British Gas breakdown cover
Discussion
We took my mum out for the day a while ago and it was early, we hadn't eaten so we stopped for a late breakfast. We bought the set 7 item breakfast for £2.99 each and sat down. About 10 minutes later breakfast arrived with just a puddle of beans, one sausage and a slice of toast on each plate.
Excuse me I said, we appear to have some items missing. The response was - oh, we've run out
Anyway, it was akin to my experience with good old BG....
We thought we'd get British Gas cover for our central heating and domestic hot water at £16.99 a month.
They dictate that they have to "pass" our system first, they have already taken 3 payments and couldn't send anyone to do the appraisal for nearly 2 months!
BG Chap calls Friday checks it all out and says it OK but we have a problem with ventilation to the boiler and inadequate access to the top panel. Could we rip out the kitchen cupboard that it's housed in....
I don't really mate as it look a dogs dinner.... I asked him to explain and justify his daignosis and it transpired that we have no vent below the boiler.
But the panel is open and provides more than enough free air.
So what about the top.
You're going to have to cut your pelmet off your kitchen cupboard just there so that there are no obstructions, he says.
There's no top to the cupboard and the pelmet can be unscrewed.
I guess that's OK he said but I have to point this out to you.
Earlier in conversation he was telling me about how they undersize all boilers now for energy efficiency then proceeds to tell me that my boiler is under sized and won't be covered by their insurance.
He also databased all this as "inadequate ventilation to boiler" and "inadequate boiler housing", "inadequate boiler".
The cost is the same however even though the major part (boiler) isn't covered. Sending my cancellation tonight!
Excuse me I said, we appear to have some items missing. The response was - oh, we've run out
Anyway, it was akin to my experience with good old BG....
We thought we'd get British Gas cover for our central heating and domestic hot water at £16.99 a month.
They dictate that they have to "pass" our system first, they have already taken 3 payments and couldn't send anyone to do the appraisal for nearly 2 months!
BG Chap calls Friday checks it all out and says it OK but we have a problem with ventilation to the boiler and inadequate access to the top panel. Could we rip out the kitchen cupboard that it's housed in....
I don't really mate as it look a dogs dinner.... I asked him to explain and justify his daignosis and it transpired that we have no vent below the boiler.
But the panel is open and provides more than enough free air.
So what about the top.
You're going to have to cut your pelmet off your kitchen cupboard just there so that there are no obstructions, he says.
There's no top to the cupboard and the pelmet can be unscrewed.
I guess that's OK he said but I have to point this out to you.
Earlier in conversation he was telling me about how they undersize all boilers now for energy efficiency then proceeds to tell me that my boiler is under sized and won't be covered by their insurance.
He also databased all this as "inadequate ventilation to boiler" and "inadequate boiler housing", "inadequate boiler".
The cost is the same however even though the major part (boiler) isn't covered. Sending my cancellation tonight!
Well I am all for British Gas service cover for boilers, well assuming their engineers are competent that is! We are still in January and already British Gas have made 5 visits to us this year, and their 6th visit is on Wednesday!
In the course of the last 18 months they must have been on 20 seperate occasions, and it is easier to say what they haven't replaced than what has been replaced! On Wednesday they are coming to replace the circuit board which they have already replaced once back in July last year.
Strangely their engineers are outting us under pressure to have a new gas boiler fitted! Even more strangely I won't be having an Ariston boiler which is the make of the current one.
My biggest surprise so far is that British Gas wanted £1,850 for a new boiler which increased to £2,150 when the sales office phoned, and then reduced to £1,500 when we told the engineer why we han't gone for it, but Swale Heating wanted £2,250, I was expecting British Gas to cost the most. Mind you suspect the boilers on offer are not comparable.
In the course of the last 18 months they must have been on 20 seperate occasions, and it is easier to say what they haven't replaced than what has been replaced! On Wednesday they are coming to replace the circuit board which they have already replaced once back in July last year.
Strangely their engineers are outting us under pressure to have a new gas boiler fitted! Even more strangely I won't be having an Ariston boiler which is the make of the current one.
My biggest surprise so far is that British Gas wanted £1,850 for a new boiler which increased to £2,150 when the sales office phoned, and then reduced to £1,500 when we told the engineer why we han't gone for it, but Swale Heating wanted £2,250, I was expecting British Gas to cost the most. Mind you suspect the boilers on offer are not comparable.
BG engineer also opened all of the balancing valves on every radiator so now the rads at the end of the line don't even get warm
It took me ages to get them all balanced a while ago.
I thought BG engineers are supposed to be experienced and qualified, would it not be obvious to an untrained person that you don't have every radiator at full flow??
