This is a story that appeared in the Guardian Newspaper, for confirmation go to:
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/money/guardian/features/2006/03/11/inflating-profits-with-home-insurance.html
Inflating Profits With Home Insurance
As gas price rises have put pressure on margins in its core business, British Gas has focused on the money to be made from selling insurance policies.
At the end of February, Centrica (which owns British Gas) published its annual report for 2005, which revealed British Gas Services - the division that operates the HomeCare policies – increased profits by 54% - up to £111m.
It also announced a 22% increase in dividends for shareholders – just six days after British Gas said it was increasing gas and electricity prices for UK domestic consumers by 22%. British Gas now sells insurance for everything form boilers to your home’s electrics and plumbing its most expensive policy costs nearly £300 a year.
Ring up the company today and the person taking the call will automatically try and sell you a policy – a special computer system tells them which product to push. They even have days which involves the call centre blitzing sales of a single product, such as kitchen appliance cover, for 24 hours.
Late last year, a whistleblower working at a British Gas call centre revealed how staff were told to sell the lucrative products rather than focus on resolving customer problems. An internal memo showed that staff who failed to sell enough policies each month would be “exited from the business”. Staff who joined the company before Centrica took over claim cost-cutting has resulted in falling standards.
Centrica’s chief executive, Sir Roy Gardner, at the report’s publication last month, acknowledged there had been management problems with HomeCare policies. “We have a dedicated management team focusing on resolving those issues. During the first half we will get back to providing an excellent service to customers,” he said.
OUR ENGINEERS COMMENTS
You would have to be a very unfortunate individual to have between £192 and £300 in repair bills every year. On top of this the Boiler itself is not covered, only the component parts; so when British Gas say you need a new Boiler, you will have to get one fitted to remain covered. Homecare insurance simply provides an exceptionally high cost for the level of cover it provides; you would be far better off using an independent Heating Engineer.
This is a story that appeared in the Guardian Newspaper, for confirmation go to:
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/money/guardian/features/2006/03/11/british-gas-insider-turns-up-the-heat.html
British Gas Insider Turns Up The Heat
A long-standing worker at a British Gas call centre has turned whistleblower to expose how its HomeCare operation has slipped into disarray. In November, as winter began to bite, the service fell into such chaos that British Gas told call centre workers that customers without heating or hot water should no longer be treated as a priority.
The insurance policies, which typically cost £192 a year and rise to £293 a year, have been sold to 3.5 million households.
They are advertised as providing “expert boiler care” and offering “peace of mind”. They are particularly popular with the elderly or anyone who doesn’t wish to find a plumber in an emergency.
However, according to the British Gas whistleblower, and letters to Guardian Money, little peace of mind is being offered; just long waits, and in some cases appalling customer service.
As one internal British Gas document bluntly states; “We are experiencing extreme difficulties in meeting our customer requirements.”
The whistleblower says:
British Gas told call centre staff in November that: “No heat/no hot water customers should have appointments booked on a non-urgent basis.” This lasted for around eight weeks.
A significant number of 80-year-olds were left without heating for several days during the recent cold spell, possibly putting lives at risk.
Over the past two months, customers have had to wait up to six days for an engineer to come out. If parts were needed, it would often be several more days before a boiler was repaired.
The management system that books engineers and controls the distribution of parts is in chaos; jobs are regularly cancelled without informing the customer, who may be waiting for the engineer in a cold house.
Call staff are still being pressured to sell new policies, while the system is struggling with existing claims.
British Gas says this winter has been its busiest on record and admits that at times it struggled to cope. It says it conducted 2 million repairs in 2005 and that 60% of customers were offered an appointment the same day.
It said the vast majority of its 3.4 million customers are very satisfied with the company’s response to fixing breakdowns. It adds that it recruited around 1,000 new engineers in 2005 and will invest a further £30million this year in recruiting another 1,000 engineers.
OUR ENGINEERS COMMENTS
This story demonstrates yet again that people don’t receive the service they are paying for. One of the biggest problems is the lack of parts, there are thousands of boilers and nobody can possibly carry a fraction of them. Whereas an independent Engineer will source the parts and fit them, else he won’t get paid, British Gas has already got your money and the Engineers have neither the time or means of purchasing parts, they rely on their own parts department because the cost is lower; this doesn’t help the customer, who is left waiting so that British Gas can save on their costs. The last two statements say it all, if they are going to recruit another 1,000 Engineers, it means they obviously have at least a 1,000 too few at the moment, so there is never going to be an adequate response to breakdowns.
