British Gas: Online system does not work

March 02 2023

June 11 2024

I have been trying to book my first service with British Gas HomeCare since late last year (2022). I received two letters from British Gas telling me that my service was due. One letter in July and the second reminder in August, so I dutifully went online to book the service. The online request for an engineer responded with a message saying that 'we'll be in touch when it's time for your service' and ending with 'Leave it with us - There's no need to call, we'll let you know when it's time to book'.

So I waited a month or two without any notification from British Gas and tried again, and received the same online message.

I was desperate to avoid having to call British Gas customer services, and wait an hour for someone to respond, so I left it until now.

Here I am today, at the beginning of March 2023, trying once again to book my first service online. Same message appears. They'll get back to me when the service is due.

By now the service is way overdue!

So I do the sensible thing and turn to their online chat service. Surely that has to be the best way to get this service booked if the online system doesn't work?

Nope, their online virtual chat agent responds without hesitation with 'Let me get you to the right team', and leaves the chat!

So I wait, and wait, and no one joins the chat, so I leave.

There are a few major issues with this whole experience. Firstly, why does such a simple task like booking an engineer online not work, and no message sent back to the user giving a reason why it doesn't ork? This is basic stuff British Gas!

The second issue is that it must surely be infinitely better for me to make these requests online than call a customer services agent? Isn't that the purpose of these online functions, to reduce the overhead?

And lastly, and most importantly, I still have no boiler service booked. If something does break now, then British Gas will have to fix it regardless of whether I have had a service or not!