British Gas central heating cover

sweety

Please can anyone point me in the direction of plus and minuses of the above - at £15 month it seems good value but i cant help feeling that the initial inspection will require me to get a new system or if i refuse i will have to pay up for the inspection at an extortionate rate , or am i being paranoid ?

loobs40

saved me a lot of money this year. Had problems with not all radiators heating up, and the engineer thought it was a problem with the heat exchanger clogged up with limescale. Although not covered by the plan, he suggested that he arrange to fit a new exchanger, which I had to pay for, but it was fitted with no labour charge. The fitting took all morning and it solved the problem immediately

COUPONKEV

I think it makes sense to take out the cover if;

1) You're letting a property.

2) You've moved into a property with a suspect heating system - in which case get the cover, get everything sorted in the first couple of years then cancel the cover.

3) You are the sort of person who cant be bothered to shop round for a reputable local plumber when something goes wrong.

Bad things I've experienced about BG 3 star cover;

A) If something goes wrong and you know exactly what it is and ask them to come and fix it they send an inspector out first of all who reaches the same conclusion as you and says he needs to order the part and will be back 5 days later, leaving you cold and miserable. If they'd listened to your diagnosis and brought along the parts they could have saved you from having to take an extra day off work and them an extra call out.

They wont tell you what time of day they'll come. If you're insistant you might get afternoon or morning if you're lucky.

C) They're often cocky little sods (both helpdesk and engineers) who insist your heating system is knackered, your ventillation inadequate and leave a mess in your loft and your kitchen after they've finished their work.

As an example, I had an overflow pipe repaired in the loft. Instead of replacing the pipe they used a blow tourch to weld the 2 broken ends together, disgarding a load of tape and offcuts around my loft. Everytime they came round they walked in like they owned the place and started condemming everything they came across (including what they said was a hole in my roof which turned out to be a vent for the warm air system).

Good luck!

clive_the_gas

Sweetie, i think you are being paranoid

Couponkev, the phrase "a few bad apples" springs to mind

COUPONKEV

clive_the_gas wrote:

Sweetie, i think you are being paranoid

Couponkev, the phrase "a few bad apples" springs to mind

Clive, You might be right for C) but A and B is the standard.

Are you a BG employee by any chance?

Poppy9

I have had the 3* cover for 9 years. When we bought our house the system was 20 years old and they covered it no problem. My boiler is still going strong. They did for years complain about lack of vent in my dinning room where the back boiler is. As the only outside wall was full width glass doors nothing we could do about it. They just noted it every year. When at last we changed the glass doors for french doors we had two small L shape walls built and so could fit a vent. The builder was there when they came for thier annual service and they said the hole was big enough but the vent was the wrong size :rolleyes: . They have also noted for the last couple of years something about the wiring in our airing cupboard. I questioned this as our house was completely rewired 9 years ago. BG said its fine and safe but new regs have come into place in the last couple of years so they have to note it.


Most of the BG engineers are fine, especiallyt the younger ones. It was the grumpy middle aged one I had a problem with. He came to do a 240 minute job of replacing our hot water cylinder. After 200 minutes he told me he had saved the day! When he tested the system our loft almost flooded - if he hadn't been there we would have had a huge overflow as there was a strange set up of pipes in the attic. I told him it had been fine for 25 years so could he please get an inspector to come and check his work. He went off and I heard him slyly on the phone talking to his boss saying that they had delivered the wrong cylinder (either direct or indirect feed) and he had fitted it. He then told me that they had delivered the incorrect one and the job would have to be rebooked in for another day as it was now late and he was going out that night. I told him to get his supervisor on the phone as I wanted the work completed today, especially as he had made the mistake as there was a huge sticker on the cylinder saying what type it was. Upshot was he had to stay until 7pm undoing his previous work and fitting the new cylinder which was delivered within 30 minutes. I also made an inspector call later to check his work. I'm still not sure I am happy with him standing the new cylinder on a couple of pieces of wood to reach the pipe work but I am assured its fine.

I am surprised that Loobs had to pay for the part. I have never paid for any of my parts. They have also responded quickly. Always next day call out if system off and even when not off and endeavour to not leave you without heating for more that 2 days.

