British Gas strike again!

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phil d

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Had an interesting one recently, since my knees went I'm only doing odds and sods and this was how I met an elderley lady who needed a few bits and bobs sorting, while chatting she told me that her combi kept losing pressure and since she had the BG homecare she'd called them out, they'd diagnosed a leak in one of her pipes and since some of them were buried in the floor it meant a full repipe costing £2.5k!
Added to this was all the disruption and damage to the decoration, something she didnt really fancy, not to mention the massive bill for the work after all £2.5k isnt chicken feed. Anyway I was looking at something she needed fixing and noticed a bit of corrosion on a radiator valve, took off the cover and it was leaking. A quick visit to a local SF and for under £3 I now had a new valve, it took an hour to fit it and guess what, no more pressure loss, you really have to wonder about some people dont you?
Incidentally she also had electric cover with BG and that was a farce, they'd done an eicr and a board change and what a mess, Main earth bond to the gas was attached to the steel incoming gas pipe, and that was just for starters the sockets circuits were marked as up and down, this got rather interesting later when a fault occured, the sockets were actually wired left and right, so in the kitchen for example, the sockets on the right hand side went off along with some of the upstairs ones and some in the lounge, those on the left remained live along with others in the house.
It was perfectly straight forward and not the first time i'd seen houses wired this way, another way was 'front and back', how hard can it be to get things right when testing an installation? I told her to cancel the electric cover, I'd look after it for her, so she rang them and what a palaver, they came up with all sorts of reasons why she should stay with them, one of the best being she may not find a reliable and competant electrician elsewhere! I listened to that phone call with some interest, as they tried to persuade her not to end the contract, in the end she told them she'd already found a reliable electrician, they replied with 'that may be so, but it doesnt mean he'll do your work for you'. At this point I almost burst out laughing at the elderly lady's reply, 'oh I dont think he'll have a choice, you see he's marrying my daughter next week' , Blimey and I thought I was quick with the replies, anyway at that point they gave up and said they'd refund her the money she had paid for the remaining part of the year. You really have to wonder just how much shoddy work they do and how they get away with it.
 
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