Boiler Replacement by British Gas £3700

bobadobado wrote: »

Im no heating engineer, but this sales attempt by BG with all the efficiency and sales patter has just led me to feel this is an attempt to pull the wool over my eyes and it is actually expensive. But thats just how I feel, or is it actually a reaonable quote?

Hi there

Earlier in the year we decided we couldn't put off having our 20+ yr old back boiler replaced any longer and got some quotes. British Gas quoted me well over £4k (might have been £4700 but I've had a baby since then so... ) to fit a new Vaillant boiler, get rid of the host of water tanks and the immersion heater we had, new thermostat, clean out, pretty basic really.

Like you I asked for a breakdown of the price but was told I'd only get this once I'd placed the order which I wasn't at all happy about. He made out that because I wanted it doing in 2-3 days it would require a 'houseful' of workers and implied that this would be making it more expensive.

In the end I got a quote from a local guy who had been recommended in the Household Help section on a site that I use for £1800 for exactly the same job with a less fancy but no less reliable boiler and they did the job in 3 days and there was only 2 of them, plus the electrician who came for a couple of hours on the 3rd day to do his thing.

So after all that, my advice is...don't go with British Gas! As I said to my husband at the time, I'd rather get a quote from a guy in dusty overalls who knows what he's doing than some guy in a suit trying to do the hard sell.

I hope you don't get pestered too much by them. Luckily when I'd previously signed up for Homecare I'd asked them to 'untick the box' for sales phonecalls on the screen which means they're not allowed to call me without good reason now so I never heard from the guy again

Good luck!

We had a boiler that kept breaking down, but we had bg homecare cover, so the last time it broke down I asked the bg engineer what would it cost to replace the boiler? his answer was "from me £1000 -£1500 dependent on type of boiler, but do me a favour dont ask us(bg) for a price we are a rip off" Thats from their own employee! We ended up getting it for nowt with warm front.

Indi wrote: »

Please please don't go with B/Gas...find a good Independent....and get maintainaince contract from manufacturer...do not sign for there £30 or £35 plans...thy are biggest ripoffs when you make a claim...I cant expand more ..but have had an awful experience...after few yrs paying monthly..and wen came afault ..thy condemed 2 yr boiler...real nightmare....found it was a £22 swich needed replacing...

These stories are always exagerated!

What about the thousands of satisfied customers???

Indi wrote: »

Gasbag...you would think so...you have no idea of there tactics...atleast 3 other people I know...have had similar experience...Particularly if you are a landlord and thy go to your tenants ...by putting the fear in them...about having dangerous boiler...tenant than pushes you to replace a boiler...earning huge commission...for these chaps...i am not just saying this ...I have full report from manufacturer repair...who came and found fault ...repaired and all was fine...

By the wayy when the tenant called out second time ...british gas threatend to charge £100 for callout.....and than tenant was told ..it was water pressure ..so he calls waterboard...and thy came out and found no problem...this could hve again cost hundreds of pounds...and in the end there was an intermittent fault ...which thy would not bother fixing...

Stressful....Apalling service....I truly hope others dont have same scenario...

Indi am afraid i do know as i am a BG engineer! If there are rouge engineers working for our company then do something about it and complain. My experiance of landlords too is a bad one, they all seem to have the cheapest boiler put in by the worst plumber/pretend gasman and then expect the world of companys like BG. Its not on, there poor tennants have to put up with money greedy landlords!