Alternatives to British Gas Boiler Contract

[WetAugust]

Does anyone know of alternatives to the British Gas boiler contract?

Am getting very fed up with them trying to coerce me into 'extras' every time they come.

Or is it just a matter of calling a local plumber when the central heating fails?

how old is your boiler, and how old is the rest of the system?

does the boiler have a pressure gauge on the front?

The boiler is about 6 years old (old-style, not condensing).

Time switch is new.

3 way valve is new

Room thermostat is a year old.

Latest breakdown was 'harness sensor' on the boiler. I don't know if the boiler has a pressure guage on the front - it's just a plain metal housing (wall-hung).

The actual radiators and piping are about 25 years old.

Currently paying £38 a month for plumbing and electricity cover.

If you put £38 into a savings account each month, it wouldn't take long to save for plumbers bills. If you pay for other 'maintainence contracts' or insurances, you could add them to the pot too.

Yes, £38 x 12 would give me £456 annually. I don't have any other insurances with other providers, as I don't consider them value for money.

I seem to have had a lot of the system replaced via breakdowns in the past year anyway.

I'm sitting here for the 2nd night in a row because boiler is currently broken. Engineer diagnosed problem this morning and am now waiting for the part to be fitted tomorrow.

Meanwhile I tried to use the immersion heater for hot water, only to find that it's not working either, so the contract will have to fix that too.

Then I shall terminate the contract.

I cancelled ours as I calculated the occasional plumber call-out would be cheaper, and I have a great plumber available. Interestingly, when I called to cancel, I was offered the same deal cheaper on the spot. Might be worth a try, although if you stay with them you will still have to deal with them constantly trying to sell you stuff.

Well immersion pronlem was 'sorted'. Engineer had switched it on but forgotten to set it's time clock.

Boiler is now working OK.

My plan is to ask around to find a good local plumber (will need one anyway soon to plumb in new bathroom).

Then I will cancel BG and do what you do fresh (I'll offer them the opportunity to reduce the payments first)

I've just cancelled my British GAs

have got npower instead now

Initally I asked BG to consider lowering the £25 a month I pay FOR BUGGER ALL, was told by couldnt care less person that I had to take away some of my cover plan, so no radiator cover, or drain cover

I said no thanks

Npower is £12 a month.

I rang BG to cancel and was put onto 'Steve' who spent 10 mins trying to talk me round, by lowering the BG price to match npower. I said the gal should have done that in the first place . Makes me cross the way they can reduce the price if you say you are leaving

Ring and threaten to cancel if you still want them, see if they knock their price down

plumbers do plumbing, heating engineers do boilers. Not the same thing. Only one of them has to be Gas Safe registered.

I have to say that out BG contract has been worth its weight in gold. We now have a new boiler and, as it is unaer warranty, I have cancelled our boiler cover. When the warranty runs out I will take out another contract with BG. I have had them out in all sorts of weather (even during last winter's dreadful snow) and they have responded very quickly. I can't see a local plumber being able to drop what he is doing to come and sort out our boiler.

I can't see a local plumber being able to drop what he is doing to come and sort out our boiler.

And that's my fear too.

Good point PigletJohn about not all plumbers being CORGI-as-was qualified.

I will look into the npower option if it operates in my area,

Lovely and toasty tonight now heating is working again

My husband said if you tell British gas that you want to opt out of marketing it means they can't try and upset to you, so that will sort one problem out.

Alternatively most suppliers provide a breakdown service even if you aren't with them for gas so may be worth ringing round.

to be fair PigletJohn , lots of plumbers are Corgi Registered (I think there's a new name, but you know what we mean). There are also independent 'boiler men' out there - that what (who?) we use.

some people are just plumbers. They fit bathrooms, re-washer taps, run water pipes. If they are old plumbers, they will also have been trained in wiping joints in lead pipes, and fitting lead roofs, lead flashing and lead damp-courses.

some people are heating engineers. They install and repair boilers, run gas pipes, and are gas-safe registered.

Some people, but by no means all, are both. It's a different job. Calling them all "plumbers" is inaccurate.

You say save up and put money in a savings account each month but only last month Saturday evening boiler leaked in a major way it was pumping out mains water.
I rang British Gas under the boiler contract at 10pm Saturday night. Sunday lunchtime engineer came. Got boiler working no part on van for complete repair came back Monday and did repair that took two hours
If I'd paid a plumber that lot would have cost a fortune. The part alone would have cost £100 plus VAT
BG worth weight in gold in my opinion

All insurances are a gamble though. I know, that in nearly 22 years of home ownership, I've only spent money on boiler breakdown twice. Yes, a couple of hundred each time, but nothing like 22 yrs x 12 months @ say £20 a month (£5,280)...... and the OP said she was paying £38 a month.
The trick is, being disciplined about keeping your 'emergency fund', so you have the money when it's needed.

I have eon's top level contract which is now £16.50 per month.

This covers CH and boiler. I know I could put the money away instead but they are at the other end of the phone 24/7 and even offered to come out Christmas day one year. That's what I pay the money for really.

"All insurances are a gamble though. I know, that in nearly 22 years of home ownership, I've only spent money on boiler breakdown twice. Yes, a couple of hundred each time, but nothing like 22 yrs x 12 months @ say £20 a month (£5,280)...... and the OP said she was paying £38 a month."

You have been very lucky. I think it depends on your circumstances. We moved into an old house that had a boiler that was really too small for the number of radiators it had to support. We would have spent thousands on call outs if we hadn't had breakdown cover. We even had BG out one bitterly cold Easter Sunday. On that occasion the chap printed out a "receipt" showing what we would have paid if we hadn't had cover - £173.

We have had BG out on several occasions to the house we are in now and still feel that we have had our money's worth. We now have a new boiler, so have cancelled our cover, but will reinstate it when the warranty runs out.

British Gas took money off my mum for years and whilst she was ill, failed to service the boiler taking money for five years. She died at Christmas and when I rang to insist they undertook the service, they refused because her estate had gone into probate and the account was frozen. Initially they demanded my bank account details but I refused.

After being insulted by two members of staff, a manager rang and reinstated the service for January only - as you do get 30 days from the last payment made which the first two staff members failed to tell me.

Gas men arrive and seem disappointed they could not condemn the boiler. Fortunately I had it checked the day before and knew it was only a valve needed replacing. They then checked the perfectly serviceable gas fire, but condemned it. When I asked why, they told me that the brackets in the loft on the flue now had to be the same make as the gas fire - effectively a new "decision" making numerous gas fires unserviceable!

Whilst there they wanted to know how much the house had been valued for, on discovering my daughter was a student stated all students were lazy leeches and tried to bully me when I queried the issue of the gas fire.

This was my first experience of BG and not one I ever want to repeat. Keep your money.

You were unlucky Elsie. BG have serviced our boilers for many years and been called out on countless occasions. We have never encountered such rudeness and always had excellent service.

*BunBAker - £173 is a lot less than the £38 x 12months (£456) the OP is paying though, that's my point. I know £173 isn't easy to find unexpectedly, but that's where the discipline of saving it yourself, rather than handing it over to BG each month comes in.
If it's not for you, fine each to their own, but I bet if you wrote down what you would have spent each year by not having the contract, and compared it over several years, then you'd be quids in by saving rather than handing it over. Especially once you factor in the fact that BG charge more than independent heating engineers for the same work, so the 'charge' they quote (that you would have paid without the contract) is hyped up anyway.
That's how they make their money after all. If they weren't making a lot of money on the contracts, then they wouldn't be offering them at that price.