Long story short. Cadent disconnecting our gas supply prior to the demolition of our property took them less than an hour and cost us over £1600. It was the worst value-for-money transaction I've ever paid for. I strongly urge you to shop around if you need a disconnection.The long story. We were quoted over £1600 to disconnect our gas supply and we were given the impression that it would involve halting traffic and digging up the road, which is clearly a lot of work. We were told (in error as we later found out) that if the work was easier we would be due a refund. So we paid. They sent someone around to do a survey of our site prior to the works day.On the works day they sent a man in a van to site to deploy traffic lights. He was there from 7 am. At 10 am the workmen turn up, take a look around and decide that it's too difficult to deploy traffic lights. So what was the point of the survey if not to work that out beforehand? They then try and decide what to do. My wife told them that they could cut the pipe in the ditch just off our property. So, following her suggestion, they dug a hole in the bottom of the ditch and capped off the pipe. Job done in less than an hour, and everyone, including the traffic light man (who had been sat doing nothing for four hours) drive off. Cost? £1600. Ouch!We complained to Cadent via their wecare email address, only to be told by return email that they had "closed the complaint on our behalf". Needless to say we were fuming, a prime example of customer service at its worst.We complained to the Ombudsman who, after reviewing the case, decided that there was no case to answer since the prices are fixed and published. Which is fine, but if you are quoted a price of £1600 you sort of expect to get £1600 worth of value out of the deal. I don't feel that this was the case here. Cadent offered £50 for the error about 'reducing the bill' but we refused to accept it. As I said at the time, it felt like the school bully taking your money and then giving a smirking "sorry" when they got caught.If you can avoid using Cadent I would. Both in terms of value for money and customer service their performance in our case was a definite one star. Whilst they did a decent job of cutting the gas main, there is no way on Earth that it was worth £1600. You have been warned!
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