Choosing a gas service/repair person?

Lemoncurd

Any ideas on the best way to choose someone?

We went with a recommendation (small family run Corgi registered company) when we wanted a gas safety check done in May. Despite paying for the certificate straight away following the check, about 8 or 10 phone calls and and email requesting the certificate or at least formal confirmation that everything was ok we haven't seen a certificate yet so I certainly don't want to call them out.
We have now moved into the same property and found that the 2 yr old boiler leaks a yellow liquid when switched off, the central heating seems to come on even though the boiler is switched to hot water only, two rings on one side of the the auto ignition gas hob won't stay lit when the buttons are released and I'm sure I get a faint whiff of gas when I walk up the stairs (everyone tells me I'm being paranoid but I could smell it in someone elses house a few years ago, they told me I couldn't then but when they had a safety certificate done there were leaks in exactly the place I'd said).

I tried calling a few numbers in the yellow pages, the smaller local Corgi registered people charge around a £45 callout (for up to 45 mins) then about £30 per half hour thereafter. There are also lots of larger companies who advertise "no call out charge", are these more likely to work out more expensive in the long run as they would charge more for repairs?
The other thing is how likely would it be that gas engineers would have access to any spares needed? (Potterton boiler, Neff hob). In a rented property in the past we called out a washing machine service person to look at an AEG washer dryer and he just said "Yes, it's broken, you need to call out an AEG repair person" so the landlord had to pay two callouts.

tagz

I too was the only person to smell gas on three different occasions and each time I was right. You must call out someone. I had Transco come and test (free if you can smell gas but they won't carry out any work) and then I found a gas 'person'. I was very lucky, I chose a local man in the yellow pages who was on a page sponsored by corgi. The first time he came out on Bank Holiday Monday replaced a metre long piece of pipe, spent two hours doing it and charged me £60 (we are in London!). I have kept his card!

If you can smell gas you must call Transco and get them to check it out.

alanobrien

I would tend to keep away from the yellow pages ads, especially the multi line merchants i know to many people charged ridiculous prices for minor work.

A better approach is to put your post code into the corgi site. It will provide you with a list of local gas engineers.

http://www.corgi-gas-safety.com/

Speak to as many as you can and when you find one that you can talk to and feel right about use them and go back to them in the future.

Works for me..........