Considering using British Gas boiler care?

[tmiperiod]

Sounds like a good deal?

Is it as good as it sounds? Advert says £2.50 pm?

Aibu?

Sure it is not £2.50 pw? We have it but not so impressed in recent years. After last service we were left with a leak we did not spot until it caused damp, services are often more than 12 months apart and need booking well ahead.

Oh that's interesting to know

I've had the BG Homecare for years and have never had any problems.

I think £2.50 is a headline and I bet your actual quote will be higher, unless you have a really new boiler. Until we got a new boiler a few months ago, our price plan kept increasing, every year.

According to Which it is the most expensive scheme. We had it for years for peace of mind, and called on it. I once called them at 5pm on Christmas Eve because water was pouring out of the cold tank overflow. It was fixed at 7pm. I was impressed.

But we're thinking we'll look at other providers for next year, as the service is no longer what it was. Callouts now take days, rather than hours.

I've got the homecare 4, electrics, boiler, drains etc and always had good service. It's about £30 a month but for me that's money well spent as I'm useless at anything like that

Never heard anything good about it and they are desperately under staffed so you might as well save your money. Earlier this year my mum was paying £90 a month for it to cover her boiler, gas fire and washing machines. They left her without heating or hot water for four weeks because they either couldn't get the part needed or they couldn't get her an appointment. She's disabled and this was in February, so not exactly warm weather. Luckily she had the gas fire for warmth but she really was getting ripped off. My DH has recently qualified as a gas engineer so she cancelled BG and uses him now as he can go straight to her if needed.

I have heard bad stories but they've been good for us generally (except last time - the boiler wasn't working after the service as the guy had swanned off without putting the gas back on...)

It's nowhere near £2.50 though. I pay £16 a month. A service is over £100 on its own so worth it to me.

Get a local company's cover. Ours is £7.50pm and that covers annual service, repairs and parts.

It's only that for the first year and then the renewal is like quadruple.

I pay 2.50 a month. If it's the same as mine, it doesn't include an annual service, but covers repairs, with an excess of £100.

My husband worked for BG...they put sales targets on gas engineers, so they are forced to up sell or get into trouble.

Two years ago, they changed the terms and conditions for staff that a lot of the decent ones left

They use contractors who get paid on how many jobs they do, so basically they do a quick fix and leave it for the next engineer.

My husband left cause he didn't train to be a gas engineer to end up selling things people don't need.

I would not pay for them.

We have the home are 4, they had it on offer earlier this year and I got £90 through Quidco too so it was a bargain.

we’ve had the annual service - it does need booking ages in advance, and also used the blocked drain cover too when the outlet from our washing machine blocked, I was very impressed with that.

what type of boiler do you have?

i took out their cover last year just before Xmas after my new (2 year old glow worm) boiler broke and when the engineer arrived he said they can’t fix anything other than Worcester Bosch. He showed me his tough pad with order that he’d put in for parts for other makes of boilers and they couldn’t get them. Some customers had been waiting 15 weeks!

the engineer was amazing and he pointed me in the direction of Domestic and General who got a glow worm engineer to fix the boiler

moral of story: if it looks too good to be true it probably is. Oh and British Gas are shite.

I'd advise against it. My elderly mother had terrible service despite having cover. I had ro repeatedly chase and highlight her vulnerability. They were hopeless. We figured better to find a reliable plumber she could call instead.

We got it when we got our new boiler and they've been really good. Been able to book a service within a week of receiving the letter each time. Had a slight issue after the service and they were back out within 2 days.
Definitely not £2.50 a month though!
Had it 3 years - started off £16, then £20 then £22. Once the boiler is out of its 5yr warranty we'll probably shop around.

£2.50 per month will be an introductory deal only (and check the small print to see what it will cover). As a long standing customer. Boiler and central heating care is worth it. Boilers are expensive to fix and round here gas engineers are always super hard to find.

Plumbing and drains they actually outsource to Dynorod now. You can't book a plumbing and drains appointment through the app, you have to ring up and that takes ages. God help you if is an actual emergency. You get faster and better service just ringing up Dynorod directly. Plus once you account for the British Gas call out excess there is not much in it cost wise. Meh.

