Are you Corghi registered?
You wouldn't believe how many times I'm asked this over the phone by potential customers, it appears Gas Safe aren't doing a fantastic job of promoting themselves...
Engaging in a conversation with an individual that may be looking to do business with me by initially correcting their question always puts me on the back foot.
The problem is, we as Gas Safe registered engineers must educate and inform those seeking to have work carried out on their gas appliance or installation, the importance of the repairer having the correct credentials, this being Gas Safe registration.
In the past 12 months I've haven't once been asked to produce my Gas Safe I.D, on the occasions where I have been been asked if i am Gas Safe registered, everybody seems complacent hearing "yes, I'm Gas Safe registered" not stopping to see the identification I've produced.
When taking the services of somebody to work on your gas appliance, be it connecting a cooker or servicing your boiler, you as the end user must always check for your own safety, that 1) they are Gas Safe registered and 2) they hold the correct qualifications for the appliance they are about to work on. This can be found on the back of their card and is pretty self explanatory.
Please don't feel for one minute that any genuine gas engineer would take offense at being asked to produce their credentials, we are striving hard to make the regulations tighter and increasing public awareness to the importance of having a suitably qualified engineer working on their gas.
In my home city of Nottingham, a study has found that 86% of the work that has been carried out by persons not on the Gas Safe register was dangerous or unsafe, that's a pretty staggering figure.
So just to clarify...Corghi no longer exists as the governing body for Gas Safety. All gas engineers that want to work on gas must be registered through Gas Safe with the appropriate qualifications.
Always check the I.D, it takes 2 seconds but could save your life.