Boiler service £49 till 31st Aug.

Doc_N

C_Mababejive wrote: »

People choose BG as a trusted and well known brand and with good reason.

Indepedants who work too cheaply are cutting their own throats and probably have no business sense. They should charge a FAIR rate for work.

I'm sorry, but BG long ago ceased to be a trusted company - that was in the days when it was in public ownership. Now it's an aggressively profit-seeking outfit intent purely on maximising profits for its shareholders. Customers come a very poor second and are just seen as cash cows. You're right about it being a well known brand, though - that's how they get away with it.

Most independents do charge a fair rate, otherwise they wouldn't stay in business. It's BG that isn't charging a fair rate.

RMS2

Doc_N wrote: »

I'm sorry, but BG long ago ceased to be a trusted company -

.


Yep, got to agree with that. My in-laws (retired, old, but saved whilst working) were their typical customer. They paid about £500pa for cover with guaranteed same day come out, only they didn't turn up.


When they eventually did turn up, all they tried to do was sell them an expensive new model.

MABLE

Doc_N wrote: »

I'm sorry, but BG long ago ceased to be a trusted company - that was in the days when it was in public ownership. Now it's an aggressively profit-seeking outfit intent purely on maximising profits for its shareholders. Customers come a very poor second and are just seen as cash cows. You're right about it being a well known brand, though - that's how they get away with it.

Most independents do charge a fair rate, otherwise they wouldn't stay in business. It's BG that isn't charging a fair rate.

Well you may think so. However we have the 400 Homecare cover and have found BG excellent. Also we have had their cover for 5 years and still only pay a £1.00 more a month from when we orginally took it out.

They of course try to raise it a lot more each year but each year I
negotiate it hence the reason it is still good value.

kwmlondon

Local engineer just quoted me £80 for a service. Still better than BG who wanted £90. Stupid London prices...

C_Mababejive

Doc_N wrote: »

I'm sorry, but BG long ago ceased to be a trusted company - that was in the days when it was in public ownership. Now it's an aggressively profit-seeking outfit intent purely on maximising profits for its shareholders. Customers come a very poor second and are just seen as cash cows. You're right about it being a well known brand, though - that's how they get away with it.

Most independents do charge a fair rate, otherwise they wouldn't stay in business. It's BG that isn't charging a fair rate.

Apologies not needed. I will say that although there are some concerns which i shall express later,I do think overall British Gas Service do do a good job and provide value for customers. Boiler cover from £7.80 per month including an annual service with the reassurance that you are dealing with an answerable high profile brand and you can have someone to call if you have a failure.


http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/boilers-and-central-heating/cover/homecare/homecare-100.html

Areas of concern...

The quality and skill of newer intake of engineers seems to have slipped. Some need to learn the basics such as tightness testing.

There is a fine line between giving advice and selling new boilers to old dears on the back of a scare story and some pressure.

unclebulgaria

Ollski I've recently, in the last week, repaired 4 boilers that British Gas had disconnected and claimed to be unfixable due to parts not being available. Two of them were combustion seals still very much available at my local parts merchants. I say keep it up BG I'm loving the work!
Until BG extend their available parts from 10 to 15 years old appliances i'll be laughing. There isn't a better way to prove the Giants like BG are money driven than to fix a boiler for cheaper than BG and to let the customer know that their hard earned cash isn't lining the pockets of their share holders.

Doc_N

I wonder what the possibility is of a banking-style multi-million pound mis-selling scandal being attached to British Gas?

And Martin Lewis would be just the person to start it off, and add it to the successful campaigns so far run.

That would hit shareholders' dividends, wouldn't it?

ollski

unclebulgaria wrote: »

Ollski I've recently, in the last week, repaired 4 boilers that British Gas had disconnected and claimed to be unfixable due to parts not being available. Two of them were combustion seals still very much available at my local parts merchants. I say keep it up BG I'm loving the work!
Until BG extend their available parts from 10 to 15 years old appliances i'll be laughing. There isn't a better way to prove the Giants like BG are money driven than to fix a boiler for cheaper than BG and to let the customer know that their hard earned cash isn't lining the pockets of their share holders.

I'm not sure how its possible but there is no age limit on parts or repairs and never has been, if the manufacturer still makes the parts bg still have them and if they dont they try all the major suppliers. If that fails and a local stockist has one they can get that. It's possible with case seals that suppliers may provide an aftermarket version which bg used to do until the manufacturers (spacesaver, concord etc) advised they did not approve the repair. Every bg eng. has a computer with a full parts list for every boiler the parts available are in black and obsolete in red and these are done as per information from the boiler manufacturers. If the part is red the office then attempt the other sources before the boiler can be declared unrepairable.

The shareholder thing I find a bit bizzare, I can't imagine any situation where a business would be provided with capital and funding without giving a return to investors.

On the whole I think C_mababejive has a good unbiased grip on the picture, but from stories I'm told at present the bg picture is on a massive quality purge upwards so experiences from moths or in most cases years ago are totally null.

Clwyd

BG = what a shower

BG came to change the meter at the wife's parents (they are both in their 80's). After the meter change - surprise, surprise the boiler was condemned, isolated & a notice put on it. They left without properly making the inlaws understand what they had done. This was early Friday afternoon. They didn't understand why there was no heating/hot water available later that day. The following morning when we found out, I called their regular local Gas Safe engineer who came out quickly, despite it being a Saturday. He carried out a check & said BG had deliberately misinterpreted the regs to their own ends. He pronounced the boiler fully functional & completed the annual service while he was there. Interestingly he asked where the Pressure Test Certificate was, relating to the changing of the meter. Of course BG had not supplied this statutory requirement. The BG Area Manager apologised later during a telephone call, stating that all engineers would be given extra training courses on how to do their job. Do you believe that?

ollski

Don't know anything about the metering business, only that they have no qualifications to do any work on appliances.