Boilers! We need a new one. Should we go whole hog with British Gas?

[ipanemagirl]

There seems to be a sale on and we could get a new boiler have it fitted, with some discount and then do that monthly payment which would cover an annual service etc etc.

Our Vaillant is from 1990 and B Gas wouldn't take it on under their service contract because they say it's too old and too many parts are redundant.

He also said newer boilers are less polluting and emit fewer toxins etc. As we are expecting a baby in Sept and the boiler is in the cupboard in the room where the baby will sleep - I'm concerned about that of course!

Any advice would be hugely welcome! It's such a huge amount of money, I'd like to get it right!

Thanks Foxy but we're way North London, probably better for me to go more local, but very good of you to offer.

The only one who's come back from rated.com joined them in Feb and has only got two comments. One good and the other not impressed......... It has put me off a bit and wondering whether to stand him down I probably will actually.

rated people are quite new tho so i wouldnt worry about that. it does no harm to get a quote. also try other people [http://www.localtradespeople.co.uk/ these may be ok]][

obviously rubbish at links:
try again

but also as we have just moved in to our area we asked neighbours for recommendations and once we found one person asked them if they knew anybody. we have found good electrician, plumber and builder this way,.

I'm sorry I've not read all your answers, but I just wanted to say AVOID British Gas if you can.

I was 38 wks preg, with bronchitis and the gas stopped - on a Sunday - they were like sorry, no one around til Wednesday next week.

HELLO?

So we got a guy in locally who fixed it.

Not had good exp with them on the phone, either, very, very, very rude.

Poodlepusher - is that with a BG Homecare agreement?

If you are old, have babies or PG you should get priority. Get back onto them and insist!!! They can always do something IME.

Well BG has just left, phew.

Very nice impressive bloke but he quote is:

4 GRAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He says no one else will do as good a job etc etc etc. Also that we're investing in our property etc etc etc. Boiler itself costs 1300, the rest is much palaver with new pipes.

I need to see some other quotes!

We have a British Gas homecare contract which is about £17 a month.

We had our boiler serviced Aug 06 so I foolishly assumed we'd be due another one sometime in 2007.

I rang up at the end of last year to ask when it was going to happen. They said we'd had our 06/07 service and therefore our 07/08 one could happen any time until Aug 08. So an annual check-up can take place with two years between them. Apparently

Oh and they also said our nine year old boiler should be replaced as the parts are obsolete. Dh wants to get it replaced before it breaks down but I think that's mad.

furrycat - we have that agreement and we do get an inspection every year.

We were told the same thing and ignored it. It broke down and was unfixable - and we were left without heat and hot water in Feb for 10 days. Not funny.

A local man came yesterday and is going to send me a quote. He said several things that were more impressive than the BGas man, i.e. solutions to avoid ripping up every floor board in the house and a better solution for a redirected flue. Altogether I had a much better feeling about this guy and really trusted him. But I don't have a recommendation, just found him on the website for Corgi registered people.
Does anyone else ever ask for references? I feel awkward doing so but we'll be spending something in the region of 2 grand i suspect, it's a lot of cast for a strong hunch!