Am I being conned? Advice needed the possible need for replacing a boiler

samtheman1k

I think it's more likely that he's just paying £100 and charging the OP £400-£700 and keeping the rest!

Canucklehead

worried-abt-being-conned wrote: »

Hi everyone, :wave:

I am wondering if anyone could help me out please.

I moved into my new mid-terrace town house just over 2 years ago and had a Gledhill Combi boiler GB35c fitted in.

2 weeks ago, my boiler stopped working with no gas heating and hot water. A CORGI registered engineer came few days ago and called the Gledhill Response technical helpline to identify the problem of my boiler. The reason for calling the technical helpline was because the engineer had not seen this type of boiler before despite reported to have been in this business for 25 years. The engineer also said he never knew Gledhill produces combi boilers. ‘They usually produce cylinder type boilers, not combi type’. After 30 minutes of telephone advice (premium rate number being charged by Gledhill Response) and probing around, the fault was down to a faulty Diverter Valve.

Unfortunately, Gledhill Response did not have this spare part available and the company that manufactures this specific Diverter Valve for this specific model of Combi boiler ceased to trade as it has gone into administration. The only way out is therefore to replace my existing boiler.

The engineer was quick to give me a quote on this. The total cost is estimated to be around £2000 including VAT. The cost includes a new combi boiler Valliant Eco-Tec Plus 831, a timer, magnaclean, ‘chemicals’ and few other little things. The price also includes labour which is £705 – 2 engineers to install. :shocked:

I’ve visited the website (newboiler.com) as mentioned in this forum by others. The pricing for the new boiler is about right and so does the little other things. However, I feel that the labour cost is quite expansive.

This is not all. As my house is a 3-storey town house, it is against health and safety regulation to use a ladder to go up and I need to independently hire a ‘cherry-picker’ :eek:(a machine operated lift like one commonly use by fire brigades) to lift the engineers up. According to the engineer, it costs somewhere around £400-£700. _pale_

:think:Questions I have in mind (and would be grateful for any advice) are:

• Does a straightforward swap for a new boiler require 2 engineers? One engineer costs me £357.5 including VAT. Two engineers is £705. What is the average pricing for labour?
• What are my other options (which is hopefully cheaper) instead of hiring a ‘cherry picker’?
• Most importantly, am I being conned at all in anyways? The worse thing about being conned (if I am) is not even knowing it.

Thank you.

I'm assuming you have had more than one opinion/ quote...if not, get dialling.

Canucklehead