Cheapest Boiler Cover Discussion

ihateyes

AuntyJean wrote: »

This will be my third year with BG (maybe). Cover 1st year was £17.00, second £17.41 and now due to rise to £17.94pm. I believe npower can provide the same cover (annual service, breakdown, for only £16.00 per month but am wary of a possible catch.

I am with npower for gas & electric so would get 50% back if no call-outs in the year.

Any comments please?

PS my Vailant combi is 25 years old. No callouts in past 2 years.

DO THEY COVER RADIATORS????
taken from t&c - https://www.npower.com/at_home/applications/hometeamcare/Default.aspx
2.7 Central Heating System means Your gas fired Central Heating System including the Boiler and its Controls together with the pump, motorised valves, cylinder thermostat, time, temperature and pressure controls, radiator valves, pipe work, hot water cylinder feed and expansion tank and primary flueing.

NOTICE THEY DONT MENTION RADIAOTRS AS PART OF YOUR CENTRAL HEATING SYSTEM!!

also they soley use contractors

bengasman

Sammiejam12 wrote: »

Later that day I had no hot water or heating so I rang them back, next another guy came out and said I needed a new PCB and he would order one. 2 days later I received a phone call and was told PCB was not covered on my policy and that it would cost me £473 :eek:, I checked my policy and nowhere does it state that a PCB is not included in the policy.

You are one of many, very many people with that kind of problem when claiming on Homeserve;I hear the same problem on a regular basis.
I run a boiler repair service and can testify from personal experience that Homeserve subcontractors are not exactly guaranteed to do the best job possible.


Their common cop outs seem to be:
This fault is not covered.
You need a powerflush before we can look at this.
Your boiler is beyond repair.
Parts are not available for this one.


NOT ONCE WAS THIS TRUE where people called me in for a second opinion!


Blaming the fault on a pcb is also suspect when I look at your description of the problem, and a common misjudgement by inexperienced “heating engineers”.
Even if it were the case, the average pcb is under £150, and usually takes less than an hour to replace. In your case, that would work out at an hourly rate of around £300.


It all sounds very familiar; I have listed the most common cons here:

common rip offs





Best thing to do ( apart from cancelling your contract ):
Inform them in writing that you do not accept the result.
Demand they cover the cost when an engineer of your choice diagnoses the fault to be anything other than the pcb and subsequently repairs it.
At the same time, complain to the insurance ombudsman.

mints2122

Personally I think these policies are a bit of a rip off unless you have a really old problematic boiler that is already on cover.
All these large companies say they carry out a annual service when actually it is a annual safety check (flue gas analyser and safety check)
You would be lucky to have the engineer in your house for more than 20 - 25 mins, I've even seen some not take the front cover off...
I contract to one of the large companies (no names mentioned) and I cant believe what I'm asked to do most of the time.
Dont get me wrong they don't pay the same as private work and the amount they expect you to do isn't possible if you had a full service done.
On the flip side, if anything does go wrong because it wasn't serviced properly then providing you have the right cover they will fix it.

Personally I would always use a private gas man to do the service (aprox £40) then if there is a fault use the same gas man and he will advise you on the best action to take.
Remember a lot of these companies offer single call outs that cover all parts and labour for a fixed fee (£130 - £199) quite often its not worth it as the part and labour doesn't come to this.

All my private customers save by doing this but its individual choice.

Feel free to PM me for help or quotes. I mainly cover the Sheffield area.

AuntyJean

ihateyes wrote: »

DO THEY COVER RADIATORS????
taken from t&c - https://www.npower.com/at_home/applications/hometeamcare/Default.aspx
2.7 Central Heating System means Your gas fired Central Heating System including the Boiler and its Controls together with the pump, motorised valves, cylinder thermostat, time, temperature and pressure controls, radiator valves, pipe work, hot water cylinder feed and expansion tank and primary flueing.

NOTICE THEY DONT MENTION RADIAOTRS AS PART OF YOUR CENTRAL HEATING SYSTEM!!

also they soley use contractors

Rang npower who said they DO cover radiators and they only used contractors in the cold snap to ensure they could deal with all customers. They have now employed 50 more engineers.

