British Gas Homecare Agreement, Free Boiler?

saints1fan

Yes, sorry. We had some kind of electronic device fitted, which is still there. Waste of money that was.

saints1fan

Hi all.

It continues. Today made calls 37 and 38 to BG.

Managed after much pleading to speak wit a junior manager. Asked him to please confirm yes or no, are we entitled to a free repair or free boiler? I quoted the T&C's you guys kindly sent me. I also mentioned the quote we had for a new heat exchanger and labour. He said no were not entitled to a free boiler, but because we had no been previously advised to have a power flush, we were entitled to a free heat exchanger and free labout to fit it. He went on to say that the quote we had been given was for a power flush only. I queries this as it seemed a bit expensive at £697!!!! He said look mate you get nothing for free, the power flush is £697 and that's it.

I was shocked and I did not have the quote to hand so I agreed to call back. I called back witht he quote in my hand and could not get through to this original guy, but spoke to someone else. The read the quote ot him which mentions no power flush and purely quotes for the parts and lobour to fit the exchanger. This guy then said that I should be entitled to a repair and someone would call me back.

I am going round in circles here. Please offer advice.

mike_the_bike_2

saints1fan wrote: »

Hi all.

It continues. Today made calls 37 and 38 to BG.

Managed after much pleading to speak wit a junior manager. Asked him to please confirm yes or no, are we entitled to a free repair or free boiler? I quoted the T&C's you guys kindly sent me. I also mentioned the quote we had for a new heat exchanger and labour. He said no were not entitled to a free boiler, but because we had no been previously advised to have a power flush, we were entitled to a free heat exchanger and free labout to fit it. He went on to say that the quote we had been given was for a power flush only. I queries this as it seemed a bit expensive at £697!!!! He said look mate you get nothing for free, the power flush is £697 and that's it.

I was shocked and I did not have the quote to hand so I agreed to call back. I called back witht he quote in my hand and could not get through to this original guy, but spoke to someone else. The read the quote ot him which mentions no power flush and purely quotes for the parts and lobour to fit the exchanger. This guy then said that I should be entitled to a repair and someone would call me back.

I am going round in circles here. Please offer advice.

If I were you i would tomorrow send a recorded delivery letter to

Mr Chris Weston, Managing Director, British Gas Services
C/O Centrica plc
Millstream
Maidenhead Road
Windsor
Berkshire
SL4 5GD

Tell him that you have a contact with BG and the contract number. Remind him of his companies obligations under the contact. Tell him that you have made every attempt to get this resolved with 38 phone calls and you are contacting him in the hope that he can get it resolved. British Gas engineers have identified that your boiler needs a new heat exchanger

Inform him that you have identified that the heat exchanger is readily available and you would like yours replaced under the terms of the contract free of charge. Let him know that prior to the heat exchanger failing you had NOT been notified that work needed doing on the system to prevent future failure..If you had you would have acted on that advise in a "timely manner" as specified in the contact (Terms and Conditions 4.5 Exclusions)

Finally tell him that whilst you have every confidence he will be able to resolve this you think it is not unreasonable to let him know that if you do not receive a date when BG will replace the heat exchanger on your boiler as under the terms of the contract seven working days of receipt of this letter you will employ a CORGI registered installer to replace the exchanger and seek recovery of your full costs from BG

Give him your phone number and e mail address

keep it short and polite and hopefully you will get a result

elektra

saints1fan wrote: »

Hi all.

It continues. Today made calls 37 and 38 to BG.

Managed after much pleading to speak wit a junior manager. Asked him to please confirm yes or no, are we entitled to a free repair or free boiler? I quoted the T&C's you guys kindly sent me. I also mentioned the quote we had for a new heat exchanger and labour. He said no were not entitled to a free boiler, but because we had no been previously advised to have a power flush, we were entitled to a free heat exchanger and free labout to fit it. He went on to say that the quote we had been given was for a power flush only. I queries this as it seemed a bit expensive at £697!!!! He said look mate you get nothing for free, the power flush is £697 and that's it.

I was shocked and I did not have the quote to hand so I agreed to call back. I called back witht he quote in my hand and could not get through to this original guy, but spoke to someone else. The read the quote ot him which mentions no power flush and purely quotes for the parts and lobour to fit the exchanger. This guy then said that I should be entitled to a repair and someone would call me back.

I am going round in circles here. Please offer advice.

I think Mike outlines advice re letter is good.

However, I'm confused re above highlighted statement. When he said you were entitled to free heat exchanger and labour why didn't you say great when are you coming to fit it ?

saints1fan

Hi Elektra

The reason I could not bit ehis hand off was that he saif the power flush was part of the process and we were being charged £697 quid for this.

Amazingly I have just had a call from the local BG area manager, who was most polite and apologetic. After a long conversation, the long and short of what he was saying is that we are not covered as the reason our heat exchanger is not working is due to scale. I tried argueing that the boiler is less than 7 years old and that at no time had we been advised to have any work carried out, but he was not having it. He has made an offer 'as a geture of good will', which is to fit the replacement heat exchanger without charging for the labour. Which reduces the price from £697 to about £530. I said to him that I still think that the T&C's do not in my opinon state that we are not covered and I would come back to him.

Should I go for it or should I keep fighting as I seem to have made some progress?

saints1fan

Should we try to get them to allow us to buy the part, as I recall someone previosly mentioned they were about £200? Am I now just pushing my luck?

gasbag1602

saints1fan wrote: »

Should we try to get them to allow us to buy the part, as I recall someone previosly mentioned they were about £200? Am I now just pushing my luck?[/quote

If it is scale that is causing your problem as stated then a powerflush will not cure the fault, i suspect that your heat exchanger is blocked and scale wont block a heat exchanger completely. If you can honestly say you have not been made aware of the fact your system needed powerflushing in the past and Bg's system does not have any information saying you have been made aware, the job should not be chargable and you should chalenge the manager! You are entitled to ask for all the engineer job comments under the data protection act, so maybe try going down that route.:T

saints1fan

Thanks gasbag1602.

I can on the heads of my kids say that BG have never recommended anything to us in the past other than the scale inhibitor, which we went ahead and had fitted.

My wife and I do feel that we are vunerable in this circumstance, as we have had no hot water for 2 weeks now and fighting BG could take, who nows hom long? I am however a stubborn git and will not be taken advantage of. We fight on!

gasbag1602

saints1fan wrote: »

Thanks gasbag1602.

I can on the heads of my kids say that BG have never recommended anything to us in the past other than the scale inhibitor, which we went ahead and had fitted.

My wife and I do feel that we are vunerable in this circumstance, as we have had no hot water for 2 weeks now and fighting BG could take, who nows hom long? I am however a stubborn git and will not be taken advantage of. We fight on!

If what your saying is true, ring this manager back and ask him for evidence you have been quoted for a powerflush. Tell him you are aware of the fact that you are entitled to see any job comments that have been made regarding your property and that you expect the job to be carried out swiftly and free of charge if he can not provide the evidence. Then inform him that you will be expecting compenstaion for their mistake or you will seak legal advice, i have delt with complaints like this before trust me!

saints1fan

Nice one gasbag1602.

I will do that and see how we go.

One question is, does it relevant that our heating is fine, it is just the hot water we are without?