A Happy Ending for All

5.25.52pm GMT Wed 22nd Nov 2006

Tom Brake last week broke the news of his elderly constituent who went without gas for eleven days at the hands of his gas company, British Gas. The matter has now been swiftly rectified, and a shocked Corporate Affairs Manager jumped on the gun as soon as she saw the press release, and set to straightening everything out.

Mr Evans, the blind pensioner and veteran who had been without gas services for over one week, was called and apologised to. As a goodwill gesture for all the trouble British Gas has sent out a cheque for £50. Mr Day, Mr Evans' neighbour who had helped him through the ordeal and made numerous phone calls at his own expense, was also issued a cheque, this one for £25, to cover the lengthy costs he is expecting on his next phone bill. Both Mr Evans and Mr Day were very happy with the response and overall reaction of British Gas to the press release.

British Gas has also recently undertaken steps to make significant investment and improvements into their customer service operations, and have been trying to improve the speed with which customer complaints have been addressed. They have also lately hired an additional 500 contact centre agents to try to achieve their goals of shortened wait times (a goal that Mr Evans and Mr Day would certainly both appreciate).

Speaking to British Gas, Tom Brake also uncovered that as Mr Evans lives in council housing, it is the responsibility of Sutton Housing Partnership to provide Mr Evans with some form of temporary heat until his gas is restored.

For now, however, everyone is happy, and perhaps more importantly, everyone has heating and gas services.