Boiler breakdown cover?

bob_kala

I have a 3 star central heating contract with British Gas since last 10 years. Every year it goes up by few pounds. Last year I paid £179 (£197 less £18 for low call out discount), to be renewed on 26th Feb 2006. in January 2006 I received a letter from B. Gas they are changing the name from 3 star contract to Home Care 200 due to feed back from customers.It also mentioned rest assured , only the name has changed and there is no need for me to do any thing at all. On 22nd january I received renewal contract . HomeCare 200 has gone from £178 to £259 less £6 Low call-out discount.Increse of £74 per year almost 30% .I also noticed on B Gas web site it is advertiseing HomeCare 200 for £16 a month £192 per year but only for new customers.

tw0906blue

https://www.homecallplus.co.uk/ or 0800 195 2033
hope this helps someone[/QUOTE]

This doesn't take me to anything other than a domain name buying site!

Anyone else had problems?

Cheers

Doonhamer

I know someone who is subcontracted to do services for BG. All they have to do is carry out a visual inspection then run the boiler for ten minutes and check the flue gas with an analyser. If it reads OK that is the service complete. Takes 20m.

I know a local Corgi plumber and he charges me £45+ VAT for a service. He tells me to have the boiler off for one hour before he comes. He takes it all to bits cleans out nozzels vlaves, heat exchanger etc, puts it all back together, runs it for ten minutes and checks the flue gas with an analyser. Takes 1 - 1.5 hours.

I don't know if it makes any difference, but I know what I feel happier with.

Cardew

Doonhamer wrote:

I know someone who is subcontracted to do services for BG. All they have to do is carry out a visual inspection then run the boiler for ten minutes and check the flue gas with an analyser. If it reads OK that is the service complete. Takes 20m.

I know a local Corgi plumber and he charges me £45+ VAT for a service. He tells me to have the boiler off for one hour before he comes. He takes it all to bits cleans out nozzels vlaves, heat exchanger etc, puts it all back together, runs it for ten minutes and checks the flue gas with an analyser. Takes 1 - 1.5 hours.

I don't know if it makes any difference, but I know what I feel happier with.

Why do you feel happier?

You imply that the BG service is less thorough and hence ????

Surely it is not in BG's interest to perform inadequate servicing as, if that results in more breakdowns, it is BG who have to come out and fix the problems.

As it happens ''my' BG fitter does clean nozzles etc. However I pay them to look after my system and anything that goes wrong they repair.

Having said that, if there were qualified plumbers in this area who would visit and work 1.5 hours for £45(and I could rely on them to come out in an emergency) I would drop BG double quick. Sadly in this area such beasts ain't available! Plumbers have joined the super-rich.

Doonhamer

I just feel that I am getting a job done well at a good price.

But, I said I didn't know if it made a difference. It may well be that if the flue gas is OK the best thing is to leave it alone, as taking it to bits may cause a problem. I don't know. Perhaps the money saved in a quick service more than compensates for any breakdown that may have been prevented by finding something that is likely to break before the next service. I'm sure that BG accountants have it all worked out!

I have a Baxi Solo 50PF boiler and it is really simple to service and repair, changed the fan myself when it got noisy.

djohn2002uk

Well, I called BG on Tuesday with no hot water and a noise comming from the pump which we have had about 2-3 yrs ago and it turned out to be a faulty boiler stat causing steam in the pump. Anyway, they booked an engineer visit for yesterday PM and he arrived and cured the hot water and said he would be back today with a stat for the boiler. He arrived at 8.30 this morning and changed the stat and the pump. Now got a silent system and hotter water than we've had for months.
I'm happy to have paid them for the last 20yrs for the service we've had.
Edit to say that BG have kept our boiler going in that time and it's now in its 30th year. Good old Ideal Boilers.

tr180557

Oil central heating breakdown cover is a bit more difficult to get but we use The Guardsman (https://www.theguardsman.co.uk) for our oil boiler cover and they do actually cover everything connected to the heating system even the oil tank. I think they do all of UK.

eamonn321

bob_kala wrote:

I have a 3 star central heating contract with British Gas since last 10 years. Every year it goes up by few pounds. Last year I paid £179 (£197 less £18 for low call out discount), to be renewed on 26th Feb 2006. in January 2006 I received a letter from B. Gas they are changing the name from 3 star contract to Home Care 200 due to feed back from customers.It also mentioned rest assured , only the name has changed and there is no need for me to do any thing at all. On 22nd january I received renewal contract . HomeCare 200 has gone from £178 to £259 less £6 Low call-out discount.Increse of £74 per year almost 30% .I also noticed on B Gas web site it is advertiseing HomeCare 200 for £16 a month £192 per year but only for new customers.

Just realised my annual servicing bill from British Gas has gone up. It was £13.83 a month and has gone up to £18.25, an increase of 32% and that includes a discount for having no call outs. Not very happy with them. I phoned them to complain and might well cancel the contract and move to someone else (after they service my boiler next week).

cidermaster

Does anyone have a contact # for the Guardsman heating cover...I'm beginning to think they may not be trading anymore as there website is no longer active...

spspyrou

Because my gas is with British Gas, I was thinking of taking out their boiler cover. Am i roght in assuming that it's a safe bet?