Anyone here work for British Gas?

[mickyg]

There are very few companies who can offer a fully comprehensive apprenticeship in the gas industry, especially with the pay and conditions british gas offer. I'd certainly go for it. Working for BG is a great way to get experience with a variety of work, and get reasonably paid for it, as well as picking up all your qualifications. I wouldn't personally recommend staying as I didn't but its definately the best place to start. In 7 years at BG I got every single domestic gas qualification, including LPG, ranges, leisure equipment etc... as well as unvented, EE. I had a go as a TSM which I hated, but it was definately worthwhile experience. I done some time on upgrades, doing fully pumped conversions, gas pipe runs, etc... as well as all the usual work.
I don't think I could have possibly got all that experience from any other company in such a short time from joining as an apprentice.
I'm one of BG's biggest critics as people will know, but there's no better place to start IMO.

 

[davebgas]

Best company I've worked for hands down..... I've worked for shell, Transco/National Grid etc etc.... like most companies, do your job, do it well and you wont have a problem....and not all the good engineers have left or being pensioned off.....

 

[Deleted member 105431]

and not all the good engineers have left or being pensioned off.....

not a personal attack at you Dave, just a generalisation. There seems to be alot of difference between patches, some good and most very, very bad.

Most engineers have just gone past caring now and have lost all motivation. . . . .

 

[Axel]

Not all of us are bodgers

BODGER/ˈbɒdʒə/

An itinerant chair-leg turner.

This term was once common around the furniture-making town of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, between London and Oxford. Bodgers were highly skilled itinerant wood-turners, who worked in the beech woods on the chalk hills of the Chilterns. They cut timber and converted it into chair legs by turning it on a pole lathe, an ancient and very simple tool that uses the spring of a bent sapling to help run it. Their equipment was so easy to move and set up that it was easier to go to the timber and work it there than to transport it to a workshop. The completed chair legs were sold to furniture factories to be married with other chair parts made in the workshop.

 

[craig51]

thanks all.

It seems that for apprentiships, experience and hands on opportunities, BG seems pretty good.

As for their sales pushing and working hours.... well thats a sacrifice I will need to make. If it all goes pete tong, then I will at least walk away with good qualifications, and a trade under my belt. Cant ask for much more in my books.

Just need to get the job now. There will be 20 of us getting interviewed, so fingers crossed.

 

[Gasman28]

paul, the contractors seem to have an easy life round here. the do **** all properly, only work 3 days a week and generally annoy the direct labour.

i doubt any of them would come near most of us for fear of physical violence.

from the sounds of it you are getting a bad deal, i doubt i would stay for that.

Wherever you are fella, you might be right, but, I am in Mid Kent and have between 7 - 10 ASV's per day. These are case off, clean and check burner pressures, PT etc. No doubt there are those contractors out there that don't give a rodents rectum, possibly because of the payment, lack of BG support etc. I have found too many times that the customer has stated that it's the first time in ages that the boiler case hase been removed. Even worse with back boilers. I have found too many times smoke pellets lying just inside the BBF casing. So who is to blame?

the above has prob just cost me my contract with bg.check out my post in the combustion chamber under what aday.for correctly following protocol/labeling appliances and just general gas safety may have put the "direct labour" in the brown stuff.So for doing my job CORRECTLY i may be looking for work elsewhere

How true that might be. I have followed up on loads of BG service work and found that the case has never been removed for years.
I agree that not all BG engineers should be tarnished with the same brush, as many on the forum might suggest. I know lots of really good BG engineers, but most say the same. They don't have the time to complete a satisfactory job within their scope or remit.

BG are, in essence, a really good training provider and employer. They just need to get their act together for once and for all.

 

[nickso]

I have found too many times that the customer has stated that it's the first time in ages that the boiler case hase been removed. Even worse with back boilers. I have found too many times smoke pellets lying just inside the BBF casing. So who is to blame?

yeh i see that too. my lot are ok but when i cross the border into the next patch its a nightmare.

i get the old classic with some customers though, "thats never been done like that before".
"oh yes it has mrs, i did the service last year"

They don't have the time to complete a satisfactory job within their scope or remit.

it is possible, just. laziness and poor skill stop most of them.

 

[BingoBongo]

whens the last time you had to hunt for a spur,usually by pulling out a sofa to look under the stairs (only to find a 13 amp fuse)
and then be told by a moaning cusomer "how come the last guy didnt have to do this"

as if YOU are the 1 doing it wrong

i actually started keeping the 13amp fuses in the pouch of my bag,must have at least 20 now

q "most bg have spurs on there boots" jokes

 

[ollski]

Depends on the com manager and tsm you get, get a good one its a great job, bad one and its a nightmare. There are currently coms nationally who are following engineers round at a distance spying on them which isn't really condusive to a good working atmosphere and team spirit.
Take your training though it's the best you will get, especially as eon have currently all but pulled out from the market.

 

[nickso]

whens the last time you had to hunt for a spur,usually by pulling out a sofa to look under the stairs (only to find a 13 amp fuse)
and then be told by a moaning cusomer "how come the last guy didnt have to do this"

as if YOU are the 1 doing it wrong

i actually started keeping the 13amp fuses in the pouch of my bag,must have at least 20 now

q "most bg have spurs on there boots" jokes

depends on what im doing in the house to be honest. i dont check the spur or plug or whatever everytime.

i certainly dont use that socket and see thing.

theres a guy here who does everything by the book, absolutely everything, christ he is slow.

 

[Soggy_weetabix]

Great company to work for..... you will be told to condemn an awful lot of boilers for BG to price and replace.

Then the customers call me and I go in and repair, and 5-10 years down the line I put my contractors in to replace at a fraction of BG's costs.

Ill give to an example of a job today... Warm Air Unit and Circulator. BG contract.... Engineer turned up (same time as me as was fitting a new cooker). Its a rented property BTW.

Cooker fitted and BG engineer had dismantled room stat, bypassed limit stat and warm air would still not work.

Quote BG "Senior technition (sic) will need to assess this" and left.

Within 10 mins and a multimeter Id found the fault. Mouth kept firmly shut at this point.

Im back tomorrow to repair, landlord is taking it up with BG and Ive picked up another service contract. AND FOR WHAT? I can use a multimeter. 4 minutes to diagnose the gas valve was the culprit!

I can only assume BG are capable of repairing a mouse trap, and nothing more complicated.

Dave

 

[nickso]

Great company to work for..... you will be told to condemn an awful lot of boilers for BG to price and replace.

no you wont.

 

[namsag]

Hope you have your WAU ticket soggy
Amazing how many have not got a clue about the basics of a warm air, there was a private guy on here recently who said there was no way of getting into the fan .Its not just BG .
Although BGprobably offer the best training out there it is not a patch on what it was or what it should be.

 

[nickso]

Although BGprobably offer the best training out there it is not a patch on what it was or what it should be.

the problem is trying to get the information to stick in some of the more challenged engineers heads.

senior technician doesnt even exist, what a bullshitter.

 

[namsag]

Nickso part of the toOL kit should be a roll of Andrex as some of them nee help wiping there own ass.

Old technicians from pre 95 are still on 500 quid a year more are they not. We where lucky we had 2 of the best old school technicians about no one could touch them.
Try getting a manager to understand that them doing 5 jobs a day was actually saving them money than some daft boy running about throwing parts into 12 boilers a day. YEAH BUT YEAH BUT.