Absent Scottish Gas engineers left one ill customer boiling over

Q. I called Scottish Gas this morning to report no heating in my house for the fourth time in eight days. An engineer has already been out three times.

The first time, I was given a five-hour slot. He came, didn’t have the parts, ordered the parts and arranged to come back the next day. He managed to get my heating up and running.

Two days later my heating broke down again. I was given a morning slot (8-1pm) on the Saturday for the next visit. I waited in all morning for the engineer, in a freezing house. I have chronic, severe asthma, which requires emergency treatment several times a year. He never showed. I called Scottish Gas and they said that he would be there shortly as mine was the next appointment. He didn’t turn up. I called Scottish Gas again, but waited so long for a response I had to give up. A voicemail message was left for me saying an engineer would come in an hour. No-one came. I called Scottish Gas again, and they said they’d get someone out and offered £10 compensation. At quarter to five an engineer arrived, supposedly fixed the heating and left. My heating broke down again last evening. I called again this morning. An engineer will be back out between 12 and 6pm today. Nice way to treat someone who is classed as ‘vulnerable’ in the coldest month of the year. I lodged a formal complaint with Scottish Gas but so far no reply

BW, Edinburgh

A. Lucy Coyle of Scottish Gas said: “I’m very sorry that we failed to correctly diagnose the fault with Ms W’s boiler as quickly as we should have. We’ve apologised and offered a gesture of goodwill. We aim to fix boilers on the first visit and we are looking into what went wrong in this case.”

• If you have a consumer issue that you would like tackling, contact Claire Smith on 0131 620 8511 or e-mail [email protected].