British Gas..... have let me down

sprocker1

So I order a new Combi Gas Boiler, with a couple of new radiators, and opt to have it installed in a new part of the house.

Date booked for instilation, am told I need to be present and to allow 2 days. I duly booked the time off work, to enable delivery of the Boiler and materials on Wednesday, and also allow me time to clear the Airing cupboard and kitchen cupboards........

Boiler delivered and placed in the garage by lunchtime....... AND THEN.........

A telephone call at 5.30pm, from the regional instilation manager, They have JUST, YES JUST, found out that they will not be able to start the job the next day as arranged, or during that week, because of an over run of a previous job!

Am so furious, any advice please on "claiming" for my time, pre booked holidays etc......

Cardew

There is a very small payment for a missed appointment(£20?) that will obviously not compensate.

I suspect that BG T&Cs, like most firms, cover them in this situation.

I suggest your best bet is to negotiate a 'goodwill' reduction in your bill with the regional manager.

If they won't play ball, cancel the job and tell them you are keeping the boiler and they can sue you to get it back!!!!!!

sprocker1

I had the new boiler removed from my garage the next day as the next date they have offered me is 2 weeks away.......

My job has now increased from 2 day one to 3........ Interesting

spiro

I would get onto them a tell them that you have lost annual leave time because of this especially as they have now increased the amount of time the job will take and that you wont compensating for this or you will take you business elsewhere. From many posts on here BG are not the cheapest.

macman

Why oh why get BG to fit a boiler? A local GSR independent will do the job quicker, better and cheaper almost every time.

sprocker1

Considering what needs to be done, I think I got a realy good quote from them..... £3k for new boiler, which is being moved to the top floor of our town house, to utalise the old airing cupboard. X2 new additional radiators, and a complete new gas pipe, as the one we have is Iron. + all of the additional plumbing work......

Some may not agree, but I was perfectly happy... up untill this point!

macman

Did you get a quote from an independent? The boiler would be around £750 upwards depending on the model, and I don't think the additional work you describe would cost £2,250.
I'm guessing you should be paying around £2,250 max for that work including the boiler.

brewerdave

I phoned around local installation firms for quotes on behalf of my daughter. We got modern combi boiler supplied and installed including gas supply alterations and rerouting condense pipework for a total of £1750!!!!

sprocker1

I thought i would let you know about my experience, now that the boiler has been fitted.

The job in the end took 4 days, it had initially started out as a 2 day job, then 3 days......

I'm glad that I signed the contract, so that they couldn't increase the price...... In the end the fitter had so many problems that I would shudder to think what I would of paid.

For example, the power supply to where the new combi was going was totally unsatisfactory. The contractors fitting the electricity, were origionaly given an hour to re-connect the supply. In the end they were with me 5 hours.

Coupled with the fact that the "quoter" had totally under-estimated what was required, and numerous extras were used. And it didn't cost me an extra penny.

I think it was well worth the money. And I would reccomend British Gas.