Smith & Byford Reviews 

Frequent no show or come late as scheduled and excused for not carrying out the agreed and scheduled works. No bother for the residents taking leave for work at weekdays in order to let the engineers in the house to do the work.

Sometimes, the engineers / plumbers do not know what tasks they have to do on site (thus not bring them with the appropriate tools) though the CS confirmed with the residents all supposed tasks to do at appointed dates and times by email and over the phone. Lack of professionalism and miscommunication made a task dragged over half year.

The service is excellent as far as speed is concerned,you tell them the problem over the phone,an engineer comes to your home and the problem is fixed within 5 minutes. Comprehensive efficiency does seem to suffer, though, my central heating was initially fixed so that it worked, then I found a radiator didn't work, that has been fixed, but now a radiator doesn't give as much heat as it did before the radiator that didn't work was fixed. You don't know if new efficiency measures mean that a comprehensive run through of a system to check that it all works would save time and money in the long term.

They never answer the phone... after one hour I gave up

S&B have been great. The office staff are friendly down to earth and eager to help. Ive had numerous gas engineers out and carpenters. Both have done an amazing job each time. All workers have been clean while they work & polite. Our yearly gas check is usually done by Dave. Great asset to the company. S&B have never let me down. They always get an engineer out quickly & problems have been solved. Thanks to all the staff at S&B
Merry christmas

i have no heating or hot water. last week i was told i need a new pump on my boiler . today he turned up tp do safety check . no pump. he knew nothing about it. waste of time. why do a safety check when i have no gas being used. moronic

Synth and byford came Serviced my boiler , next day the pressure had gone no heating no hot water .a Man from symth and byford came out did something to the boiler made a leak that wasn’t previously there turned the boiler off said it wasn’t safe ! A week later still no part synth and byford said was going to take 3 weeks to arrive . So valliant were contacted who is the manufacture who came out the next day to see if they had the part .they Turned the boiler on and said there was no reason the boiler was off nothing wrong with boiler . The pressure just needed adjusting ! Then another symth and byford bloke came out who also confirmed the part that was ordered was not needed and the boiler could have been on this whole time I am disabled with 4 children and a 1 year old and have spent a whole week no heating and hot water for no reason at all just because synth and byford wanted to make some extra money !!!! I ALSO WOULD HAVE SPENT A FURTHER 3 WEEKS WITH NO HEATING OR HOT WATER WAITING FOR THIS PART THAT WAS NOT NEEDED IF SYMTH AND BYFORD HAD THIER WAY . I HAVE A 1 YEAR OLD AND 3 OTHER CHILDREN I HAVE A HEART CONDITION AND A PAIN CONDITION WHICH IS WORSENED BY THE COLD

No hot water again! Plumber yesterday, electrician required they don't have availability until Tuesday......and high priority on medicalgrounds!!!
Pathetic service

The government need to revoke all contracts with this company immediately. They are slow, undependable and have such poor communication. It is ridiculous. Their treatment of domestic customers needs to be investigated immediately.

How can you leave us in below 5 degree weather with no hot water or heating - absolutely disgusting, i'm contacting house ombudsman and reporting this company - customer service told me Tuesday! I'm expected to wait from Friday to Tuesday with no hot water or heating. How inhumane of a company. All your employee had to say was their hands was tied.

Absolutely useless.

Avoid at all costs – terrible service and no support for vulnerable families

I contacted Smyth and Byford because my boiler has a fault, leaving me with no heating or hot water, and I have young children in the house. Despite this, I was told I wasn’t considered vulnerable. Cate, the after-hours worker, explained that the engineers “select who they want to see,” which is unbelievable for an emergency service.

I’ve already had to leave my home with my son, who had tonsillitis, because of the lack of heating. What’s the point of having an after-hours service if you’re told you still have to wait until the following morning—with no time frame given?

They also ask completely unnecessary questions. I’m explaining that the boiler is faulty, so why am I being asked to set times on the thermostat as if that would fix anything? The whole experience has been extremely frustrating and completely unhelpful.

This company seriously needs to review how it operates or stop claiming to offer emergency support.

We have had our appointment cancelled two days in a row, its beyond a joke.
Again my toddler is unable to sleep in her room as we cant use the radiator. I was told I would receive a phone call if they were unable to send someone today, instead they booked an appointment without checking if anyone could be in. Myself and my partner work full time and are unable to take time off at the drop of a hat. Especially seeing as two days have been taken off for two cancelled appointments, two days waiting in all day for nothing.

I did expect the decency to call rather than just rebooking and sending a text.

