When you can't DIY, anyone have experience with British Gas?

[friedel]

Just curious. I like to fix things myself when I can, but I also like to think I have the smarts to know when it's above my skills or just not worth it.

My boiler gave up this weekend and I called British Gas. For £24/month they will fix my current problem (parts & labour), give me unlimited call outs for the next year (again, parts & labour included) and do a service check up at the end of the year. I can cancel after the first 12 months.

Considering I was probably looking at £100 just to get a heating engineer out to have a look and do an hour's work, plus parts and extra time on top and the possibility of being ripped off or the boiler breaking down again, that seems a good deal to me.

Is it too good to be true?

 

[breezer]

i have it do a search for bg , british gas, insurance

 

[ChrisR]

Is That £288 a year?
What boiler is it?
Where are you? £100 to have a look is over the top.

 

[breezer]

i confess i dont know, mrs breezer pays it

 

[friedel]

Well, I called a few places that served north London and most charged £60-75 call out fee (with no or little work included) plus about £30-40 per hour of labour. Then parts on top of that. I did a quick search on the web and I assumed a minimum of £50 for a CH expansion vessel (assuming that's what is wrong). Then if the person is dodgy and tries to overcharge me, or does shoddy work and the boiler breaks down again, I'm looking at even more.

So, £288 for a year of service, parts and labour seemed like a good hedge. Assuming BG shows up..... some of the web reviews were not favourable about them turning up for apointments, but none of those seemed to be from people with this insurance.

It's an Ideal Response 120 boiler, about 3 years old.

 

[breezer]

for what its worth, so far we have had no probs with bg, we do have the insurance, only one thing they do not like weekends

 

[BDL]

To replace the expansion vessel on the Response 120 you need to have either clearance at the right hand side or top of boiler to remove it, otherwise it is a boiler off the wall job.
Fairly easy to replace £100 is a fair price to pay, shouldn't take longer than an hour. Bear in mind that Bgas will not remove the burner and reset ignition probes etc on the service, they carry out a safety check.

Some people prefer to put the money away in an account somewhere and use it in case of future problems. If you get a 4-5 years problem free you have a nice sum to go towards replacing it in the future, others prefer peace of mind. If you do go down the route of a service contract Bgas are probably your best bet.

 

[ChrisR]

Seems too much to me. £40- £50 an hour is common in south London.

 

[BDL]

£100 including expansion vessel

 

[friedel]

Well, so far so good... BG came in (on time!), confirmed it was the expansion vessel and will be back with the part on Wednesday. I realise this might have cost less to fix with someone other than BG but I personally like the security of knowing I can call them back as and when over the next year and not having to worry about being ripped off by a cowboy. It's sad the trades have that reputation, as I'm sure there are plenty of honest people who know their stuff trying to make a living, but when you don't know enough about DIY and how long/how much something should add up to, it really puts you off getting anyone in.

 

[Lara]

Worked for me when I had this service, saved me money on repairs, but also gave me peace of mind.