They offered me £50 M&S vouchers if I signed up so I did. I then rang British Gas to cancel and they said they would reduce my monthly payment to £13.45!

Now, whilst these kinda equal eachother as I am with npower for gas and electric I get half my intalments back if I have not called them out in a year. With a boiler 25 years old I am likely to need them although 'touch wood' have not called them out in past two years.

Someone did say, "how often do you shop in M&S?" and the answer is never.

Mmmmmmmm decisions, decisions.................

ihateyes

AuntyJean wrote: »

Rang npower who said they DO cover radiators and they only used contractors in the cold snap to ensure they could deal with all customers. They have now employed 50 more engineers.

They offered me £50 M&S vouchers if I signed up so I did. I then rang British Gas to cancel and they said they would reduce my monthly payment to £13.45!

Now, whilst these kinda equal eachother as I am with npower for gas and electric I get half my intalments back if I have not called them out in a year. With a boiler 25 years old I am likely to need them although 'touch wood' have not called them out in past two years.

Someone did say, "how often do you shop in M&S?" and the answer is never.

Mmmmmmmm decisions, decisions.................

1) doesnt matter what someone over the phone tells you..... they dont define rads as part of the system, so when you claim the claims guy will say no, and say its not stated in t&c's...

2) how often do you see Npower vans driving about?? They use Homeserve/or did use homeserve, to do their work which is sub contracting... Npower while i know they want to employ engrs, means the need a parts networks/warehouses set up across the country which they dont currently have - BGas employ over 6500 (website) engrs.

3) your boiler is 25yrs so its fair to say its more likely to break down.... whats your breakdown history like?

4) your boiler will still need to be pre screened by Npower before its accepted on contract

5) cancellation charges...... Npower tie you in each year..... will they charge you a cancellation fee, if you cancel half way thru the year cos you have had a new boiler installed.... EON charge a cancellation fee for this.... British Gas dont, as long as you have been on homecare fo more thaan 12 mths.

G_M

Anyone know of a company that offers a contract for oil boilers? Either national or (midlands) local?

Dustykitten

Just had our renewal note through from Heatguard. It has gone up not surprisingly.

DH phoned and they reduced the price (so they said but actually they just sent a quote for a lower level of service).

Quotes are not impressive pay just 12 monthly payments of £11.00 or a one off fee of £142 - great deal there then!

The thing is at the bottom of the policy it says:

P.S Your boiler bust by under 8 years old for a comination or condensing boiler.

Well ours is now 10 years old, has been insured with the same company from the beginning so why are they still automatically renewing our policy? Is it just new customers they won't take on? Would be actually be covered if we needed to call them out.

I will phone them but wanted to know your views. Thanks

ihateyes

Dustykitten wrote: »

Just had our renewal note through from Heatguard. It has gone up not surprisingly.

DH phoned and they reduced the price (so they said but actually they just sent a quote for a lower level of service).

Quotes are not impressive pay just 12 monthly payments of £11.00 or a one off fee of £142 - great deal there then!

The thing is at the bottom of the policy it says:

P.S Your boiler bust by under 8 years old for a comination or condensing boiler.

Well ours is now 10 years old, has been insured with the same company from the beginning so why are they still automatically renewing our policy? Is it just new customers they won't take on? Would be actually be covered if we needed to call them out.

I will phone them but wanted to know your views. Thanks

heatguard = domestic and general??

What did you pay last year... what did they quote this year?

Dustykitten

Just looked again.

Last year paid £179.88

Quote this year £204

Now compared with new quote which is better in the respect that it includes scale and the other didn't and it is £142 but it says boiler must be less than 8 years old and it isn't so OH is phoning them.

ihateyes

Dustykitten wrote: »

Just looked again.

Last year paid £179.88

Quote this year £204

Now compared with new quote which is better in the respect that it includes scale and the other didn't and it is £142 but it says boiler must be less than 8 years old and it isn't so OH is phoning them.

does you area have scale/hard water problems.... still wont cover sludge though.