A Margate pensioner has vowed to fight for full compensation after British Gas said her ‘broken’ boiler needed replacing, resulting in a £2,200 spend, when in fact her gas had been accidentally cut off.
Christine Wrench, 71, was left without hot water and heating for eight days when her gas connection was accidentally cut during mains work at Jacob’s Close by SGN.
The nan-of-five was unaware of the error and called British Gas, which services the boiler annually, believing it had broken down.
An engineer attended and, although noting gas pressure ‘was low,’ told Christine the boiler needed a new part. On his return the following day she was told it could not be repaired and she needed a new boiler fitted.
The former Marie Curie ward clerk says the engineer failed to carry out proper checks which would have revealed that no gas was getting through to the property.
She said: “The engineer came out and said the boiler needed a new part. The next day he came back and said it wasn’t firing up and limited gas was getting through. He told me I needed a new boiler.
“It was when they dismantled the old boiler they discovered no gas was coming into the property because SGN had cut it off. The engineer hadn’t checked the gas meter.
“So, I paid £2,200 for a new boiler which was totally unnecessary, my old boiler was actually working perfectly well and was serviced by British Gas annually.
“When they said I needed the boiler I had no reason to question it. I just think it is morally totally wrong.”
Christine says SGN reconnected the gas once the error was highlighted and they have since apologised both by letter and in person and agreed to write a £300 cheque by way of compensation.
British Gas, however, took much longer to respond and Christine says their offer of £400 compensation is not good enough.
She said: “SGN and the contractors have been very courteous but British Gas seem to think they can railroad me. I might be 71 but I have all my faculties and I would hate for anyone else to have to go through this. I was without gas for eight days and paid for a boiler I didn’t need. If the engineer had done his job properly and checked this would not have happened. I am not going to let it go.”
A spokesman for SGN said the company had reconnected the supply, spoken to Christine and been to see her, adding: “She will be getting compensation.”
Christine’s daughter Tracy, who says the situation is ironic considering the British Gas advert claiming to ‘solve problems’ rather than just sell new products, has since spoken to British Gas and has been asked to provide details of all the costs that were involved although it is not clear whether this will all be repaid.
British Gas has been asked for comment.
Regretfully this appears to be the modern trend. My 10 year old boiler was condemned by a well known company advising that the parts were no longer available. A search of the internet found the part which was fitted by a different qualified fitter.
The comment from the original company was that boilers only have a 10 year lifespan.
With good regular service a boiler can last a lot longer than 10 years!
Maybe I’m just a bit less tolerant than other people, but I think the gas fitter (they aren’t engineers) involved should be sacked and should be the subject of a police inquiry. If you walked into someone’s house and conned them out of £2000 the police would be interested. How is this any different?
You only have to look at “British Gas Complaints” Facebook page to see how many people are fed up of this company and losing hundreds of pounds through their incompetence.
Where is the ‘fight’? Their fault, refund the lady and be more careful in the future!
My thoughts only!
We have our Boiler serviced by British Gas
.this year as normal the price went up and my wife said let’s get a better quote sod loyalty , we settled for Corgi a reasonable price for a yearly service the boiler previously installed by British Gas serviced and maintained by them without a problem , we had heating and hot water no problems , Corgi came as promised Two men came British Gas normally sent 1 , the guys took off the front of the boiler and said you have a problem we need to come back tomorrow remove your bedroom cupboard door to reach a filter also there is no pressure in the system this is dangerous do not use it it might need a new boiler . My wife replied put everything back as it was and leave we phoned Corgi and told them what he had said and told them we want an independent assessment , next day our regular British Gas man came started up the boiler finished the service and left we are now back with British Gas ( peace of mind ) at the end of the day that’s what you want . Corgi said it employs other qualified engineers to do their services and can’t explain what happened there . You know and I know we oldies are used as cash cows for big companies they think we are all stupid .
It’s time British Gas was on rogue traders. Biggest cowboys on the market and BBC watchdog has already done a programme in the past about them doing this
If compensation is not paid fully to recover costs, threaten them with going to the Small Claims Court. Its fairly easy to do this yourself, but if you use a solicitor his fee will be recoverable.
Our Thorn Apollo gas boiler is 35 years old and still works brilliantly !