The radiators nearest to the boiler should be restricted in flow to increase the flow to the radiators further along the central heating circuit, as you work along the system the valve openings will increase until eventually your last rad on the circuit will have the valves fully open.
I really do think it's better to do everything myself.
The garage I use said that my fuel lines run too close to the exhaust on my Pontiac, I checked them and the "fuel lines" are actually the handbrake cables
Why is it I always seem to know more than so called specialists who wan't my money for providing a poor service?
If only there were more hours in a day to enable me to do everything myself.
It took me ages to get them all balanced a while ago.
I thought BG engineers are supposed to be experienced and qualified, would it not be obvious to an untrained person that you don't have every radiator at full flow??
The radiators nearest to the boiler should be restricted in flow to increase the flow to the radiators further along the central heating circuit, as you work along the system the valve openings will increase until eventually your last rad on the circuit will have the valves fully open.
I really do think it's better to do everything myself.
The garage I use said that my fuel lines run too close to the exhaust on my Pontiac, I checked them and the "fuel lines" are actually the handbrake cables
Why is it I always seem to know more than so called specialists who wan't my money for providing a poor service?
If only there were more hours in a day to enable me to do everything myself.
Kentish said:
BG engineer also opened all of the balancing valves on every radiator so now the rads at the end of the line don't even get warm
It took me ages to get them all balanced a while ago.
I thought BG engineers are supposed to be experienced and qualified, would it not be obvious to an untrained person that you don't have every radiator at full flow??
The radiators nearest to the boiler should be restricted in flow to increase the flow to the radiators further along the central heating circuit, as you work along the system the valve openings will increase until eventually your last rad on the circuit will have the valves fully open.
I really do think it's better to do everything myself.
The garage I use said that my fuel lines run too close to the exhaust on my Pontiac, I checked them and the "fuel lines" are actually the handbrake cables
Why is it I always seem to know more than so called specialists who wan't my money for providing a poor service?
If only there were more hours in a day to enable me to do everything myself.
Ah, "professionals"
People you pay to do something you could have done better yourself
Just phoned British Gas and I'm fuming 
Their engineer said they wouldn't provide full cover because our boiler is undersized, fair enough.
I phoned to tell them this and that based on that I didn't wish to proceed and they told me there's a cancellation charge of £67. They haven't done anything or provided any cover!
I'm not paying it....
The robbing bastards!
>> Edited by Kentish on Tuesday 31st January 08:44
Their engineer said they wouldn't provide full cover because our boiler is undersized, fair enough.
I phoned to tell them this and that based on that I didn't wish to proceed and they told me there's a cancellation charge of £67. They haven't done anything or provided any cover!
I'm not paying it....
The robbing bastards!
>> Edited by Kentish on Tuesday 31st January 08:44
British Gas are a bunch of cowboy's. Call me bias but the amount of "talk" we hear around our office about BG customers phoning our call centres saying that BG had let them down is a joke. (I work for a utility company).
They are meant to have the "number 1" reputation, yet all we hear is how rubbish they are, at everything, be it billing, not informing customers of relevent issues. I would never use that company if it's the last one going. I would rather use candles.
Rant Over
They are meant to have the "number 1" reputation, yet all we hear is how rubbish they are, at everything, be it billing, not informing customers of relevent issues. I would never use that company if it's the last one going. I would rather use candles.
Rant Over
I long since formulated a "Universal Law of Incompetence" predicated upon the premise that all people with whom I deal, be they professional or artisan, trader or clerk, are to be assumed to be incompetent unless proven otherwise. Follow that law and you'll rarely be disappointed. It applies across the spectrum from medicine to plumbing; law to car mechanics.
Call me an old cynic if you like.....
Call me an old cynic if you like.....
My parents gave up their cover a while back for this very reason.
They've had cover for years, and it seemed once upon a time for not much money you had peace of mind should anything go wrong with the heating. Now it seems they just send kids out who haven't got a bloody clue what they're doing.
Better to find a CORGI trained engineer you can rely on and pay as and when, not if.
They've had cover for years, and it seemed once upon a time for not much money you had peace of mind should anything go wrong with the heating. Now it seems they just send kids out who haven't got a bloody clue what they're doing.
Better to find a CORGI trained engineer you can rely on and pay as and when, not if.
Oh, and they'll also keep the 2 months of premiums from when we had no cover because they weren't able to send an engineer to do the initial assessment!
So, approx £100 for a quick 20 minute inspection and a feel of the rads and fiddle about with the valves which has put the whole system out of balance for us. They also left the boiler in a state where it cuts out 2 or 3 times a day. I've had to re-adjust it all so that it will run properly
I think I'll bill them for correcting what they have just
ed up!
