I recently had my gas meter changed by British Gas to a pay as you go meter. As I was unaware that the meter had been changed, I called a plumber, presuming that my boiler had broken. He came and told me that there was no gas, took the money and left. All the time he was round he wasn't able to speak a word to me, and called his boss to translate everything, so we only communicated on his mobile phone.
I was later informed by British Gas that he should have removed a cap on the meter in order to allow gas into the property (the meter has Ј10 credit on it) so I called him back.
The company arranged to have the guy come on Sunday at 9:30am, so I waited in and by 11:00am I called the company and they claim they "forgot" to come. They then arranged to come on Monday, but again it slipped their minds to turn up.
Finally, on Wednesday when he returned he couldn't locate the gas cap that British Gas had spoken about and done a few things that made me suspect he may not have been qualified.
Firstly, he could not string a sentence together in English. Knowing how difficult the CORGI/Gas safe exams are, I suspect that a fluency in English is a prerequisite.
Secondly, he removed the gas pipe into the boiler, opened the valve and, on seeing no gas proceeded to go downstairs and try to turn the gas on at the mains (luckily no gas flooded into the house. The mystical cap must have still been in place and still is as he couldn't locate it.)
At this point, I had reached my wits end and asked a neighbour to come and see if they could help. My neighbour suggested that I firstly ask the guy for his Gas Safe certificate, which I did. He said that the certificate was "in the office today"
I then asked him to provide any form of ID, and he, not being able to speak English seemed to feign ignorance. As the boss had, by this point agreed to send (in his own words) "A more qualified engineer tomorrow" the guy quickly took his leave, without showing any ID at all, saying "tomorrow I show you ID"
The only piece of evidence I have of his existence is a receipt that he signed in which he uses the name Evul Zabannle (it is illegible)
The company will be sending a further engineer tomorrow and I will check he is gas safe before he begins any work but I suspect that the one they sent today was operating without the requisite license.
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