Annual Service vs Boiler Cover (inc. service)

humfer

Have a gas condensing boiler (whatever one of those is!) in a new build house which is coming up to 2 years old. Trying to work out what to do. Quite like the idea of the BG cover which works out at about £10.50 a month (with a £50 fee if any issues need fixing) but includes an annual service. So £120+ a year plus £50 if anything goes wrong.

On the other hand I could just pay someone each year to service the boiler. Does anyone know how much this would cost? About £70??

As its a new house (boiler make is Ideal {not sure if they are any good/reliable}) tempted to just do the annual service and take my chances. Any thoughts? Also are British Gas the only company to offer an annual service as part of their boiler cover policies?

boliston

Wow £120 is a lot to pay for an annual service! Most local corgi (or whatever it's now called) guy charges about 50 quid. I'd be annoyed if I paid for a breakdown service and ALSO had to pay £50 on top, especially if it was only a minor repair.

Gerrard_8_lfc

The £10.50 option is a waste of time and money.

Check and see what a local guy will charge for a one off service and do that.

The £13 a month homecare 10 is better value that the flexi homecare 100.

jackieglasgow

BG also do service only for £79.30, (depending on where you live) or if you get gas and electric from them you can sign up to their Energy Extra and a service is a bit cheaper on that. You still get priority callouts to repairs on those, although you need to pay for them. Someone else posted about the Energy Extra on the boiler cover discussion, I think, a month or two ago. There isn't any info about it on the website, but you could call them and ask about it.

jackieglasgow

Gerrard, you can't be telling people it's a waste of time and money! IF the OP doesn't need a repair, but he likes the idea of having someone to hand "just oin case" then it's not a waste to him. I wouldn't use it either, but you and I both know there are plenty of customers out there who do have it, and it works for them. Horses for courses.

jackieglasgow

I'd also add that my house is new with an Ideal boiler, and the engineers I have spoken to about it on the many many occassions it has broken down have said it's not worth the money, and was the cheap option for the builder, so depending on if it's broken down often or not up to this point, it might not be worth you taking the flexi option.

Gerrard_8_lfc

jackieglasgow wrote: »

Gerrard, you can't be telling people it's a waste of time and money! .

Yes I can everyone is entitled to an opinion.

The OP would be cheaper just getting a boiler of that age serviced only if the price is right.

If you have 1 breakdown or more it is hardly value for money over a policy which costs £2.50 more bad economics there.

Any views shared by me are not by BG. :A

bikeman

boliston wrote: »

Wow £120 is a lot to pay for an annual service! Most local corgi (or whatever it's now called) guy charges about 50 quid. I'd be annoyed if I paid for a breakdown service and ALSO had to pay £50 on top, especially if it was only a minor repair.

I don't see how anyone can service a boiler profitably for £50 - most only do a 5 minute safety check for that sort of money.

CH cover is probably worth having just to get to the top of the queueduring that cold snap when all the local RGIs are coining it as BG/Homeserve sub-contrators and are unavailable for 3 days!

£50 towards a boiler repair is pretty ok considering the cost of repairs these days.

However there is a school of thought that boilers, cars etc only start to go wrong after trades service them.

jcorbygas

Bikeman - we charge £55 for a boiler service and that is a proper service - not just a 5 minute inspection and FGA (which you get if you are with BG) - We do make a profit but are not in the business of ripping our customers off by charging them too much or not doing a proper job - and no - our customers boilers do not go wrong after us servicing/maintaining them.

I think you have a problem with RGI's - we certainly do not 'coin it in' in the cold weather - we charge the same prices as normal and get out to our existing customers within the day if theres a problem.

acbleeds

Last time I was sent info from BG asking me to sub-contract for them, I think it was about £23 per hour.... Laughable when you still have all your own overheads etc etc, hence you're not likely to find many good RGIs subbying to BG. Are people also still niave enough to believe they are on the 'priority list' with these companies... Just think how many people must be on this list on then consider whether the name can actually be substantiated when you get a winter like the last one and there are an unprescedented number of callouts. We were often going out to customers who were on BG contracts and had already been waiting over a week. Worcester Bosch stopped answering their incoming calls for a few weeks because they were so overrun, now that's service with a grimice!!

Cardew

jcorbygas wrote: »

Bikeman - we charge £55 for a boiler service and that is a proper service - not just a 5 minute inspection and FGA (which you get if you are with BG) - .

Firstly I am completely in agreement that getting a dependable RGI is far better|(cheaper) in the long run.

However I am really puzzled by this 'proper service' and BG's inspection.

I have two boilers here - one a combi and both non-condensing. I have the full manufacturer's service schedule for both.

In both cases the servicing consists of visual inspection and cleaning - apart from the pilot flame there is no adjustment to make - indeed nothing to adjust.

BG used to service both boilers and I watched them and they did exactly as the service schedule demanded, and it was simple and quick - the only task that took a little time was rmoving and cleaning the burners.

My main boiler has been in situ for 23 years and apart from a failed thermocouple nothing has gone wrong. The only fault on the combi was a dry joint which caused the gas valve to close.

So what is your definition of a 'proper service' and why should it exceed the manufacturer's instructions?