I’ve had a very disappointing with this company.
Their customer service is awful they take an unreasonable amount of time to order parts for my boiler and communication is terrible.
They do not show up for scheduled appointments which left me with out hot water and heating for more than 10 days .
Based on my experience I would not recommend their services .

They never come with shoe covering. I called twice put on hold for about 7 mins just for the man to come back and tell me “I sent a message to the engineer and we will see what we can do”. I called the customer feedback team, the lady said “ I will have to put you through because I don’t know what they do each team handles things differently”. Protect the customers and the customers protect you.

Smith and byford sent me a text saying my repairs had been escalated to the 24 Oct 2025.
I waited in all day and no one turned up

Smith and Byford are the gas safety inspectors for many social housing landlosrds and they are the worst ever. I had an appointment that for a Monday, received a voicemail onthe Friday saying it's cancelled. Called them Saturday to rudely be told that I can't choose an appointment day. On the Sunday received a text saying the Monday Appointment (first call) is still on. Monday morning told it's cancelled. Just after 10am, after leaving home I got a call from an extremely rude, offensive and abusive woman saying the engineer is on the ay. After hanging up on her she called again, within a minute and pretending to be someone else, after complaining about the previous call she said, "that was me and hung up". On the 12th September I received a letter saying I have "an appointment on the 11th"? After that I have received nothing from them but have received a notice from my landlord threatening to proscute me and force my door to do an inspection, with me being charged for the damage done? Considering S and B checked my gas supply and boiler in June, after a new gas meter was installed the law is clear in that the gas supply / boiler doesn't need inspecting until next June says that S and B are accepting that they have no confidence in their own engineers and don't consider them fit for inspections yet they are the ones that are contracted to do them. The worst company ever and they are very offensive towards disabled people, which is criminal. I contacted them after receiving the threat of court action and they said they'd contact my landlord and nothing has happened.

Smith and Byford have been bullying me into a gas safety check on a date with 2 days notice and refused to change the appointment (first). I work and I need 2 weeks notice to give my employer. Smith and byford refuse the day I can get off and they said they will send the engineer anyway and I’ll be marked as a no show even though I’ve offered dates and times, I was told it’s tuff.
This is disgusting waste of time and money.
There’s plenty of time before my boiler certificate runs out .

Thank you Tony you was an absolute star professional, skillful, respectable and pleasant when you came today to fix my boiler, and I am also very grateful for the prompt action and the kindness and respect from the office staff. Please thank Tony on my behalf.

Terrible Customer service . Received an appt letter , that i hadn't made and couldn't make so phoned to change it but was told I couldn't and that an engineer will come out and leave a card through the door . I said please dont as I've notified you that im not home and it will be a waste of time. He said its down to legislation and he has to come. Bearing in mind the annual boiler appt they wanted to make was at 10 months ! Phoned the next day and spoke to someone else who was able to change the appt no problem , no mention of legislation. First bloke didnt kniw what he was talking about and was willing to waste the engineers time. Im wondering if they still get paid!!!!!! 🤔

Absolutely terrible experience.a bloke came round to take water samples from the loft,2 hours.2 weeks later they rang up and said he didn’t get them to the laboratory in time so made another appointment.didn’t turn up and no apologies.over the next 2 months they made another 5 appointments and never turned up,no apologies a month later I came downstairs to find a card through letterbox.sorry we missed you.the card had 7.30 on it and I hadn’t made an appointment.today without an appointment bloke just turned up.I told him about the terrible experience I had .let him in,in and out within 5 minutes .let’s hope he gets it to the laboratory in time.

Disaster of a company. I am heavily pregnant and had a high CO2 reading at midwife appointment, they suggested I contact gas company to hv gas supply checked. Gas company came and capped the gas 2 days ago but Smyth and Byford hv refused to come and inspect the boiler and switch it back on until I email them blood test results from midwife! I hv explained the CO2 test is done with a handheld machine and no blood test and they hv said I must go to the hospital and do a blood test otherwise they will not attend the house. We hv small children in the house with no hot water and no gas, I can not get a blood test appointment and results would come out in days anyway, so basically no gas for potentially weeks. Doctor has made it clear a gas company have no right or reason to your private medical information in order to provide a service.
The staff just want to get you off the call with no help or solutions and no managers available. This issue was reported on a Thursday evening, I am now being told the team who deal with ‘blood tests emails’ are not even open today (Saturday) so nothing can be looked at until Monday.
Basically if I can not email them a blood test they refuse to attend the address to resolve the reported boiler issue.