British Gas hide and seek

One of my 'moving house' tasks was to ask British Gas to fit smart meters in our new house. We'd had them in the last house, albeit with a series of problems before they would actually work properly but hey! I thought, what could be more fun than spending the forthcoming winter watching the dial go round and telling us how much money we are burning?

The appointment was booked for 30th July and the engineer duly turned up, not just on time but a couple of hours early, having rung beforehand to check there would be someone at home. (You see, British Gas, you can get it right when you try!) He fitted the electric meter and then informed us that he couldn't do the gas one as he didn't have the right connection.

"But it's all-right, I'll just get the job re-booked," he assured us before going on his merry way.

A fortnight passed. No-one came, no-one contacted us, nothing happened, so I went online to book an appointment myself, which I was able to do very easily. On the days before August 25th, I received the usual flurry of texts and emails -

  'We're coming soon'. 

Did you know we're coming soon?'

'Bet you're really pleased we're coming soon, but if you cancel us on the day or even the day before, we'll charge you £30."

"Oh but let us know if you have Covid and we won't come."

August 25th dawned. The appointment 'window' was between 1-5pm. 

We waited. Time didn't wait. The clock ticked along until a text pinged into my phone at 4.30pm.

'Actually, we won't be coming after all. We forgot to check but we don't seem to have any spare engineers. Silly us! Oh and we can't book you another appointment either. Yes, We know, annoying ... but we'll let you know when we can.'

So that was the first half day wasted.

I went online and found that I could re-book the appointment quite easily, so I did, for last Thursday afternoon.

(To save me repeating myself, may I invite you to read the above procedure again as, lo and behold, that is what happened last Friday too. Second half day wasted.

This time, I decided to take to Twitter @British Gas to 'explain' my dissatisfaction and sure enough, I got a reply, asking me to message the details so the they could look into what had happened.

This time, the person I was messaging made the next appointment for me, for yesterday afternoon.

Bound to turn up this time, I thought.

However ...  yes, you've guessed it. 

A third afternoon wasted.

To add insult to injury, I got a text today asking me for feedback on how they had dealt with my issue and how I felt they could improve my experience further.

Yes, readers - I told them!