British Gas HomeCare refusing to fix ongoing boiler fault unless customer agrees to PowerFlush

Ian_Ed

Would appreciate others thoughts on whether the behaviour of British Gas is allowed under the terms and conditions of their HomeCare policy. If it is then existing and potential customers of the HomeCare service need to be aware of the cost implications.

In summary, British Gas HomeCare have been addressing an intermittent boiler fault for the past week, which has involved 3 separate engineer visits. On the third visit yesterday the engineer has recommended that the heat exchangers need replacing, but has refused to do so unless the customer agrees first to have a British Gas Powerflush at a cost of £850. Although the HomeCare T&Cs exclude repairs due to damage caused by sludge, the wording states that this only applies if they’ve told the customer before that a Powerflush is required, and hasn’t done so. In my view as they’ve only told the customer just now that it requires a Powerflush, then that exclusion doesn’t apply to the existing fault. What do others think?

If anyone is interested in further details …

My partner’s mother has had a British Gas HomeCare support agreement in place shortly after her boiler was installed, just over 10 years ago.

The boiler (an Ideal Logic + Combi) developed a fault (L3 code) last Thursday 4th February.

A HomeCare service engineer visited on Friday and reported that he’d fixed it and performed a full service.

The L3 fault reoccurred on Monday and was fixed by a HomeCare emergency cover engineer on Monday evening. He reported that it could be due to an intermittent fault on the thermistor or PCB. And should it reoccur they should be replaced. He accidently forgot to reconnect the condensate outlet pipe which was left dripping, but this is minor compared to the next visit.

The L3 fault re-occurred a third time late Tuesday evening.

A service engineer attended yesterday. He checked the thermistor and PCB and claimed they were fine. He cleaned the pump and reported that was running fine. However, he reported that the L3 and a new L5 fault were still occurring probably due to obstructed flow in the heat exchangers or other components. He stated that the heat exchangers needed replacing, but he wouldn’t do so unless she agreed to perform a PowerFlush costing £850, as he stated there was sludge circulating in the system. To the best of my knowledge he didn’t actually remove the heat exchanges to check them, or attempt to clean them. He also reported that a sleeve of the magnetic filter was missing (so it wasn’t fully protecting the boiler from circulating iron oxide sludge). As HomeCare have had the service contract for the boiler since it was installed I can only assume the missing sleeve was down to one of their service engineers (seems odd that none had previously mentioned it as an issue during annual services).

The relevant clause of the Home Care T&Cs is as follows:

What’s not included ...

Damage caused by limescale, sludge or other debris – if we’ve told you before that you need to carry out repairs, improvements or a British Gas Powerflush, or a similar process, but you haven’t done so.

He was the first engineer to suggest that the system required a Powerflush. She hadn’t been told before that such a procedure was required. Indeed the same boiler had been serviced by two other engineers in the preceding few days, neither of whom had reported an issue with sludge or a requirement to perform a Powerflush.

He did mention how costly the repair was going to be and how long it was going to take, and I can’t help but think the requirement to perform a PowerFlush before they’d fix it was an attempt to recoup some of those costs. Based on the wording of the T&Cs it appears to me that British Gas are liable to carry out whatever repairs are necessary to get the boiler functioning again, without her having to agree in advance of the repairs to perform a Powerflush. What do others think?

My partner’s mother is an 82 year old, suffering from serious health conditions, and because of the response of this engineer has now been left without central heating or hot water, on what have been some of the coldest days and nights for several years in London.

niktheguru

Sounds like he's trying to pull a fast one. Ask them to prove theres sludge in the system.
Are her radiators working ok. Were they fully heating up or are there cold patches.
As per the terms and conditions that you've rightly described if they fix a fault and then suggest theres sludge in the system and suggest a powerflush then they may not cover you for "subsequent" faults. They certainly should for this one. Just make sure they haven't suggested previous flushes in documentation from previous services.

I would make a complaint to them. This sounds like a farce
Also, complain about the magnetic filter. This should be checked and cleaned by british gas every service. So if it has'nt been noticed before they haven't been doing their job properly.
Also, british gas charge scandalous prices for power flushes. Can save a few hundred pounds doing it privately. Some even suggest not doing powerflushes as can cause leaks if any dodgy pipework. Powercleanse (magnetic) tends to be the norm now with boiler changes....or the old school taking each radiator and flushing it with a hose! (tho that does leave some sludge in the pipes)

I suggest go down the complaints route and insist the problem is FIXED. Do not pay an extra penny.
If they can show you proof there is sufficient sludge then you may well need something done, however then think carefully about your homecare plan, as if you dont powerflush they will wriggle their way out of doing any repairs as they'll say its "sludge related" thus making your expensive plan useless! 

Ian_Ed

Thanks for the detailed reply, it's really appreciated.

Following an escalated complaint to customer service, managed to get another engineer to visit late this afternoon. To give credit to BG they have been very good at sending out engineers at short notice, during a period of very high demand. This was a bona fide BG engineer. Apparently the engineer who visited yesterday and insisted on the Powerflush before he’d proceed with the repair was a contractor (not sure what his incentive was for trying to insist on a Powerflush – he even stated that because he was a contractor he had nothing to gain from the customer paying for a Powerflush). Appears that there’s currently an industrial dispute between BG and their engineers, so the BG employees are not working all days – and cover for those days (plus for the extra demand arising from the cold spell) is being met through third party contractors.

Today’s BG engineer reported that the issue was with the pressure sensor (not detecting when the pump was on), and the boiler is now working again and “touch wood” the issue has been resolved (at least for a while).

He also stated that he couldn’t see any issue with sludge and didn’t think a Powerflush was necessary.

Apparently the “missing” sleeve on the mag filter that yesterday’s contract engineer had referred to, was simply down to the mag filter being an earlier model (with a brass finish, rather than a smooth black outer jacket). Yesterday’s engineer had also referred to the mag filter as a magnetron … I’m pretty sure they belong in microwaves – not attached to the return pipe of the boiler 😊

Appears that we may just have been unfortunate to have encountered a rogue contractor who for whatever reason was determined that a Powerflush was necessary.

So our faith in the BG employed engineers themselves is restored for the time being. But as you point out need to be careful about the "sludge related" clause in the HomeCare policy.

niktheguru

Great to hear it’s sorted.
just double check what magnetic filter it is, a lot of them come with a black magnetic sleeve on them, so don’t just take the bg engineers word for it as they may be doing damage control.
live got a spiro tech mb3 or Spirotrap and they definitely have a black magnet on the brass tap. Magnaclean filters are popular but they are generally black (or another colour) cylinders. Check what make yours is and google it and that way you’ll know what it’s supposed to look like.

brewerdave

Ian_Ed said:

Appears that we may just have been unfortunate to have encountered a rogue contractor who for whatever reason was determined that a Powerflush was necessary.

Being a cynical suspicious soul , I would suspect that the contractor would have "reluctantly" offered to do the Powerflush himself at a cut price .  I've had experience with dodgy c/heating "engineers"  over the past 20 years or so !!