Thousands of British Gas customers were left in the cold yesterday after its call centres collapsed and people could not get help with faulty and broken boilers.
The company effectively closed down two call centres in Scotland, with only a skeleton staff on duty, because the bad weather made it difficult for people to get to work.
There are reports that bosses told employees to stay at home to ‘look after their families’, however the net effect was that people calling the company could not get through to anyone.
Many people calling Britain’s biggest energy company, including pensioners in distress, were left holding on the telephone line for hours as the chill swept through their homes.
And some even said they still haven’t managed to get hold of anyone on the emergency line for days.
Many people calling Britain’s biggest energy company, including pensioners in distress, were left holding on the telephone line for hours as the chill swept through their homes
Reports have also emerged that the company’s online chat option on its website is unavailable due to a staff shoprt
Viv Reitan, 66, who has rheumatoid arthritis and so is listed as a priority customer, was unable to reach British Gas after her boiler broke at 6am yesterday.
The retired teacher, who lives in Rossendale, Lanchashire, was in tears as she spoke about the difficulty of getting through.
‘It was just appalling. I tried time and again, but even if the call was answered the line went dead,’ she said.
‘I cannot help but worry for the many old people who may have had a broken boiler and had no way of getting through to British Gas. It has been terribly cold. People can die in these circumstances.’
Miss Reitan said: ‘I have been a loyal British Gas customers for many years.. I pay a lot of money for help, yet in my hour of need I could not even get through to British Gas to report a problem and get the boiler fixed.
‘The weather has been extremely wild and cold, but people are being left without any help. I really felt absolutely desperate.
‘British Gas looks like a company in serious trouble. The way they have dealt with this has been just appalling.’
Another customer, aged 82, who lives with husband, aged 86, in Retford, Nottinghamshire, said she awoke yesterday morning to find the house was cold and the boiler had failed.
The woman, who asked not to be named, said: ‘I tried calling time and again, at one point I was kept hanging on for 58 minutes, but I couldn’t get through.’
She eventually spoke to someone in the British Gas IT department, who said two call centres in Glasgow and Edinburgh had been closed and staff had been told to go home to look after their families.
‘I really can’t understand why the staff could not get into the office. Losing a boiler in weather like this is a real emergency. It is absolutely no use telling people to call back at another time,’ she said.
‘Customers pay an awful lot of money, about £30 a month in my case, for boiler cover and repairs and the system should not just shut down when it is needed most.’
Theo Caderius, aged 67, who lives in Herne Bay, Kent, said the boiler broke down yesterday morning as temperatures fell to minus 4.
‘My boiler switched on at 5.30am, but it suddenly started making a strange sound and then went silent. I found there was no hot water and the radiators were going cold,’ he said.
‘I have HomeCare with British Gas and tried calling but was immediately put on hold for 25 minutes. I tried again and then did not even get as far as holding before the line went dead.’
Mr Caderius, who is a volunteer driver with a local school and lives with wife Jennifer Guichard, said the couple went out to buy fan heaters and oil filled radiators to keep the house warm.
‘This whole episode is just disgusting,’ he said.
Pictured: A tractor hauls piles of snow in Kent yesterday as it attempts to clear a road laden with 8ft drifts of the white stuff
Traffic at a standstill on the M27 near Southampton following a crash yesterday that saw saw cars backing up the motorway
A major emergency is declared in Cornwall as Storm Emma continues to cause chaos with traffic pictured here queued on the A30
Maria Bailey said her parents are listed as priority, vulnerable, customers but British Gas apparently has no hotline or website system to allow them to get help when a boiler fails.
The boiler at the home of the couple, Antonia Mareschi, 79, and Sergio, 84, who is on so-called end of life care for cancer, stopped working yesterday morning.
Mrs Bailey said: ‘I tried calling but there was a recorded message saying there was a 13 hour wait. It is just unbelievable.
‘My parents are listed as vulnerable customers, but there is just no system for us to contact British Gas and ensure that their boiler repair is treated as high priority. It is just a shambles.’ She said family and friends have stepped to provide fan heaters to the elderly couple who live in the Stopsley area of Luton.
‘My parents are lucky in the sense they have neighbours and family who can offer help, but there will be lots of people who have no-one to turn to and they will be getting very cold.’
People contacting the Trustpilot website left scathing comments about British Gas.
Gary Marshall wrote: ‘I have been trying to get through since 9pm last night I have tried ringing lots of different numbers, smartphone app, website and live chat all to no avail. I am carer for my father who lives on his own, is 79 years old and is registered blind. He is currently without heating or hot water. Thanks British Gas.’
D Garner wrote: ‘We have been without hot water and heating since 10.30 last night.
‘Despite numerous calls and ring back requests since then – all through the night – to date nobody has had the decency to call me back. We have Homecare which I pay £400 a year do, Why? British Gas are rubbish.’
British Gas said its services and call centre had seen a huge spike in demand and asked customers to only call if is is ‘absolutely essential’.
‘Due to the severe weather affecting much of the UK there is extra pressure on our services and we are experiencing extremely high levels of demand,’ it said.
‘Due to the weather conditions our call centres, whilst operational, are not fully staffed, leading to considerably higher than normal wait times. Although we are working hard to help everyone we can, we are offering the earliest available slots to those who are most vulnerable.’
The company said: ‘There is an emergency in Scotland which means we only have skeleton staff in our Scottish call centres. This is the coldest February since 2010 and our engineers have been in greater demand to help fix boilers and home appliances.
‘Our colleagues are going above and beyond to help meet customer demand – engineers have voluntarily walked to appointments when it’s unsafe to drive and customer services colleagues have been working overnight in our contact centres to help answer incoming calls. This week our engineers are expected to visit 170,000 homes.’ ‘We are asking customer to understand the need to only call us if it’s absolutely essential.
‘We would advise customers experiencing issues with frozen pipes or those requiring any other further information to visit our website britishgas.co.uk’
To add insult to injury all households in the country, including customers of British Gas, who are on prepayment meters are currently receiving letters warning them that their prices will go up from April 1 by the equivalent of £57 a year.