British Gas Homecare 200. Boiler's playing up and haven't had an inspection yet!

mekondelta

What happens if my boiler packs up and I haven't recieved a service or inspection from British Gas for my HomeCare 200 package? Do they still pay for the parts and labour? Or is there a clause about them charging extra if they have not yet looked at the boiler? I looked in the T&Cs but couldn't find anything.

Anyone know what the procedure is?

akh43

This happened to me 4 years ago and they did come out and they did not charge me. Whether that is still the case I don't know. I joined up and they gave me an inspection appointment about six weeks after joining and my boiler went about 3-4 weeks after joining so I had been paying, just I had not been inspected.

Hope this helps.

lipidicman

Relative works for BG and says their is a time limit for the inspection, if they miss this then you wont be charged - have another look at the terms

Maisie

If you have a contract with them BG should honour that and repair the boiler.
Not your fault they haven't been to inspect it.

Unless the contract says... 'subject to inspection'.

Sooler

How long have you had the HomeCare 200 for?

RedOnRed

What annoys me about BG is that they only do an inspection and not a service. The boiler manufacturer will state that the boiler should have a yearly service in order to keep the warranty validated.

BG did actually used to call their inspection a service, but I think a lot of people must have pointed out that a service amounts to more then just a visual check.

I don't know why they don't apply additives to peoples system as part of a service. It would be in their interests too and they could probably get the stuff for next to nothing buying in bulk.

mekondelta

I had to call them out today as its packed up completely and spoke to a nice lady at BG. She basically said it's not covered as they haven't done an inspection yet and if I wanted them to come round and fix it I would have to move to their 3* policy which is 26/month rather than the 16/month I signed up for. She suggested I "have a word" with the engineer who's going to come round for the initial inspection and see what I could do. It may be a simple fix in which case they'll pass it for inspection then I can have my free callouts.

Seems a bit off to me. Anyway, going to read the small print and will report back the details of the engineer's visit...

lipidicman

Be nice to the engineer and dont blame him for the faults with the system and you will be surprised at how helpful they can be. Always offer them a cup of tea!

mekondelta

Luckily the boiler worked today and the engineer came round and gave it a clean bill of health and a service. He adjusted the expansion tank or something to let more water in the radiators which he said would fix the occasional cut out. He also said wait two weeks before calling an engineer out if something is broken as that's the cooling off period.

We'll see whether it's fixed or not, but at least I'm in Homecase now...!!

I think that warrants a smiley...

:j