Combi-boiler british gas rip-off?

moominji

i am new to posting messages, replacing boilers and spending large amounts of money.:cool: I have just had a quote from British gas for replacing my conventional boiler with a combi. The price includes removing exisiting water storage tank, overflow tank and pipework; adding wider gas piping and thermostatic controls to radiators. The quote is £4000 after discount. This seems steep. I have searched net, but been unable to find supplier with reputation of british gas/corgi dealer who I feel confident about. Is British Gas quote reasonable and reputation deserved?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum, and standby for some strong language about BG!!

You will find there is a concensus that BG charge considerably more for any CH installation, and you will always find Corgi plumbers who will beat their quote by a considerable margin.

Your point about confidence in their reputation is important and IMO BG will always guarantee their work; not something you can be sure of with many plumbers.

You will I fear not get many considered and rational opinions about BG on this forum. They enjoy, with some justification, a very poor reputation.

Turning to your quote, from what you have stated I would have thought that the boiler and parts could not exceed £1,000. The rest is effectively labour.

I would certainly get some quotes from local Corgi plumber first.

Andy_Girling

Consider looking at Yell.com type in Heating and your area look for Corgi Regisitered, and hopefully somebody there, can give you a sensible quote.

SilverFox

I have a Vokera Linea Plus, 8years old this month. It's been a bit of a pain for the past couple of years - in as much as it intermittently refuses to stay light when it fires up; one day it's fine, the next it plays silly blighters; it also locked out on an intermittent basis for no apparent reason ( the fault panel always said [wrongly] lack of pressure. After several visits by a couple of different heating guys, Vokera relented and sent one of their engineers who swapped a couple of parts but the old firing-up problem always came back but we learned to live with the nuisance. For the past 7/8 months it's [now] started to lose pressure [have looked at all probable causes without any success] -like the failing to fire-up-properly problem, it is something we lived with.
Now winter is approaching, enough is enough, we want a new boiler [condensing combi] but am unlikely to have another Vokera, unless they make me an offer I can't refuse.
I just had a visit from a BG 'sales adviser' [a qualifed CORGI guy] who said that because we didn't have sufficient water flow [he measured 10 litres per minute - which equates to 7 after the 1 bar boiler restriction] to warrant a similar sized boiler to the Vokera [13.9 l/min] so a "British/Scottish Gas Worcester Greenstar24i HE boiler" was his recommendation at an all up price for a "combi for combi, same room, same location" basis of £3656.00 -- less a current discount of £305.81 (??) and a extra £100 if we signed up within 24 hours.
For a hundred quid, I'm not going to be rushed before I have another 2/3 quotes from a reputable local [Cardiff] heating company.

Any comments or siggestion on all the above??

argeer

moominji wrote: »

i am new to posting messages, replacing boilers and spending large amounts of money.:cool: I have just had a quote from British gas for replacing my conventional boiler with a combi. The price includes removing exisiting water storage tank, overflow tank and pipework; adding wider gas piping and thermostatic controls to radiators. The quote is £4000 after discount. This seems steep. I have searched net, but been unable to find supplier with reputation of british gas/corgi dealer who I feel confident about. Is British Gas quote reasonable and reputation deserved?

British Gas are always more expensive than others. However from my own experience of combi boilers, I would think twice about installing one now. I had a good old fashioned free standing boiler which lasted 30 years and its replacement, a Baxi combi has cost me £mega since I have had it.

Cardew

argeer wrote: »

British Gas are always more expensive than others. However from my own experience of combi boilers, I would think twice about installing one now. I had a good old fashioned free standing boiler which lasted 30 years and its replacement, a Baxi combi has cost me £mega since I have had it.

From what I have read that applies to all the new condensing boilers - not just combis - as they are stuffed full of electronics.

It is one of the reasons I intend to hang on to my "good old fashioned free standing boiler" as long as I can!

david29dpo

There are plenty of good companies who will only charge half that. BG quoted me £8000 to lay gas pipes to my parents house 60 feet away from the mains. National grid did it for £475.

caroln73

I too had a quote for a new boiler today, and the labour alone was £1600, and the guy said it would be done in one day, with possibly only one workman! The total quote was £3500 after discounts, and that doesnt include new radiators. My friend had his boiler replaced last year, had all new radiators put in(he didnt have radiators before) and it cost his £4500. This doesnt seem fair, am I being ripped off?????