Gas boiler cover/service

zaralocke

Hi everyone.


We bought a new build house 3 years ago, so the boiler and central heating are only 3 years old. We got a boiler 'service' after 1 year but I felt so ripped off. The guy was hardly there longer than it took to fill in his form. Looked at the boiler for all of 30 seconds and charged me £75 for the pleasure. So last year and so far this year I've not done it again.
Can anyone tell me how much a service should cost (West Midlands) and what it should cover? Also am I better getting some sort of monthly policy to cover it and do these cover the price of the actual service as well? Sorry, I'm pretty clueless on all of this!


Thank you

Working_Mum

You need to be careful assuming the £75 was poor value for money - I feel sure if he was a trained engineer and there had been an issue it would have been sorted.

I have an old boiler and subscribe to the British gas Homeserve service as I am a single parent and lost my boiler at Christmas 2010 when we had the long hard snowy winter and was without power/hot water for 5 days and slept in the lounge with a coal fire to cope! It is worth the monthly cost for me as I cannot afford to replace my boiler at the moment and I am covered if anything happens.

Shop around online and see where the prices are - sometime local engineers offer the same kind of service etc for less than the Plc's - you have to go with what you fell comfy with.

I know that having my boiler serviced every year has been worthwhile at prolonging its life and usefulness.

southcoastrgi

How long is your boiler warentee for ? Because without your annual service the warentee is null & void

Ectophile

The service is essentially a safety check, and an opportunity to spot if something isn't right. It's no guarantee that the boiler will work for another year.


They should take the covers off and have a good look inside. They should check that it starts and runs OK. They should check the flue gases with a meter to make sure that it's burning properly. They should carry out a visual inspection of the flue to make sure it's intact.


I would say £75 is on the high side. I would expect about £50 - £70. Remember that includes the travelling time to get to you.

sevenhills

I had quotes last week, for £50 and £55, I saw someone advertising whilst England were still in the World cup - £60, normally £75