British Gas boiler service any good?

northernsoul

i have had 5 services by independants and 1 by British Gas.
The BG one came at 11am for the service. I was his 3rd customer. I mentioned that the pressure increased quite a bit and maybe the expansion vessel needed attention. He said it was normal. A few weeks later when it became cold I put the central heating on. The pressure went up into the red (over 3 bar). I complained to BG and they sent someone out to assess if it was a fault or related to the service. The engineer agreed it was related to the service and he drained the expansion vessel and boiler. The boiler pressure has been the best (ie the least increase in working pressure ) since and is still better than ever before.
The 2nd BG engineer was the best engineer I have had (maybe because he was under no time pressure), including independent's. Only 1 independent (one recommended by Vailliant) felt the need to re-pressurise (not drain vessel or boiler), even when I had my doubts.
So, the worst was British Gas and the best was British gas. I phoned BG afterwards to tell them I was very satisfied with their 2nd engineer.

27col

northernsoul wrote: »

i have had 5 services by independants and 1 by British Gas.
The BG one came at 11am for the service. I was his 3rd customer. I mentioned that the pressure increased quite a bit and maybe the expansion vessel needed attention. He said it was normal. A few weeks later when it became cold I put the central heating on. The pressure went up into the red (over 3 bar). I complained to BG and they sent someone out to assess if it was a fault or related to the service. The engineer agreed it was related to the service and he drained the expansion vessel and boiler. The boiler pressure has been the best (ie the least increase in working pressure ) since and is still better than ever before.
The 2nd BG engineer was the best engineer I have had (maybe because he was under no time pressure), including independent's. Only 1 independent (one recommended by Vailliant) felt the need to re-pressurise (not drain vessel or boiler), even when I had my doubts.
So, the worst was British Gas and the best was British gas. I phoned BG afterwards to tell them I was very satisfied with their 2nd engineer.

In my experience. It is BG that ring you very shortly after the visit to ask for feedback.

macman

A gas safety check has nothing to do with a boiler service-the boiler can be perfectly safe but still require a service.
The ruse here is that the 'free' service will tell you that a powerflush is needed, for which BG will ask around £400.

C_Mababejive

southcoastrgi wrote: »

A free service isn't gonna be free if he decides to turn it off & says you need a new boiler, which they love to do

True but they have no authority to turn anything off and so you just say no thank you.

ijustlovesavingmoney

Had BG for homecare on boiler for 30 odd years, they were very good BUT don't have the service done on a Friday afternoon, job was hurried and gas fire was condemned wrongly.
Now have a new boiler so no BG contract at the moment not sure what we are going to do.

unclebulgaria

C_Mababejive wrote: »

True but they have no authority to turn anything off and so you just say no thank you.

If the boiler is Immediately Dangerous and you refuse to allow the appliance to be turned off then the engineer will be left with no option but to call National Grid and have your gas turned off which you cannot refuse as they have right of entry.

There is no such thing as a freebee!

JP08

Personally I've had no complaints with BG or their service contract. This is just my personal experience though - I may just have been lucky for the 30ish visits that I have had from them !

When I bought my first house in 1992, the vendors had a service contract on the boiler. I kept it going. When I moved in 2010, I kept the same level of contract going on the new property. Only cover heating and hot water systems (2* cover), anything else I can deal with / can wait until I find someone to get in.

I estimate over the years it has cost me best part of £5,500k. Which sounds a lot. But in that time I've had 23 boiler services, two new pumps, a couple of thermocouples, one three way valve and the internal boiler fan replaced. And being able to ring someone up (like with the fan - the last one to go, which resulted in an inoperative boiler) at 10:00 at night and have them come out the following day is just too worth having.

Nobody has ever tried to push a power flush sale or anything like that over time. They will leave leaflets about things like carbon monoxide detectors and insulation, but in general it is pretty obvious that the engineers don't like doing this and tend to apologise before doing it !

The boiler in the old place was 35 years old when I moved out - got a couple of letters from BG that parts were becoming scarce for it and it was inefficient, but the engineers that did the servicing said most stuff was still available and it was best to leave well alone and cross that bridge when something unavailable did fail, and that it was reliable so not economic sense to change it out, and that it it best to leave well alone. The one that did the fan on the last visit told us the current boiler was the one he recommends to friends, and to keep it going for as long as possible.

C_Mababejive

unclebulgaria wrote: »

If the boiler is Immediately Dangerous and you refuse to allow the appliance to be turned off then the engineer will be left with no option but to call National Grid and have your gas turned off which you cannot refuse as they have right of entry.

There is no such thing as a freebee!

Just pretend your not in when they call..

unclebulgaria

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Just pretend your not in when they call..

Doesn't work like that. If you refuse he has to wait until Nation Grid come and if you wont let them in they call the police.

bridgedino

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Just pretend your not in when they call..

They have right of access and thankfully they will boot your door in to isolate the gas supply

"pretend you're not in" Really? Imagine your next door neighbour being so cavalier with a dangerous gas appliances...sleep well