sashinka | observation orientated, with a twist of lime | a blog

The British Gas Years - Part II
You may remember this tale of service woe I told in April. Listen to this, then.

I'm sitting at my desk, filling my brain with information about elogistics (don't even ask; it's for a client) when the buzzer goes, and a British Gas man comes to my door. "Am I expecting you?" I ask, given that they never come when you want them, but this guy is smarter dressed than an engineer-type.

"No", he replies. "You haven't paid your bill." Now I know that I paid it by phone in the summer sometime, but am not very good at filing and the like. Life's too short. I go back to my study, and rifle around my desk, and find a list of bills I gave to my flatmate at the end of July. There, writ large, is "gas bill - £76.87" (it was winter). See, "I paid it some time in July", I tell him.

He waved a disconnection notice at me, although in a very affable and friendly manner - I imagine those skills are rapidly developed on-the-job to stop you from getting your head kicked in. "Well, I'll leave you the phone number of the helpline to sort it out."

I call my bank, and they don't have a record of a payment for that sum. I rifle through my desk some more, and find this post-it note:

british gas bill £76.87 paid
7pm thurs 11/7, claire ext 38723

I am impressed by my accidental efficiency: I never have the date/time/extension number/inside leg measurement when I need it, and armed with this information, call Hannah (on extension 454436). She tells me yes, she can see that I spoke to Claire on the 11th July and made a payment, but the payment hasn't gone through. I ask what that means. Well, she tells me, if there was an error in the details, it would be returned to us, and we would write to you, but it hasn't been. I confirm that I haven't received a letter.

I press Hannah further as to what it means. "It can only be that the person who took the payment wrote it down on a piece of paper but didn't put it in the system."

But that's a core competency of the job: putting the payments through. Gah. I know working in a call centre is shit, but really. It's not nice having unscary British Gas men come round to your house unannounced waving disconnection notices in your face, however politely.

I asked to speak to a supervisor. They only make outgoing calls, apparently. So I booked a call at 2.42pm, and they'll get back to me within a four hour time slot. Hannah promised me. And those British Gas people are always to be trusted.