gas board

[Deleted member 105431]

Generally speaking the best engineers leave BG in search of better pay and conditions and more often than not find them. Most BG engineers do the bare minimum and bodge it. The older engineers are hanging on for their sharesave (now not worth much) to mature and collect the pension. Sicknotes are also there for the generous sick pay and legally it can be a long arduous process to get rid of them due to complex employment law. Generally the northern areas far better than the south as the generic pay scheme allows them to attract better staff whereas south of the watford gap Bg pay is relatively low. Add the late shifts, sat, sunday and callout working, the best advice (mis selling overpriced tat), the G.A, the productivity, cust satisfaction etc etc and BG is one of the least attractive jobs in the trade. It's not helped by bg policy on accepting any old carp on contract and fitting carp in large quantities (minimisers, responses, icos/isar, envoys, baxi barcelonas, etc etc) digging themselves their own grave. BG are sh*t to work for and sh*t in general.

 

[gavinda]

what a well balanced statement

 

[Deleted member 105431]

what a well balanced statement

Do you disagree with any of my points? Please elaborate. . . . .

 

[gavinda]

well i know many who left and came back and are good engineers. shareseave has payed for new kitchens bathrooms and 2 refurb properties for me. the generous sick pay has kept a roof over my and my families head whilst i recieve treatment for cancer. the ga callouts best advice and sales carp have all provided a decent bit of extra money without ripping anyone off, and i get to choose when i work. the job security means i need not worry about accountants insurance van costs chasing non paying customers paying for lost tools the high price of diesel blah blah blah.

some of the engs are a bit crap but ive never told a customer that condensors cant be fixe and that a 2 year old boiler is beyond repair , by the way i can fit a new combi if you like. which is what i hear from my customers about a lot of private guys. but i dont tar all private guys the same. perhaps i should stoop to your level and i'll be hgappier.

 

[Deleted member 105431]

They can't be that good if they left and came back-couldn't survive outside a culture of incompetence. The sharesave is a good way of saving money but there are better ways to invest. Sickpay is nice if you have a genuine illness like cancer (hope you have a speedy recovery) but far, far too many take the p1ss and use it as an extention of their holiday entitlement. I personally don't like to rip off old grannies with overpriced COD's, powerflushes, new boilers, etc etc-I am an engineer not a salesman. Any GOOD engineer in this trade needn't worry about job security as they will always find work. Being self employed (which I am not) is the most financially rewarding but also the hardest to do successfully. Alot of what Bg have fitted over the last 10 years is carp, they don't go for quality but whoever does a good deal. I have never said a boiler is unrepairable, and I have never took more than 3 visits to do it. (35 visits posted by agile earlier for a bg job doesn't surprise me at all). I am called out by BG on a regualr basis to fix what I consider simple faults that they have overlooked due to incompetence/negligence. Lets not forget the oxford powermax incident-disgusting.

 

[gavinda]

well lets agree to disagree.. we are both afterall employed by someone else ... im happy you're happy

 

[Deleted member 105431]

well lets agree to disagree.. we are both afterall employed by someone else ... im happy you're happy

Well we'll leave it there then.

 

[namsag]

danger can you tell me a better investment over the previous 21 years than share save
Except maybe property

 

[twgas]

how narrow minded some of the regular posters on here are.
According to the non bg engineers all bg are idiots, and they have never fitted anything properly or repaired a boiler, whatever the problem.
After serving a good few years on bg, I honestly beleive that I see as many poor installs by independants as bg, and the bullsh*t from some breakdown engineers out there is laughable. I'm not saying bg get it right all the time, far from it, but to put it all in perspective bg complete more jobs, both installs and repairs than anyone else - there are bound to be some cock-ups.

 

[Deleted member 105431]

danger can you tell me a better investment over the previous 21 years than share save
Except maybe property

I would've said property but also shares in the oil companies and vodafone have performed exceedingly well.

 

[gavinda]

thats the point dm 'shares' bought my 1st lot for 92p sold em 5 years on for around 2.50.

 

[namsag]

danger firstly no point you guessing give facts and figures.
But what your not mentioning is there is an instant 20% discount on sharesave that would not be avialable on other investments
I doubt there is many investments out there that would turn £7k into £42k in 3 years in percentage terms not even property at its peek

 

[Deleted member 105431]

danger firstly no point you guessing give facts and figures.
But what your not mentioning is there is an instant 20% discount on sharesave that would not be avialable on other investments
I doubt there is many investments out there that would turn £7k into £42k in 3 years in percentage terms not even property at its peek

There are lots of ways to make money, highest risk earns the highest reward. Richard Branson and Alan Sugar done ok without centrica sharesave. Up until 2008 bank shares made a very nice return. I'm not a hedge fund manager so don't have all the figures to hand but all investments carry an element of risk (in the case of sharesave you won't lose your money but you may make a poor return.)

Centrica shares aren't very high atm.

 

[namsag]

So what patch di branson and sugar work on then.
Shares should never be looked on short term
But British gas shares original bought with dividends re invested have increased well over 1000%

The shares may not be AS high just now but what investments are at present.
Still gave me over 5 figure profit (on shares no intention of selling for years) in little short of month by moving a little money around.

Know a few guys who have close on half a million pounds worth of shares by never selling a freebie and doing full share save . Not bad for money they never missed.
And you would have worked with one from n`pton

 

[Deleted member 105431]

So what patch di branson and sugar work on then.
Shares should never be looked on short term
But British gas shares original bought with dividends re invested have increased well over 1000%

The shares may not be AS high just now but what investments are at present.
Still gave me over 5 figure profit (on shares no intention of selling for years) in little short of month by moving a little money around.

Know a few guys who have close on half a million pounds worth of shares by never selling a freebie and doing full share save . Not bad for money they never missed.
And you would have worked with one from n`pton

I have never worked for bg in n'ton btw.