Also you get a discount for no call outs every year.

I have now covered my gas fire as after just 2 years it had developed a fault. To get someone out to look at it was £50 which would come off the eventual bill. I think it cost just £70 for a whole year cover with BG.

KAMRAY

I would say be wary. We got BG out last week for an inspection because we took out the central heating care. The man who came out told us that the boiler was too old to cover(over 20yrs) although it was in good condition and recommended that we got a hole repaired in the vent. He then made a call to his boss to confirm if the system should be shut down until such times as the hole was fixed. He then came back to tell us that he did not have to get the system shut down although the problem should be seen to ASAP and furthermore, his boss was happy to cover the boiler now, even though he had not seen it. We were initially pleased, but my hubby was talking to a BG engineer at his work a few days later who off the record advised we should cancel. He said that because of the age of the boiler it would be unlikely that BG could get spare parts for it, and if they could not repair it due to a faulty spare part then the policy was worthless. Just something to consider.......

loobs40

The reason I had to pay was that the heating was working, it was just that the old exchanger was clogged with limescale, which the engineer told me wasn't covered by the policy. When he fitted the new one they also added loads of that limescale inhibitor into the system

abwsco

We have it and it has saved us £££ in over 10 years as our boiler needs a new fan each year. Have never been pushed into having a new boiler and on New Years Day they were round in under an hour to mend it.

Robert5988

There have been several threads on this subject - some like the scheme(including me) others don't. The latter group are often those who haven't had the scheme for one reason or another.

I have had the cover for 16 years and have experienced none of the problems that CouponKev has experienced with their service. The few times I have needed them they have attended within 24 hours - usually the same day - and fixed the problem the same day. So what CouponKev considers the standard does not apply in my case; and to pre-empt another facetious question I do not work for BG.

BG are now a commercial company who exist to make a profit. The 3* cover is a service they sell and should be treated like an insurance policy. It seems perfectly reasonable that they will not undertake to provide cover on a central heating system that they consider will be a loss maker.

You wouldn’t expect to take an high mileage old banger to a garage and expect them to provide a parts and labour warranty for the same cost as a low mileage newish car.

COUPONKEV

Robert5988 wrote:

There have been several threads on this subject - some like the scheme(including me) others don't. The latter group are often those who haven't had the scheme for one reason or another.

I have had the cover for 16 years and have experienced none of the problems that CouponKev has experienced with their service. The few times I have needed them they have attended within 24 hours - usually the same day - and fixed the problem the same day. So what CouponKev considers the standard does not apply in my case; and to pre-empt another facetious question I do not work for BG.

BG are now a commercial company who exist to make a profit. The 3* cover is a service they sell and should be treated like an insurance policy. It seems perfectly reasonable that they will not undertake to provide cover on a central heating system that they consider will be a loss maker.

You wouldn’t expect to take an high mileage old banger to a garage and expect them to provide a parts and labour warranty for the same cost as a low mileage newish car.

Agree with some of what you're saying. I wouldn't expect them to cover a knackered old boiler or if they did then I'd expect to have to pay to get it working properly in the first instance.

I suppose service differs depending on the location/depot. In my case they were very inflexible about call out times and always always sent an inspector round first to order the necessary parts. I have sufficient knowledge to diagnose most faults (as a simple example the thermostat on the wall turned freely as it was old and the heating wouldn't operate below the highest setting). I therefore asked them to come and replace a broken thermostat giving them the model number and make but they ignore my information and send the inspector out anyway and reach the same conclusion. He has no thermostat on his van and they need to come back at the end of the week to replace it meaning I need to take another day off work).

I should add that they did fix all the reported faults in the end but caused me a lot of inconvenience over the year I had the cover. I saw about 5 different engineers over that period and all but one was arrogant and pushy.

As I say, I would recommend the cover in some situations but I wonder over that 16 years how much you paid compared to how much it would have cost to call out an engineer only when something went wrong (you say the few times I've needed them). Annual boiler servicing is included yes but I've heard that should only cost about £40 a year and isn't necessary every year so long as you carefully vacuum out any dust with a hose attachment every other year it should be fine.