Best value servicing and heating cover?

BooJewels

wittynamegoeshere said:

BooJewels said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

You could work out how much you've paid over those 30 years.

I'm guessing lots of thousands.  Enough for several boilers and a decent holiday.

Living risk-free is very expensive.

(hence I recently called it quits and got a new one). 

Hang on a minute - I don't have experience of these policies, but if the best solution is to get a new boiler then don't they pay for it?

There's not much value in cover that only pays out if it's not very much - in which case you're definitely better off without cover at all, and haven't actually removed the biggest risk from your life anyway.

I think we're at cross purposes - it wasn't a warranty - but a service contract.  You pay an amount per month and call them if you have any faults/breakdown and they do the work for free - plus service it once a year too.  My boiler had been repaired many times over its life and when it failed again and needed a new PCB and they're no longer available, we discussed options and I chose to have a new boiler.

BooJewels

mickym said:

Plot Twist - My reason for asking this question was that I was paranoid that as we have started putting the heating on with our combi... and knowing from experience thats when we have had issues in the past with faults... today our boiler is displaying a fault saying its failing to ignite. 

So I know this is my own fault and should have got it sorted sooner. 

So, the question now is, what do I do?

Do I get a local gas engineer to scome out and fix, or contact the manufacturer of the boiler to see if they can come and fix it?

Its made by Vaillant.

Can the chap that installed it and has been servicing not help out?  The Vaillant service is quite pricey (depends how expensive your repair might end up being as to whether that would be good value or not) and any other service perhaps won't touch it if you already have a fault - there's often a cooling off period before you can call them out anyway - where at least the Vaillant service starts from the repair and gives you the next 6 months too.

mickym

Ive gone for the £340 repair and service contract for 6 months.

Due to Covid and other factors the boiler hasnt had a service for a couple of years after the warranty finished, so im thinking positive that the money saved will go on this. 

They have said once 6 month is up it switches to a 12month contract at cheaper rate and includes an annual service. Im presuming it reverts to a service like Homecare / Hometree etc. where ou then pay an excess fee for any repairs within 12 month. 

At the moment we will just be happy with having working heating for the winter.

[Deleted User]

mickym said:

Ive gone for the £340 repair and service contract for 6 months.

Due to Covid and other factors the boiler hasnt had a service for a couple of years after the warranty finished, so im thinking positive that the money saved will go on this. 

They have said once 6 month is up it switches to a 12month contract at cheaper rate and includes an annual service. Im presuming it reverts to a service like Homecare / Hometree etc. where ou then pay an excess fee for any repairs within 12 month. 

At the moment we will just be happy with having working heating for the winter.

Do they cover pre-existing faults?

BooJewels

Yes @[Deleted User] - it starts with the repair - up to £1,100-something in value, then 6 months further cover.

Let me know how you go on @mickym as my new boiler's a Vaillant.

mickym

[Deleted User] said:

mickym said:

Ive gone for the £340 repair and service contract for 6 months.

Due to Covid and other factors the boiler hasnt had a service for a couple of years after the warranty finished, so im thinking positive that the money saved will go on this. 

They have said once 6 month is up it switches to a 12month contract at cheaper rate and includes an annual service. Im presuming it reverts to a service like Homecare / Hometree etc. where ou then pay an excess fee for any repairs within 12 month. 

At the moment we will just be happy with having working heating for the winter.

Do they cover pre-existing faults?

Yes, as its primary tease as a product is that its good value compared to their other alternative of a £299 one off repaire charge (i.e. you pay £50 more for 6 month further cover). It will see us through the winter. 

As a boiler, its been a mixed bag with the Vaillant. 

I bought it and got a independent plumber to fit it. I did plenty of research and went for it due to stainless steel exchnage on it and had good reviews for reliability and build. However!.... we have had multiple divertor valves replaced under warranty. Always seems to happen this time of year where we have gone through late-spring and summer without using the heating and just water, to the start of winter and using heating again. 

We also had an issue with the wireless thermostat dropping connnection to the boiler, engineer said something about sky routers being an issue, ended up them having to hard wire the receiver for the boiler using a different method. Works now, but I have had to buy another replacement wireless thermostat unit out of warranty and fit myself.

So, it hasnt been perfect by all means. Had the boiler serviced every year during the 7 year warranty to maintain the cover. Was told after this was up by our independent gas enginer that every two years service would be good enough from after that, but with Covid and lockdowns it complicated things.

[Deleted User]

BooJewels said:

Yes @[Deleted User] - it starts with the repair - up to £1,100-something in value, then 6 months further cover.

Let me know how you go on @mickym as my new boiler's a Vaillant.

Thanks. It is the same plan as offered by Worcester Bosch with cover provided by Domestic and General.