Boiler Cover?

lucky-legs

Hi all, not sure if I am in the right place but I ws hoping for some personal reviews in which boiler/heating cover to have. We have been with British Gas for over 20 years and the price has gone up and up over the years while the customer service has gone down and down. This year my renewal was set to go up by nearly £50 over the year so I called them to see if they could offer me a better deal, they offered to reduce my monthly payments to just over £20 instead of the renwal of just over £24. I have refused this offer and cancelled my policy due to the fact that new customers are offered the very same cover for £16.15 per month. Now I know this is an age old trick to hook people in but where is the customer loyalty??

So as of midnight tomorrow I have no boiler/heating cover. My boiler/whole system including all pipework is 8 years old and was originally fitted by British Gas (at an extortionate price!). I've looked on the internet and the best I can come up with is Home Energy Services (formally E.on) at £9.98 p/m rising to £17.50 p/m after the first year, followed by SSE at £11.99 p/m but not sure what the price would be after the opening deal. Both of these are for policies with no excess, simply because thats what I've always had with BG. Can anyone offer any advice which companys to use/avoid please, thanks LL

ollski

If you are disappointed with bg service I wouldnt be bothering with any other national, the cheap companies are cheap because they wont be spending any money trying to fix your faults when they occur if they look like being too expensive. I still know guys in bg and there are big plans for continuous improvements in repair speed and flexible efficient appointments. I'm not saying dont try it but be prepared for huge disappointment.

I believe the price is because the product is classed as insurance and when you first sign up there is no way of creating a risk profile.

Cardew

There must be many hundreds of posts asking essentially the same question that you are posing.


Some think BG are very good, some think they are rubbish; I think all agree they are very expensive.


Most of the schemes do not have their own fitters(as BG have) but have a list of local plumbers they use - in essence the firms running schemes are just middlemen.


Personally I wouldn't bother to 'insure' but ask friends neighbours for the name of a reliable RGI and use them for servicing/repair.

faineant

You could consider not insuring the boiler at all for the time being and banking the cash savings then if needed go for a fixed price Repair and Protect deal if something goes wrong. Especially at this time of year many people could cope without a boiler for a day or two while you get things organised.

lucky-legs

Thanks for your replies, we are going to hold fire atm, perhaps look at getting cover before winter sets in.

Ollski to be honest the work and the engineers were always fine it was major problems with the customer service centre on the phone that I have often had problems with and also each year my annual service has been a month or two later meaning that over the years I've missed at least two services that I have effectively paid for, when questioned i was told as long as the service was within the 12 month contract that was ok...my current heating system was installed in May 06, my service has gone from being in May, then July, then Sept etc etc and this year it was carried out in April which means that they have missed one service over the 8 years since my system has been installed.

I may well see if I can go back to them later in the year and get the new customer deal What I dont get though is that as an exsisting customer they charge more as they know your risk profile than that of a new customer who they have no idea how many times they will be called out...In the last two years other than my service I've only had one other call out and that was because the engineer forgot to reset my wireless thermostat after my service!!

jbuchanangb

For a very long time my boiler was serviced by the chap who installed it, but eventually he retired and sold the business on to a bunch of cowboys.

I then contracted with BG.

After several years with BG, and having to call them every year to negotiate a price reduction, I switched to E-on, now called Home Energy Services.

My boiler is 22 years old, and the central heating system itself more than 30 years old. I have found the HES service just fine, at £16pm even though it has just been two annual services for the boiler, as I have had no breakdowns.