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/money/guardian/features/2006/03/11/inflating-
Inflating Profits With Home Insurance
As gas price rises have put pressure on margins in its core business, British Gas has focused on the money to be made from selling insurance policies.
At the end of February, Centrica (which owns British Gas) published its annual report for 2005, which revealed British Gas Services -
It also announced a 22% increase in dividends for shareholders – just six days after British Gas said it was increasing gas and electricity prices for UK domestic consumers by 22%. British Gas now sells insurance for everything form boilers to your home’s electrics and plumbing its most expensive policy costs nearly £300 a year.
Ring up the company today and the person taking the call will automatically try and sell you a policy – a special computer system tells them which product to push. They even have days which involves the call centre blitzing sales of a single product, such as kitchen appliance cover, for 24 hours.
Late last year, a whistleblower working at a British Gas call centre revealed how staff were told to sell the lucrative products rather than focus on resolving customer problems. An internal memo showed that staff who failed to sell enough policies each month would be “exited from the business”. Staff who joined the company before Centrica took over claim cost-
Centrica’s chief executive, Sir Roy Gardner, at the report’s publication last month, acknowledged there had been management problems with HomeCare policies. “We have a dedicated management team focusing on resolving those issues. During the first half we will get back to providing an excellent service to customers,” he said.
OUR ENGINEERS COMMENTS
You would have to be a very unfortunate individual to have between £192 and £300 in repair bills every year. On top of this the Boiler itself is not covered, only the component parts; so when British Gas say you need a new Boiler, you will have to get one fitted to remain covered. Homecare insurance simply provides an exceptionally high cost for the level of cover it provides; you would be far better off using an independent Heating Engineer.
This is a story that appeared in the Guardian Newspaper, for confirmation go to:
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/money/guardian/features/2006/03/11/british-
British Gas Insider Turns Up The Heat
A long-
The insurance policies, which typically cost £192 a year and rise to £293 a year, have been sold to 3.5 million households.
They are advertised as providing “expert boiler care” and offering “peace of mind”. They are particularly popular with the elderly or anyone who doesn’t wish to find a plumber in an emergency.
However, according to the British Gas whistleblower, and letters to Guardian Money, little peace of mind is being offered; just long waits, and in some cases appalling customer service.
As one internal British Gas document bluntly states; “We are experiencing extreme difficulties in meeting our customer requirements.”
The whistleblower says:
British Gas told call centre staff in November that: “No heat/no hot water customers should have appointments booked on a non-
A significant number of 80-
Over the past two months, customers have had to wait up to six days for an engineer to come out. If parts were needed, it would often be several more days before a boiler was repaired.
The management system that books engineers and controls the distribution of parts is in chaos; jobs are regularly cancelled without informing the customer, who may be waiting for the engineer in a cold house.
Call staff are still being pressured to sell new policies, while the system is struggling with existing claims.
British Gas says this winter has been its busiest on record and admits that at times it struggled to cope. It says it conducted 2 million repairs in 2005 and that 60% of customers were offered an appointment the same day.
It said the vast majority of its 3.4 million customers are very satisfied with the company’s response to fixing breakdowns. It adds that it recruited around 1,000 new engineers in 2005 and will invest a further £30million this year in recruiting another 1,000 engineers.
OUR ENGINEERS COMMENTS
This story demonstrates yet again that people don’t receive the service they are paying for. One of the biggest problems is the lack of parts, there are thousands of boilers and nobody can possibly carry a fraction of them. Whereas an independent Engineer will source the parts and fit them, else he won’t get paid, British Gas has already got your money and the Engineers have neither the time or means of purchasing parts, they rely on their own parts department because the cost is lower; this doesn’t help the customer, who is left waiting so that British Gas can save on their costs. The last two statements say it all, if they are going to recruit another 1,000 Engineers, it means they obviously have at least a 1,000 too few at the moment, so there is never going to be an adequate response to breakdowns.
© 2006 Heating & Plumbing Solutions
Made by Selsoft