Gas boiler service contracts

Scouse_Mick

Can anyone recommend a good supplier for gas boiler service contracts please?

I've heard Seeboard are reasonably priced but don't know about the quality of their service. I've tried British Gas before and the experience I had of their customer service was awful so I wouldn't go near them again.

Cardew

There have been loads of threads on this subject if you do a search.

Very mixed feelings about BG who dominate the market - lots like you, others find them excellent but very expensive.

I don't think you will find any other firm/supplier has received good reports from more than 1 or 2 people on this forum. Most 'services' just engage your local plumber and I don't believe any have their own dedicated fitters like BG. Also emergency/out of hours repairs are usually not offered. But don't take my word for it - do a search on here!!

The best bet seems to be find a good reliable local Corgi fitter who won't rip you off - the trouble is most of us can't find such a beast.

john_b_8

i have a service contract with B G the homecare 200 the full cost is 199 i have the max 3 year low call out discount of £25 the£174 is paid through 10 monthly installments
i ve checked the forums for price comparisons and it is competitive however as i am not a corgi engineer i dont know whether the engineers are doing a full maintenance as well as the inspection.
i believe a lot of the experienced engineers may be leaving to become self employed leaving aresidue of new engineers who may not have the experience to repair old boilers and recommend a replacement. unforunately i believe the gas service industry has us by the *******

Cardew

john_b wrote:

i have a service contract with B G the homecare 200 the full cost is 199 i have the max 3 year low call out discount of £25 the£174 is paid through 10 monthly installments
i ve checked the forums for price comparisons and it is competitive however as i am not a corgi engineer i dont know whether the engineers are doing a full maintenance as well as the inspection.
i believe a lot of the experienced engineers may be leaving to become self employed leaving aresidue of new engineers who may not have the experience to repair old boilers and recommend a replacement. unforunately i believe the gas service industry has us by the *******

Welcome to the forum.

Your last sentence is absolutely correct.

Most boilers don't require much maintenance and a check of flue gasses and a safety check is sufficient in most cases. Bear in mind that if BG skimped on the maintenance, the repercussions would impact on them as they would be called out more often.

What we are paying for is insurance(with a very high premium!!) - and bear in mind that the boiler is only a part of the whole CH system. If the years I have had them most of my problems have not been with the boiler.

JPSC

While I have not used them personally as we don't use gas, I have heard quite a number of positive comments (and no bad ones) about this company

http://www.tbmenergyservices.co.uk/

Cardew

JPSC wrote:

While I have not used them personally as we don't use gas, I have heard quite a number of positive comments (and no bad ones) about this company

http://www.tbmenergyservices.co.uk/

But I assume these don't cover the whole of UK from Scotland.

tabath

Don't go for a service contract - most times all you get anyway is a safety check and not a serrvice of the boiler. Yes new boilers do look after themselves to some extent but a good clean of the combustion chamber and fan each yar does keep it operating at peak efficiency. Far better to find yourself a good independant corgi engineer and pay him £40 to £70 (depending on where you are in the country) a year to do a complete service.

jdta09

I have been with British Gas Homecare for about 10 years. I used to recommend them after they did some quite expensive work with very little quibble.
However I was due for my annual service last July and since then they have made 5 appointments that they have cancelled with only a day or two's notice. The most recent was due to be on Feb 12th but today (Feb 8th) they have yet again cancelled the appointment and rescheduled for the end of March.
This was after I was absolutely promised that this fourth appointment would be kept after I was quite angry on the phone the last time.
I have spoken to them today and they cannot guarantee even the next date, even though it will be nearer two years than one if it does happen.

I will certainly not be renewing at the end of this year's cover in June, I wonder if they don't actually perform a service in the whole year whether there is any comeback?

c_smith

These contracts are a waste of money. I had one with a local company a couple of years ago which cost £11 a month and when I phoned them out to fix a fault they used every excuse in the book to exclude it from the contract. And the "annual service" offered by these contracts is not actually an annual service, but just a quick safety check.

I then found a guy locally who carried out a proper service, in which he completely stripped the boiler and washed out and cleaned all the parts within - you should have seen the muck and dirt that came out! It took him about 2 and a half hours and only cost me £120 for the full service and the boiler has been running better than it ever has since I moved into this house.

And as regards any emergency repairs, etc, I pay an annual £10 on top of my house insurance for home emergency cover, which covers the boiler if it should unexpectedly stop working.

So, in my opinion, that's the way to go. Only other thing is try and find a service engineer who is recommended for your particular type of boiler, as there are a lot out there who haven't a clue what they're doing.

CELTIC_YOB

My boiler is nearly two years old, it's guaranteed for two years. My house insurance came up for renewal three months ago with Barclays, I paid an extra £70 to have emergency cover it includes gas boiler breakdown. Have not had occasion to use this emergency cover...yet. Anyone used this service, to have their boiler repaired, and was it ok.

Thanks.

jennifernil

I am cringing here (expecting flak!!!) but we have never had our boilers serviced! Yes, boilers, we have a house with "granny flat" that has its own system. Both boilers are Potterton, now almost 19 years old, and OH has kept an eye on them and fixed one little problem (electrical).
Our heating costs are low compared to many others I have seen so we are happy. Our house is very well insulated. The money we have saved over the last 18 years on servicing will go a long way towards the cost of new boilers when we need them.