping my profits up over the years so although i may have my opinions on some of their practices i'm not going to knock them too much :smile:

 

[Gary71]

British Gas Technical service and repair engineers DONT sell boilers,.

The process of a sale starts with the British Gas Technical service and repair engineer, without your lead there's no sale, some engineers won't repair a older boiler but will look to start the boiler sales process to get a turkey for Christmas, not all engineers are the same but they do make it harder for decent gas men, as for the managements role I found that I was pushed to start the selling process i.e a lead, than repair a old boiler.

 

[Gary71]

but it is easy to have a dig at them.

BG should be the benchmark for gas service and quality, it's because they are not that makes them a easy target, they are now no better or worse than any large company and should stop pretending otherwise.

 

[tamz]

Give it time. When all the old ones who still think of them as the gas board, a company that could be trusted, die off they will have no option.

 

[Gary71]

so BG pioneered the use of analysers (when some were still testing for leaks with a match) as it was a way of checking if a strip down service was actually required to save time.

Those that didn't have analysers used gascoseakers and pretended.

 

[Doodlebug]

Some of the things you say are probably true to a certain extent, I can only vouch for myself. I know there are some engineers who push for a sale rather than fixing the boiler but these lads aren't well liked within the team as 9 times out of 10 us that do try to fix the boilers and up going back to the job. At the end of the day the customer wants there boiler fixed, and that's what we are there to do. Advise is just something that all engineers should do as common practice not as a substitute for fixing the problem.

 

[tamz]

Those that didn't have analysers used gascoseakers and pretended.

Ha. You are going back a bit there :lol:

 

[Doodlebug]

BG should be the benchmark for gas service and quality, it's because they are not that makes them a easy target, they are now no better or worse than any large company and should stop pretending otherwise.

I think you will find that they are, British Gas quality of service is second to none.

 

[petercj]

Once upon a time there was a gas fitter called Dan who took his van to Stitch Motors for a service, he left it in morning and picked it up in the evening after work, and it cost him £85.

On the way home he called for some petrol and without thinking checked the oil, he then remembered he had just paid for a service, but to his surprise the oil was obviously not fresh.

When he got home he took off the air filter cover, only to find that the air filter wasn’t a new one.

He then had a look at the brake fluid, and surprise, surprise, the level was still a bit low as it had been when he’d checked it last week.

He then took a look at the spark plugs and saw that they weren’t new ones, so he took a plug out only to find that the gap was 3 thou wider than the recommended setting.

The next day Dan called in to Stitch Motors and said to the Service Manager: "hey the oil hasn’t been changed in my van, it still has the old air-filter, the brake fluid hasn’t been topped up and the plugs haven’t been touched!"

“Ah” said the Service Manager, “the thing is sir, we did an emissions test on your van and the result was good, so we concluded that we didn’t need to do any more to your van!”

“So why did you charge me £85 then”, asked Dan?

“Because that’s what we charge for a service sir”, said the Service Manager!

“But you haven’t done a service”, said Dan!

“Oh yes we have sir, that’s how we do Services at Stitch Motors!” said the Service Manager!

Please pick one of the following:-

1/ Did Dan carry on to his work feeling that his van was being well looked after … or

2/ Did he google the word ‘service’ when he got home … or

[FONT=&amp]3/ Did he drive straight to his local Trading Standards office ?[/FONT]

 

[TBServices]

This one "one man defending an evil corporation" schtick is getting old.

British Gas don't offer the service they promise in their marketing, they don't offer value for money, and most of all, they don't care about their customers, or "looking after your world". Money is their only motivation.

Whether you work for them or not doodlebug, it's naive to think otherwise, and blindly defending the bigwigs at the top of the tree is ridiculous in the scenario, your views are not shared by anyone. No one here is attacking you, it's just a job. If they offered me one, I'd jump at it, if only for the experience.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Doodlebug]

What is a service? Please explain. And don't say as per manufactures instructions, let's have a list of what's expected on a service.

 

[tamz]

Please pick one of the following:-

1/ Did Dan carry on to his work feeling that his van was being well looked after … or

2/ Did he google the word ‘service’ when he got home … or

[FONT=&amp]3/ Did he drive straight to his local Trading Standards office ?[/FONT]

If Dan knows how to check the plug gap he should have done the service himself and saved himself some cash.

The world is the way it is whether BG looks after it or not. A one man crusade will achieve nothing other than a bit self satisfaction.