British Gas Maintainance Contract - Too Good To Be True?

[jonesey]

They do. e.g they said my landlords boiler needed replacing cos you cant get parts for it......ohhhh but you can. Not just a one off. With british gas you get good eggs and bad ones. Over the past couple of years my firm has employed half a dozen engineers from bg, and only 2 can actually diagnose faults

 

[ollski]

but there are boilers which will be (and should be) deemed as obselete.Ie obsolete replacement case seal but all other parts available. I would say this needs replacing even though working because you can't service it. If I don't service it I'm a lazy know nothing tosspot, if I do and the case seal is perished I'm a know nothing tosspot, if I try to recommend a replacement I'm a know nothing tosspot! C'est la vie.
Bg have a service engineer force as well as a fault finding force so you may find your other 4 came from that side

 

[jonesey]

ha ha. you are not from british gas are you, if so i didnt mean to offend you.

 

[ollski]

Done it from both sides my friend and get equally defensive for each

 

[DP]

Ollski, how can you say that a boiler should only be flue gas analysed and not serviced (even though it says so in the installation manual). To follow the makers instructions is requirement of the Gas Regulations.

I would rather have the client in the room where the boiler is so that a full service is carried out as per the Gas Safety Regulations and be seen to be doing the service. If after I have done this, the boiler fails to work, it is because I do not have skills to carry out the work I am getting paid to do.

A combination boiler combustion analysis will deteriorate very slowly. Water carrying components will be dead by the time the flue analyser sees bad combustion.

Suggest you look at Vokera Flowmatic or Vaillant VCW boilers. Great boilers. Only to be destroyed when manufacturer's instructions not followed. Those that have been well looked after, giving faithful service.

I have attended calls where boilers have been shut down for replacements where case seal had nothing to do with it. One such boiler had a blocked chimney (bird's nest) to be cleared by the chimney sweep.

The only way to carry out ANY repair is to diagnose the fault (it is not always possible to do this I admit). If it is not possible, then being truthful to the client is the right thing to do.

 

[ollski]

Ollski, how can you say that a boiler should only be flue gas analysed and not serviced (even though it says so in the installation manual).

I haven't said that...I've said the opposite.

 

[DP]

There are some room sealed boilers that are flue gas analysed and visually inspected only because that is all they require and the fact is if you did a FULL service it would never work properly again!

Above is from your post Ollski[/quote]

 

[walker88]

Look at Domestic and General as well. They were cheaper than BG, covered for limescale damage and radiators and also replace the boiler if it needs it (unlike BG).

 

[Botmission]

Regarding the rads, any rad that leaks will not be covered by a BG service contract, as they will say that the aggressive water caused it. This goes for cylinders too!

 

[curtis]

OK It works like this.

On a first call out only your boiler is covered. The won't fix the pipes if they are "inaccessble". Which means if you don't remove your floorboards they won't either. This, however, is in direct opposition to a statement on their T&C's which states that you are covered by £1000 cost of "getting to your system" but apparently this doesn't include shifting any floorboards.

Where do they think most pipes are !

Essentially I was mislead by the telesales staff even after repeatedly stating what the suspected problem was and being told that would be fine (something which happens a lot according to the visiting engineer and his manager)

So as far as I can gather BG only want to deal with your boiler and not the rest of the system.... as far as I am concerned it was too good to be true and it's cost me 5 days with no hot water or heating.