British Gas Homecare debacle

Harveycat_2

Applied for BG Homecare 200. They sent a gas engineer around last Friday morning to carry out the initial service inspection of my central heating boiler.

He detected 'stray voltage' on the boiler casing. He explained that although it was only a very small voltage (a mobile telephone will set off the voltage testers they use) he said he could not remove the boiler front panel and it needed to be checked out by an electrician.

Before leaving he advised me that due to the age of my boiler it was only 60% efficient and that I should consider replacing it with a new one. He proudly presented me with a £200 off voucher towards a replacement from British Gas.

Trying to keep things 'in house' and to avoid complications I booked a British Gas electrician to call and investigate. He came the same day in the afternoon. He thoroughly tested my home electrics and found everything to be perfectly safe and all readings were well under permitted values.

However, he said he would have to issue a pink 'Not to Current Standards or At Risk' note as:
#1 The main circuit board (fuse box) is a 16th edition (current one is 17th).

#2 P.E.B. not visible at termination point. In English this means that he could not see the earth strap which should be attached to the mains water pipe inlet to the property. He explained that it is most likely situated behind our sink units somewhere but obviously he could not start pulling units out to see it. He said that the electrical meter reading off the pipe was under permitted limits so he feels sure there is one fitted, it is just that he cannot see it.

He said that a possible cause of the problem is that the earth on the boiler needs tightening - however he could not remove the front panel of the boiler because he is not 'Corgi' (sic) registered.

Flabbergasted I called BG and explained the Catch22 situation I was in ie; The gas engineer would not service the boiler because of possible electrical fault and the electrician would not investigate the potential problem inside the boiler because he is not 'Corgi' sic registered (I understand there is no such thing as 'Corgi' now it has changed to 'Gas Safe?' but I digress...).

The person I spoke to suggested that perhaps the two engineers needed to speak to each other. She called me back later and said that the gas engineer would come back today (Tuesday) between 1pm and 6pm which I agreed to as I work nights and was working last night.

At 11am this morning I was woken by my daughter who is off school on half-term. She thought it was an important call as the caller had insisted on speaking to mum (at work) or dad. It was the gas engineer to ask if he could call 'now.' He then asked me about the problem with the electrics. I explained the above BG Electrician's findings to him. He said that as a pink notice had been issued he did not think he would be able to do anything. I told him to forget it.

To add insult to injury when I booked the electrician I was told there would be a minimum charge of £79.99 I will now be on a mission to get this payment refunded.

I think the following applies to British Gas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElLpKewnxp4


:mad::(:mad::(

JasX

I generally regard these 'plans' as a complete rip-off, you're best bet would be to save your £79.99 and premiums in a pot somewhere and put it towards your next boilr when the current one goes.

Meantime try to find a reasonably reliable independant gas/boiler tech locally if ever you ned to call one out urgently. (perhaps book in for a service with one and see how they work out/competent they come across as -ie not having a scare story for everything 'wrong' with your boiler that needs 8 new parts and 2 days labour to fix)

Harveycat_2

I am going to go out tomorrow and buy one of the so called 'Fruit Pens' that they use to detect stray voltage and I am going to conduct my own investigation into where the couple of volts are coming from.

I've found a local place sells them for £8.99

I'll keep you posted on the results.

Money_Meiser

I've had a similar problem before.
You can now find an engineer (try a local one) that is also qualified to work on the electrics of your heating system as well as the boiler. You need to make sure that they are a member of the Part P (building Regulations) Competent Persons Scheme.
You can find a list of these schemes on communities.gov.uk/planningandbuilding/buildingregulations/competentpersonsschemes/existingcompetentperson/

Hope that helps

ollski

Voltage pens really mean nothing, they are an indicator of further checking. If the pen glowed the bg engineer should have then checked with a multimeter to confirm. It is bg policy however that the boiler cannot be worked on if it is a genuine reading on the case.

Harveycat wrote: »

I am going to go out tomorrow and buy one of the so called 'Fruit Pens' that they use to detect stray voltage and I am going to conduct my own investigation into where the couple of volts are coming from.

I've found a local place sells them for £8.99

I'll keep you posted on the results.