Electrics cover is an actual waste of space, if you read the small print the only things BG homecare covers are things that are either incredibly unlikely to happen or would cost far less than the BG excess fee to just get an independent electrician to fix. It is almost always faster and cheaper to get an independent electrician.

Never had electrical appliance cover.

I've got to confess to name changing my husband is a gas engineer and I have been wondering about BG taking customers from him and other independent companies

It's so frustrating seeing the deals and we always get calls from BG customers who can't be waiting weeks and weeks for something to be repaired

From a moral, ethical and environmental perspective replacing something that can be fixed simply is so against our values. It's better to repair boilers unless there are multiple issues with them and the parts concerned are actually very expensive and difficult with some manufactures to pin point the problem, if you replace one bit and it's not that and then you replace the next.. and so on

We are thinking of doing a PM deal for our clients for their service and emergencies but then sourcing the part isn't always cheapest. A lot of the boiler manufacturers now have a fixed price call out for a repair including the part. For example they may charge £170 to their customer for the part and the repair but the part to buy for an independent plumber is £300
In that case we always direct the customer back to the manufacturer

If we did a deal PM, what do you think you would be comfortable to pay? I don't know if it's a good idea to go down this route. Work isn't slow but it can be irregular and in months like September or January things are slow when households have less money in their bank accounts.

He feels so dispirited by the situation, it's sad because it feels well beyond our control that basically companies are taking away work from gas engineers and just putting a plaster over a problem instead of sorting it.

I'm proud for him for carrying on and continuing to be gracious and helpful with customers who have gotten BG home care who then need to have him come and help but it's sad and my TV is covered in the adverts at the moment

I'm not sure why everyone uses them when the consensus is that they aren't very good

Their service isn't even a proper service we have seen exactly what they do and that is not a complete and thorough service, many of them don't even do what's on their list

They don't sign off cylinders they use, then don't fill out the boiler warranty, etc etc just tying you to basically having to use them.

Awful and sad

Sorry for my rant and also changing my name

It's because of the monthly fee option. People don't want the hassle of a) ringing round to find an engineer and b) a lump sum for a callout and parts. I had hundreds of pounds worth of replacement parts and 2 wireless thermostats put in for just the excess which was £75. They can afford this, like all insurance, because of all the people paying and not claiming.

We used them for years and they were brilliant - just for boiler cover. We stopped using them 4 years ago after upgrading to a new boiler with a 10 year warranty. When we stopped the cost was about £30 per month. The cost would increase annually, but it didn't increase as a result of a lot of callous.

I'm shocked to hear from other posters experiences, but I've also heard the same on other threads, do I dont think I would use them again.

Callous = callouts

We used BG for many years. Only reason was you could always get them out on bank holidays and they had a huge parts warehouse (used to be Notts). A few years ago I noticed call out times stretching, then it became you couldn't have any next day breakdown call out less vulnerable. I lost the plot 2 years ago when I had a breakdown and the earliest they would come out was two weeks. Outrageous.

I got quotes to change the boiler as this was planned and made clear to the engineers quoting that I wanted them to service it and do breakdown call outs (although the actual boiler comes with a 10 year warranty). I gave the job to a local engineer who has done the second service. He is stacked out with work from customers leaving BG as they are sick of them. I'm surprised your DH is finding it Intermittent. maybe advertise.

As for it cheapest contract is circa £250 with excess call out. I've saved that each year minus a £60 service. Also my new boiler reduced usages by 30% (yes still staggered how efficient it is) so that with current prices is saving me nearly £1500 PA. Thanks to BG to pissing me off so much I was forced into this. I complained and they refunded my yearly fee. Also a load of my friends have followed me when they had similar experience so they are haemorrhaging customers

Grandparents had it. When they came out they messed something up. Whole ground floor of house flooded. They had to be moved out and the whole floor needed to be stripped and they had dehumidifiers going for yonks. Don't assume you're getting quality

I cancelled mine last year after BG cancelled the service that had been booked for three months the week before the appointment. This was the second year running they'd done it. They offered me £50 in compensation (to get the boiler serviced!).

We've got homepage and are very happy about it. During a small leak, a plumber arrived within an hour, and when we had a none urgent problem with the toilet they came in 48hrs.

Just don’t, after years with them the one time we needed them they failed miserably and we had to find a plumber ourselves and then go through a painful process of trying to claim the money. I wouldn’t touch them with someone else’s barge pole.