Widow, 72, slapped with £240 invoice by British Gas Homecare to tighten leaky faucet | UK | News | EUROtoday

A dripping faucet in her kitchen has left 72-year-old widow, Linda Gresham, with a invoice of over £200 from British Gas Homecare. This job would have been fastened by her engineer husband, Norman, nonetheless, he died of most cancers 12 years in the past on the age of 64.

Ms Gresham, who lives in Renfrew – 5 miles from Glasgow – was not snug with tackling the job by herself and relied on her HomeCare settlement with British Gas for assist, based on MailOnline. A month-to-month price, starting from £19 to £28.20 relying on the extent of canopy, can embody boiler breakdowns, plumbing, house electrics and kitchen home equipment. “I was paying £360 a year for insurance that included plumbing issues like this, so was pleased that after 25 years of having the cover I was finally able to use it,” mentioned Ms Gresham. “Last August, an engineer came and put in a new tap as part of my plan. I was delighted.”

Just one month later, British Gas elevated the price of her cowl by 50% – an additional £180 a 12 months for a similar service. But Ms Gresham, who was struggling on a primary state pension, opted to downgrade to a extra primary “essential” bundle – to cowl her boiler and never plumbing.

However, this nonetheless price an eyewatering £425 a 12 months – far increased than she was paying earlier than. In February, simply six months after the brand new faucet was put in, it began to come back unfastened from the sink.

When Ms Gresham referred to as British Gas HomeCare about the issue, the corporate advised her it might reintroduce her plumbing cowl if she was prepared to pay an extra £15 a month – £180 a 12 months. Ms Gresham took out the extra plumbing choice midway via the contract time period, that means it price her £90.

Ms Gresham agreed to pay the additional worth from March. However, for the engineer to type out the issue, she was advised she needed to hand over a further £150. She would be capable to declare this again if it was discovered that the issue was associated to the faucet set up.

“The engineer was perfectly pleasant but was only inside my home seven minutes just tightening the old fitting,” Ms Gresham defined. He confirmed that the issue wouldn’t have occurred if it had been tightened correctly within the first place.

However, when she rang to say the cash again, she was “rudely told” she wouldn’t get a refund.

“I was left in tears,” she mentioned.

“I was frightened the kitchen might flood if I didn’t fix the problem and feel I was panicked into paying all this extra money. But I now feel that I have been exploited just because I am vulnerable and unable to simply repair the tap myself.”

Plumbing consultants have revealed that paying to get a faucet fastened ought to price not more than £70, and if a repeat go to is required inside 12 months for a similar job, any additional work ought to be executed totally free, This is Money reported.

The Express contacted British Gas and a spokesperson mentioned: “We have reviewed Ms Gresham’s case and agree the extra £150 she was asked to pay was an error and we have refunded that amount.

“We are reviewing the issues she raised relating to her customer support expertise.”

The utility large – serving over eight million properties and companies in Britain – additionally despatched a £50 goodwill gesture for Linda’s customer support expertise and added a 15% low cost to her HomeCare plan.