British Gas HomeCare want to cancel agreement after claim

ValiantSon

brewerdave wrote: »

Basically another sad tale of the BG **** artists selling a grossly overpriced new boiler installation, rather than honour the policy by replacing the hot water cylinder:mad: .
Too late now -but a local firm would probably have done the same job at half the price!!

Agreed! British Gas are notorious for upselling, and the prices they charge for boilers are outrageous. Personally I would have absolutely nothing to do with them.

A_Nice_Englishman

Option A: Get cylinder replaced under guarantee and BG cover labour cost. Cost to consumer - zero

Option B: Rip out existing cylinder and fully-functioning boiler and replace with combi, reconfiguring plumbing as necessary. Profit to BG ~ £2500 (based on a local firm being able to do it for half the cost as stated) . Cost to consumer £4699.

peterwey

Thanks for your all your comments.

I am taking legal advice from a barrister friend who is experienced in contract law and will pursue via Ombudsman and Small Claims court if necessary. Will also see if national media are interested.

Will post outcome idc

Thanks again

jk0

So, you asked for advice here after you accepted a new boiler?


It's a little late now.


You should have had a repair done by someone else, and then sued BG for the cost.

AndyPK

I dont think you will get anyway legally as you have "upgraded" your system rather than just had the cylinder replaced.

To conclude you bg cover has been no help at all.
They didn't pay out and have charged you 4 times the necessary cost.

When the warranty runs out stop paying them! ASAP

peterwey

Upgraded yes but on their advice and I had to get the problem (no water for 7 days etc) sorted urgently. Customer loyalty clearly counts for nothing with BG.

ValiantSon

peterwey wrote: »

Upgraded yes but on their advice and I had to get the problem (no water for 7 days etc) sorted urgently. Customer loyalty clearly counts for nothing with BG.

I do genuinely sympathise with your problem, and I have nothing but contempt for the way British Gas behave (I have commented in other threads, warning people of their sharp business practices and massive overcharging). However, I am puzzled about why you were without water for seven days and why it was so necessary to act so quickly that you couldn't insist on them replacing the cylinder, as that was the faulty component (and is entirely possible to replace), or find an independent heating engineer to do this for you.

When you say you were without water, do you just mean hot water? I really can't see why the fault should have required you to turn your water supply off completely, but I'm happy to have that explained. Assuming you did have cold water then the risk to your health was not significant. It would have been very inconvenient, but not posing a risk. You could, for example have boiled water in a kettle and had all-over strip washes in a sink.

The heating would clearly have been more of a concern, but buying a couple of cheap portable electric convector radiators would have covered you for a short time. And this brings me to the question about when exactly this occurred, because the last month has seen a heatwave, in which you surely can't have needed heating.

I do wish you well with your complaint, and possible legal action, but I'm just not sure you made the wisest decision. If I had a working boiler and my cylinder had failed, I wouldn't be accepting an engineer tell me that the best thing to do would be to rip out the functioning boiler and install a new combi. I would be thanking him for his time and asking for a second opinion, and then going back to British Gas and telling them to fit a new cylinder and stop being so bloody stupid.

As I say, I do wish you well, but this does seem to be something of a cautionary tale for others about not listening to a word that British Gas say - indeed avoiding them altogether - and taking a moment to think things through.

peterwey

<When you say you were without water, do you just mean hot water? I really can't see why the fault should have required you to turn your water supply off completely, but I'm happy to have that explained.>

We had to turn off the mains supply as water was leaking into two flats below. At the time we were not certain about source of leak and we had some understandably stressed neighbors downstairs.

Time was not on our side as we also had a two year grand-child to look after!

AndyPK

I can sympathise. I had the luxury of a working stop tap by my cylinder which I used.

The only water I had was kitchen, washing machine and outside tap.

All other cold supplies go via pressure reducing valve to give equal hot and cold prsssure.

ValiantSon

peterwey wrote: »

<When you say you were without water, do you just mean hot water? I really can't see why the fault should have required you to turn your water supply off completely, but I'm happy to have that explained.>

We had to turn off the mains supply as water was leaking into two flats below. At the time we were not certain about source of leak and we had some understandably stressed neighbors downstairs.

Time was not on our side as we also had a two year grand-child to look after!

I see, and I do sympathise. As I've said, I wish you well with your claim.