British Gas becoming a nightmare

amoulton

Hi,

I am having some problems with British Gas and would appreciate any advice.

About a year ago I had a gunked up heat exchanger and a temp sensor replaced to fix an intermittent hot/cold water problem with a four year old combi boiler. It took BG about 5 visits to sort that out.

Now a week after my annual service (homecare400) I have started getting the same problem with the boiler. The engineer came out yesterday and says the heat exchanger is not working properly and thinks it is probably gunked up(he didnt actually remove and look inside the part) and that I require a powerflush of the CH system (£700, I have a 1 bed flat with 4 radiators).

There are a number of things that I am unhappy about with this visit:
1. What the engineer actually said was we could replace the heat exchanger but clearly it shouldn't break after only a year. His gut feeling was it was gunk in the system and that a powerflush would fix it properly. When asked he said the cost of the heat exchanger (£110) was not covered by the homecare agreement. I rang BG today because I have issue with this - all boiler parts should be included and I cannot see any part of the T&C to exclude any specific parts.
There is an exclusion clause:

Repairing faults or clearing
physical blockages (blockages

such as rubble, sludge and scale,

but not air locks) or repairing

damage caused by scale, sludge
or other debris if we have told you
permanent repairs, improvements

or a PowerFlushTM (or a similar
cleaning procedure) are needed
to make sure your appliance/
system works properly. We will

only tell you this if, in our expert

opinion, it is necessary.
So fine BG on the phone can now decide this is their position - but frustrating that I have been told something different by the engineer.

2. The engineer said that normally he should charge me the 'Greater London rate' for the powerflush but 'as a favour' he would put it through with the National rate (save about £50). How nice, except that I live in Cambridge. BG on the phone confirmed that I should not be charged a London rate ... too bloody right i shouldn't!!

3. Frustratingly before the engineer came out I had mostly hot water which occassionally ran cold for a few seconds. Now I have a noise coming from the boiler and mostly luke warm water that sometimes runs hot for a little. :mad:.

Because of the lack of clarity here I have asked BG to cancel the poweflush. They are going to send another engineer out to properly confirm that the exchanger is gunked up and that sludge in the system is the fault requiring a powerflush.

In the meantime after reading this forum and a few other websites it is clear that I can get a powerflush done considerably cheaper by someone else (probably around £400). Assuming i get this done elsewhere , I am wondering if I am in my rights to expect BG to still replace the exchanger under my homecare agreement. They after all did not advise me about a powerflush when they last replaced it and apparently everything was in perfect working order at the service two weeks ago. Well i suspect not.

I will probably be cancelling my homecare agreement as I am paying money for nothing but trouble it seems

Alex.

macman

BG's standard response to just about any CH/boiler problem seems to be to recommend a powerflush. Which quite coincidentally costs around twice as much with them as anyone else.
Get in an independent local RGI in to assess it and don't waste your time on Homecare. It's a waste of £275pa, the exclusions list is as long as your arm. Put that in a savings account and it will pay for an annual service and a call out should you need one.

jackieglasgow

Well, leaving macman's natural inclination to put everyone off BG aside, what I will tell you is this.

If you have a problem with sludge and this is the first time you've been told, and the first time its on your paperwork, your terms and conditions state that they will do the first repair which is needed as a result of sludge, but not anymore once they have told you the sludge is a problem, until you get it remedied (doesn't have to be by BG but bear in mind if you intend on being a Homecare cust for the long term, you will get a lifetime guarantee on the powerflush).

I would also ask the second engineer to redo the quote without the charge for the h/ex if this is the first fault due to sludge you have been notified of. I am not sure exactly where it is in the terms and conditions but it does state it somewhere. PM if you need any more help.

amoulton

Thanks Jackieglasgow for a really helpful reply. You are absolutely right they are supposed to do the first repair, I wish i'd the right clause to hand when speaking to them earlier. Found it now ...

When a repair is needed due to
sludge (for example damage to
pump, valves or radiators) and we

have not already told you that you

need to flush and clean your system
with PowerFlush™ or a similar

procedure, we will attempt to carry

out a repair (excluding the use of
PowerFlush™) and will do so at no

extra cost.

So clearly I have been misled by both the initial engineer and their phone support staff!

gas4you

The only thing 'good' about a BG flush, is that it has a 'lifetime' guarantee on it.

You'd be surprised how little the BG service plan actually covers!

jackieglasgow

To be fair to the staff it isn't something they come across everyday and is more likely to be lack of knowledge, than deliberately misleading you. Let us know how you get on.

bluey831

I would say that I have had the Homecare for a number of years. Incidentally, I never pay the asking price and currently have Homecare 200 for £10.99 per month. I have not needed them that often and probably am out of pocket if I were to add it up - as is the case with most insurance. However, about three years ago I had real problems with my boiler and they ended up replacing virtually every part - including the pump. Now some would say they probably had not diagnosed the issue properly initially etc. Whilst I have had to bear my teeth a few times with them, they have never refused to repair something. When we moved into this house six years ago they mentioned powerflush but I never had it and they still done all repairs since.

Not being an advocate of BG or anything as such - and they are costly for sure.

amoulton

I will update this thread with how this all gets resolved in the end.

Further to what I've said so far I am now awaiting my next engineer visit. On Monday I had arranged an engineer for Thursday morning but they rang me back to say this was not possible and engineer would ring me to arrange a new time. I then rang them back on weds lunchtime as I hadent had a call. I then arranged for an eningeer for friday morning.

It doesn't make my boss happy but I am able to get work done from home so arranged to do that this morning. BG rang me about 11.30 to say they are running late, I had to argue the case for getting their guy to come round this afternoon rather than next week.

Of course, even though it has already been established that the heat exchanger is the broken part only an engineer can book one in. As their engineer has consistently failed to ring me all week I know he wont have this part on him this afternoon.

So all this and one biggie - BG have not been able to actually agree verbally that they will replace the HE at no extra cost to me. Only an engineer can do this (why?) so I am still in suspense ...

jcorbygas

What is the make and model of your boiler?

bengasman

amoulton wrote: »

I am wondering if I am in my rights to expect BG to still replace the exchanger under my homecare agreement. They after all did not advise me about a powerflush when they last replaced it and apparently everything was in perfect working order at the service two weeks ago. Well i suspect not.

I will probably be cancelling my homecare agreement as I am paying money for nothing but trouble it seems

Alex.

They will not replace it for various reasons.
1. It is not actually broken, just full of gunk.
2. The powerflush (if done properly) will take care of the problem
3. As they must have spent millions on the small print, I am convinced that there is a water tight clause in it that covers them for this kind of thing. (not actually read your contract of course)