British Gas Homecare - account lost

TOPSie

I had a British Gas Homecare contract for many years, but after some issues I transferred to an outfit who used the Corgi brand - that was a complete disaster, so I went back to British Gas. All seemed well but in September 2014 I got a letter from BG saying that they were updating their system and my regular Direct Debit would not be taken until October. A few months later, without any further communication I got in touch with them to ask why the DD had still not been taken. I was told that they still had issues and they would sort it out. I repeated this conversation some time later (didn't bother to record dates - or the conversations).
Now - nearly two years later - there has been no further contact - but I have not paid anything - and, fortunately, my central heating has been fault free.
I am loath to rattle any cages, but does anyone else have a similar experience???

Cardew

A couple of points.

Firstly as part of BG Homecare they carry out annual servicing.

Secondly assuming your boiler/CH system is not new, BG will not normally give you a contract without an initial inspection to check there are no existing faults. Also these days they are reluctant to take on old boilers - say 10 years old plus.

So everything indicates you do not have a contract with BG.

There are hundreds of posts on MSE about servicing contracts and the best advice(IMO) is to find a reliable local gas fitter/plumber to give you a service and pay for repairs if/when they occur.

It is also pertinent to point out that some people(including myself) have found that BG's Homecare is hugely expensive these days. They also play the 'we cannot source spares for older boilers' game and 'the system needs a powerflush' not covered by Homecare and costing £hundreds.

molerat

Something I posted elsewhere about the waste of money that is BG homecare

My son has had a similar problem. 5 weeks after buying house boiler packed up due to overheating. Found a pile of paperwork covering a couple of years of BG service plan call outs. Loads of (random) parts replaced but same fault kept coming back, power flush recommended, new boiler recommended. Local gas man had a look, new boiler needed due to the fault being circuit board (which could not possibly cause the fault on this particular boiler, besides which it had already been changed), no parts available. Took me about 20 minutes to diagnose the fault which was not actually on the boiler. £43 of parts later, which included flush and inhibiting chemicals and a radiator valve that was a bit iffy, boiler fixed and running sweetly. And people wonder why I distrust the "professionals"