The Worst Thing Happened

[Lupiknits]

I got up yesterday morning to a very cold house and the boiler not working. Raynaud's nightmare, and of course we're deep in snow with icy winds.

I have a service contract with British Gas, but every time I called I got as far as "If you can wait, please call later as we are prioritising vulnerable customers" before the line went dead. I went online and the website crashed. Over and over.

My son ( in London) tweeted BG for four hours before getting a response. Meanwhile I hit the jackpot with a friend's husband who was able to get to me to fix the condensate (?) pipe which had frozen.

Moral of the tale is: keep an emergency survival blanket in the house, check that the back up electric fan is powerful enough and don't bother shelling out to British Gas, who seem to have no way of differentiating between vulnerable and non vulnerable customers. Count your fingers and toes regularly while counting the blessing of a builder friend.

[MEW53]

Lupiknits,

This is amazing as this is exactly what happened to my sister yesterday, she tried calling British Gas several times, no answer, I tried the web no joy, not great when you have a contract. Fortunately a neighbour came and helped and called a gas engineer friend. All sorted exactly the same thing something had frozen. Don’t think she’d have got it fixed as quick, she was delighted as she has MS.

She has a gas fire too that was serviced in November by British Gas and now won’t work, a problem for another day at least the heating is working.

Great to have good neighbours.

[Lupiknits in reply to MEW53]

Good neighbours and those who can help are invaluable, but BG are a bit of a ripoff! I've since seen many with the same experience. They should, at least, have a seperate method the vulnerable can use. Grumble grumble !

[Hidden]

Perhaps once the snow has gone and things settle down for British Gas you could contact them and discuss how to be marked as a vulnerable customer for the future?

[Lupiknits]

Thank you. I will.

[cowhide]

Glad you got sorted. As an additional tip - everyone who has a condensing gas boiler should know where the outlet is. In cold weather they usually freeze up and it is a 2 minute job to defrost them - happened to my 82 year old Mum a couple of years ago. Nearly all gas boiler breakdowns in cold weather are due to this (the boiler makes a knocking noise). A couple of hot water bottles are also useful as an emergency warmer as long as you have power - can fill from a kettle even if no other hot water.

[hunkyd0ry]

Dito! Living with electric heaters at the moment and bowing full of thankfulness to Godess Iloprost every day! 😂

Days are getting longer. Chins up, friends - Spring will come! ✊🏻