British Gas Homecare - Can I Cancel?

indiegirl_2

I signed up for Homecare 200 with BG in September (before I realised that alternatives do exist), having moved into a new house. I wanted the safety check done so I knew what sort of boiler I'd got in the house.

I received all of my paperwork, including the magical "you will be contacted within the next 28 days to arrange your safety check". 28 days came and went, and there was no contact. I called them on the 15th Oct to ask - "you will receive a call shortly, madam"; I was told.

No call came. I called them today, to be told that they cannot fit me in until the 8th January, due to them prioritising breakdowns.

I asked if I would have ever received a call from them to arrange this safety inspection. I was told that they did not know the answer to this, and apparently: "there have been some problems with the Internet orders".

Not much use to me.

Their Ts & Cs state that they may take longer than 28 days. Do I have any comeback as they have not fulfilled their side of the contract?

Initially the contract is a 12mth one. Has anyone had problems like this? Can I quote the Sale Of Goods Act at them? Can I theoretically cancel and request a refund of my contributions to date so far?

Allegedly I am covered still for breakdowns, but what if an engineer arrives and refuses to work on a boiler which hasn't been safety-checked?


What are my viable, recommended alternatives?

stugib

No advice, but we've had cover for about 2 years (but have got our money's worth through about 4 callouts and half the boiler replaced!) but we ALWAYS have to call them for the annual check. They're quite happy to just not bother to arrange it otherwise IME.

Also, they're now advertising fixed-cost callout+labour+parts service for £169. I'm paying £228/year for insurance just in case! I'm going to be ringing them to cancel or request a reduction.

dounome

Ive been with them for years and never had to contact them for safety inspection/service.
Never had any probs with getting repairs done either, usually same or next day at latest.
I would look carefully at other companies before signing up and make sure you get same service, i.e repairs wont cost you more the more you need them etc.
By the way im not a fan of BG and would never ever use them for my Gas or electric.

hollydays

Dont they have to inspect your system to see if they can cover you under this contract?

pulliptears

I was with them a few years ago, they wanted to replace half the pipes claiming they were obviously blocked and refused to do a water test on the radiators. we were almost certain it was merely an airlock. Oh, and the work they wanted to do wasnt covered with them and they wanted £700 to do it (or £500 depending which engineer you listened to)

Finally after a lot of pressure they agreed to do a test. 8 weeks later and still no results we fixed it ourselves by treating the pipes with fernox and bleeding down the system. Total cost £80.

A whole ten weeks later the engineer admitted that the tests were back and surprise surprise we didn't have a blockage. Oh, and the reason the tests took ten weeks? Engineer had them sent to his home address and his wife had opened them and binned them!!

We cancelled the cover, and had the £80 we spent fixing it ourselves refunded. Never again.

stugib

hollydays wrote: »

Dont they have to inspect your system to see if they can cover you under this contract?

IIRC yes they do.


p.s. I have been very impressed with the service when we have needed to call them out and the only reason it costs me that much is that we've probably had about £500 worth of parts installed. They've just not been very proactive in arranging the yearly inspection for me. And now things have stabilised (touch wood) taking the risk of a £169 payout is looking more attractive than the peace of mind for £228/year.

hollydays

stugib wrote: »

IIRC yes they do.


So the initial safety check is as much for their benefit? eg they need to establish if the boiler is too old or decrepit for them to cover the OP?

stugib

hollydays wrote: »

So the initial safety check is as much for their benefit? eg they need to establish if the boiler is too old or decrepit for them to cover the OP?

Well, again IIRC, you need to tell them what model and age it is and if it's too old/crap they won't insure you.

I've no idea what happens in the OPs case if they accept your boiler model then visit and find it's knackered. If they're saying it's insured from day 1 then it's probably their hard luck if they then visit and find it needs lots of work.

If I had to guess I'd say the OP had no grounds to cancel the contract because she's getting what she paid for - insurance on her boiler breaking down with no guarantee of how soon they'll carry out the existing inspection. BG are therefore taking on the risk that it needs work and would be obliged to carry out the repairs. Haven't read the full T&Cs lately though!

indiegirl_2

Thank you for your thoughts. Yes, I too thought that they had to do the initial safety check for their own cover as well as mine... to make sure that they could cover it! Maybe not...

I must admit that my thoughts are that I'm receiving the 'insurance' of having the cover and at the moment that's enough for me. This is my first such cover and naiively I took the letters from BG at face value; ie they would contact me.

If they (eventually) inspect and decide that they can't cover my item, then I will request that they refund my monies spent and cancel the contract. After all, it wouldn't be my problem if they couldn't cover me; and it's not my fault that they didn't come out within their promised time to verify that they could cover it!

My boiler is about 20 years old, and I could only give BG the approximate age and the make; so they're going on scant information!

About 80% of what I've read on here seems to be positive from BG, even my family speak highly of their Homecare service, hence why I signed up...

cookie_monster

I have the BG homecare plan and had to call them out last week between 12-6pm due to a faulty boiler which I purchased from them a few years back.

Had a call at 5pm on the day they were due to come out to say they were too busy and would have to make a new appointment. Really annoyed as I had to book half a day off work to wait for one of their engineers to come round and the best they could do was offer me a £10 gift voucher. I laughed when they said £10 but they explained that was the best they could do, told them to stick the voucher in the post whereby it will go to charity and that I will consider cancelling my D/D with them.

Will have to see if they cancel my re-arranged appointment this week.

cookie_monster

Oh well would you belive it. Had re-booked someone to come round today between 1200-2pm to have a look at my boiler as I have the Homecare plan and yet again they let me down. The engineer only turns up at 230 while I was heading out to pick up my kids from school.Had to tell him to go as I was late. Have tried to get through to their crappy call centre to re-book my re-booked appointment but after 10minutes on hold I have finally given up.

If anyone is seriously thinking of taking up a BG homecare plan....DONT!!!!!

Will have to try and call them again either later or tomorrow.

BRITISH GAS ARE A JOKE!!!!

Will take my business elsewhere when my contract is due for re-newal and I am still waiting for that missed appoitment voucher that they are supposed to send me which was supposed to go to a local charity.