We have a gas leak in the inlet pipe to the gas fire in our lounge. Not large but noticeable. BG notified early Thursday morning, Cadern engineer arrived within an hour and, did a thorough check, finally identifying the source of the leak. So far so good. He could not tackle the problem, so we reported an emergency through the BG (0333)helpline. This helpline eventually lets you talk to someone, after about 10minutes listening to recoded garbage. THIS HELPLINE TURNS OUT TO BE A CALL CENTRE IN SOUTH AFRICA. We then had to wait for over 24 hours for an engineer. When he arrived he could not fix the problem because it is in the pipe below floor level. No complaints about the engineer he was very helpful and did his best to expedite the solution. An ‘expert’ was needed to determine what needed to be done, but he couldn’t attend until Tuesday, so another 4 days without heating, gas for cooking etc. Further calls, each day, to the helpline were of no help, so it’s microwave meals and bed socks for a few more days. Then if the carpets and floorboards have to come up how much longer will we be suffering. BG have an industrial dispute with their engineering staff and many have left rather than accept the new contracts they were offered, we used to have 41 covering or area, now there are only 17. No wonder service is so bad.