So, approx £100 for a quick 20 minute inspection and a feel of the rads and fiddle about with the valves which has put the whole system out of balance for us. They also left the boiler in a state where it cuts out 2 or 3 times a day. I've had to re-adjust it all so that it will run properly
I think I'll bill them for correcting what they have just
ed up!Kentish said:
I think I'll bill them for correcting what they have just
Go on then, balancing a system properly will take half a day. Worth £100 pounds of anyone’s money.
[rant on]Btw corgi doesn’t train anyone, they just take the money. Corgi are to gas safety what speed cameras are to road safety [rant off]
GregE240 said:
Better to find a CORGI trained engineer you can rely on and pay as and when, not if.
This is something I puzzle over. Whether if a local independent CORGI engineer had visited us instead of the BG ones whether the boiler would have needed quite so many visits over the last 18 months.
What I do know is that at present I am getting peace of mind with the knowledge that every callout is free although my wife is getting bored of spending one day a week waiting in for the gas engineer! Maybe we should just give the a key!
Wonder when I should point out how rusty the joints on the radiators are! This latter bit surprises me as I have always thought of radiators as being in one piece, but the ends where the valves are appear to be welded on seperately and all those joints are rusting nicely.
dirkgently said:
I think I'll bill them for correcting what they have just
Go on then, balancing a system properly will take half a day. Worth £100 pounds of anyone’s money.
[rant on]Btw corgi doesn’t train anyone, they just take the money. Corgi are to gas safety what speed cameras are to road safety [rant off]
I'd only recently balanced them anyway and yes it did take me pretty much half a day to balance 18 radiators.
I couldn't believe it when he said "I've opened all your bypass valves because some of them were partly closed"
I felt like saying "they're supposed to be you w*nker"!
How do these people get a job?
The thing about this scheme is some people somewhere have figured out how much the average boiler/central heating system will cost to maintain and repair and then worked out how much to charge for the service so as people who buy into it don't realise a) over the serviceable lifetime of your boiler you'll have paid more for the contract than you would if you'd got a decent Corgi-registered engineer to come and fix everything that goes wrong and b) if you put the £16.99 per month into a savings account, you'd have the necessary money to fix everything and most likely even replace the boiler with a new one when required.
We looked into this, had our system assessed, were told our boiler was well-know for being problematic and we'd be silly not to have it covered, didn't and haven't had a single problem for 3 years (touch wood
).
We looked into this, had our system assessed, were told our boiler was well-know for being problematic and we'd be silly not to have it covered, didn't and haven't had a single problem for 3 years (touch wood
).IME the thing to do is get a good plumber to install your boiler. Let the plumber choose what boiler to use. £17 a month for BG cover is laughably expensive.
The guy who installed mine happened to be my mate's father in law, a perfectionist by all accounts. He fitted an 'Alpha' boiler, and to his credit it hasn't given me a single cause for concern.
BG engineers are paid a wage, and just won't give a stuff - a self employed plumber of repute will want your recommendations for his business to survive.
The guy who installed mine happened to be my mate's father in law, a perfectionist by all accounts. He fitted an 'Alpha' boiler, and to his credit it hasn't given me a single cause for concern.
BG engineers are paid a wage, and just won't give a stuff - a self employed plumber of repute will want your recommendations for his business to survive.
BG are just money seeking mentalists.
We had a quote off them for £2500 and loads of random unnecessary daft work.
An old gas man we know who does good work quoted £1,500 for a boiler and digital timer and it has a 2 year FREE manufacturers warranty if he fits it.
BG wanted £16 a month to cover their brand new one!
I believe BG are now essentially opportunist service engineers and upgraders. Rather than working on what the customer wants, they are commisioned to such a level that they just sell what they can whether it's needed or not!
Dave
We had a quote off them for £2500 and loads of random unnecessary daft work.
An old gas man we know who does good work quoted £1,500 for a boiler and digital timer and it has a 2 year FREE manufacturers warranty if he fits it.
BG wanted £16 a month to cover their brand new one!
I believe BG are now essentially opportunist service engineers and upgraders. Rather than working on what the customer wants, they are commisioned to such a level that they just sell what they can whether it's needed or not!
Dave
BG used to be very good when they used to just look after your boiler. They recently acquired Dyno Rod and now are trying to sell you all manner of household maintainance services and plans. The guys that visit you are on all manner of bonus plans based on what they can sign you up to.
In short they used to be very good, but service and value for money are going downhill fast.
pp
In short they used to be very good, but service and value for money are going downhill fast.
pp
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