British Gas Service visits.

[Agile]

It might explain a few things if you read this article about a BG employee who is rather disappointed about the level of service they are giving their customers on a Three Star breakdown cover

http://money.guardian.co.uk/utilities/story/0,,1967738,00.html

 

[breezer]

its generally the same with most call centres

 

[wilhelm]

i wouldnt believe every call centre employee if i were you...

...

 

[breezer]

i wouldnt believe every call centre employee if i were you...

...

I wouldnt believe everything you read on a forum

 

[wilhelm]

true!

 

[garethgas]

Sadly, this is nothing new. Nor indeed restricted to BG.
Bloody outrageous I think.

 

[pannierstan]

Amazing how they blame the engineer for not doing his job right.

I've spoken to many a BG engineer in my time and at the moment they are at an all time low.
They have a auto allocation system which is stuffing 12 jobs down in postcode sectors which might be 50 miles across.Then when they start to get through some of those the system drops another 4 or 5 jobs just after lunch and thats if the 'system' actually lets them have a lunch break

So what really ends up happening is people are let down as the engineers simple finds it impossible to get to that many jobs.

I remember the days when you could ring a local office and speak to someone you probably knew and they would tell you who was coming and when. And when they turned up they actually knew what they were doing.

Ahh those were the days......

 

[ollski]

Has elements of truth but has certainly been dramatized, I think it generally depends how busy it is but it is certainly not only Bg who fail to meet appointments.

 

[Mike4]

They have a auto allocation system which is stuffing 12 jobs down in postcode sectors which might be 50 miles across.Then when they start to get through some of those the system drops another 4 or 5 jobs just after lunch and thats if the 'system' actually lets them have a lunch break

Amazing. I find four or five calls fills my day.

That's as much as I can achieve AND look after my customers properly.

Cheers, Mike

 

[pannierstan]

Amazing. I find four or five calls fills my day.

That's as much as I can achieve AND look after my customers properly.

Cheers, Mike

My sentiments exactly Mike

 

[Alfredo]

I see it through both ends of the telescope. Not only do I work to a very tight programmed schedule of servicing and/or breakdowns..but we regularly get extra jobs 'dropped' on us, so we can easily end up with 10 jobs in a working day, but we have very tight appointment keeping rules, and my travel is not usually far. On my last callout saturday I did 14 breakdown jobs. Its not always like that, but it can get pretty hairy, and we don't have a 'finish' time as such. Under our contract our day is only finished when all breakdowns phoned in by 3 pm are done...callout engineer gets any that come in later.

I also have a cottage Oop North which is under a BG Three Star contract after the local Corgis let me down too much. The service I have had has not been bad at all, except when they sent me a letter this summer wanting to inspect the meter, and threatening forced entry if they were unable to get access...then they failed to turn up!!! I hit the phone and gave them absolute hell, and they got an engineer out first thing next morning..the louder you shout etc etc. He explained some of the problems they have.

The engineers I have met have all been very competent and dedicated, and like me, they get 40-50min or so to do a service/fix a fault..which is often not enough. I can call on local backup though if I hit a snag, they cannot. They also said there is a shortage of young engineers, and a lot getting close to retirement, so I think the service is probably oversold, and they can't get the staff to fulfill the contractual obligations.

Alfredo

 

[pannierstan]

The engineers I have met have all been very competent and dedicated, and like me, they get 40-50min or so to do a service/fix a fault..which is often not enough. I can call on local backup though if I hit a snag, they cannot. They also said there is a shortage of young engineers, and a lot getting close to retirement, so I think the service is probably oversold, and they can't get the staff to fulfill the contractual obligations.

Alfredo

I gather their 'system' allocates 25mins as an average time to spend on the job although the true allowed maximum is 37mins.

I like to talk to my customers and actually repair or service the appliance/system.

 

[ollski]

Again slightly dramatic, there is a dispatcher who sees all the engineers on a certain patch on a computer screen. They allow 50 mins on a breakdown and 35 on a service so work out the total availability of hours and then stay open to accept work in day until fully booked and then book it in for the rest of the week. What the upsets the applecart is engineers stuck on a job, vulnerable customers and those at risk needing same day visits. There are guys with 14 jobs on the screen but usually they are courtesy calls, quotes and co detectors they have booked back in for themselves or just fitting parts they have already fault found on.

 

[pannierstan]

Ollski I can only repeat what I have heard from very ****ed off engineers!

I think you also are talking a bit of gibberish. Are you suggesting that all engineers have these easy straight forward jobs lined up and are just moaning

I think not, I dont want to get into a debate about what really is happening. I was simply quoting some reasons that engineers get the blame and they are the ones on the front line that every one else leans on and blames for everything by the sounds of it.

Stan

 

[ollski]

Ollski I can only repeat what I have heard from very p****d off engineers!

I think you also are talking a bit of gibberish. Are you suggesting that all engineers have these easy straight forward jobs lined up and are just moaning

I think not, I dont want to get into a debate about what really is happening. I was simply quoting some reasons that engineers get the blame and they are the ones on the front line that every one else leans on and blames for everything by the sounds of it.

Stan

Stan mate there are 8 hours in a day and each completed breakdown gives them 1.1 hours of time. As long as they have 8 hours of worked time in a day the surplus jobs go back to dispatch when it is obvoius they would take them past their finish time. I imagine different areas and patches have their own specific problems though.