Had an issue with my boiler, had no hot water. Engineer came out on this past Saturday and said it was the gasket and that it couldn't be fixed until Monday morning first thing when he would bring the new part. He switched everything off so we had no hot water or heating. He came Monday and fixed it. I got charged ?120. I thought the excess charge said ?60? That's what they told me they were going to charge me for the callout when I had originally called in to report a fault. I called the billing office. Was told "Well, when he did an annual service on the Monday he found that the fan pressure was low so he fixed that and that was another ?60". Eh? Annual Service? I never asked for that. I just had an annual service done 4 months ago from another company, why I would want that now? Without my agreement or knowledge. Should he not have told me he was going to do that and that this is going to cost another ?60 if he finds anything wrong? Should he not have sought my agreement instead of just doing it and leaving me to get the shock of seeing British Gas take ?120 out of my bank account? The South African call centre operator I spoke to had of course, NO EMPATHY, consistent with their horrible history. Every customer who complains is treated as a big pain in their side. The billing call centre lady told me I needed to be educated and she was more than happy to cancel my contract. Wow! I stopped her from canceling it because I'm not sure whether canceling it will actually cost me more? Sometimes there is a period after work has been completed where canceling the contract will incur more charges.
