Broken Boiler - 2.5 week wait for BG homecare engineer

[anewbook]

Earliest appointment 26 October
How can this be right?
We have no hot water or heating.
😟

Do they know that? I use it for tenants and when I've clicked to book an appointment in the past there's a 'I have no hot water' option and I've always got an appointment next day or within 48 hours. But maybe area dependent.

Absolutely not I hope you asked to speak to a manager and or put in a complaint. I imagine there must be something in the contract that states they must come out within a certain time period which is not 17/18 days later!

Yes, I clicked the “no hot water or heating” button and typed it into the extra info box.
I have used them before and the most we’ve had to wait is 3 days, never this long.

We stopped renewing with BG as their waiting times have become ridiculous.

That’s why I’d never touch BG with a barge pole

we had a problem good local engineer 24 hours to visit 2 days to sort.

Never mind the waiting times the cost is ridiculous if you never switch.

we self insure have done for years.

I have owned my current gas boiler for 25 years. In that time I have never had a repair contract with any company. On the two occasions when it broke down, I simply phoned my plumber who just came round and fixed it, very cheaply.
Once it needed a new thermocouple, and once a gas valve. About £20 a time, plus his labour.
I did have to wait for the gas valve, but only because in Scotland the plumbers merchants shut for ten days over Christmas and New Year, and then it had to be ordered in as not in stock!
I think those repair contracts are a rip
off, and outrageous if you can’t even get an emergency call out for that length of time.

Another vote here for cancelling.
We used to have BG homecare and got messed around big time one very cold February. We cancelled the policy, and put the money we would have spent each month into a separate pot and then when we needed to, we found a local gas man who came out to fix our boiler.
We've then since moved to Homeserve because they have a plan that also included plumbing and drains, we've only used them for one breakdown so far and they were far better than British Gas. We had to wait 48 hours for a breakdown engineer to come out, and then another tow days to get parts. So a week without heating and hot water, but it's still better than 2.5 weeks!

A two and a half week wait isn't acceptable on a home cover policy. I'd ask them to escalate your appointment,

If you get no where and if you can afford it, I'd book a local gas engineer in the meantime to get you up and running and cancel British Gas direct debit .

many thanks for all your advice

spurred on by your comments I called this morning to register a complaint.
I explained I had to wait 2.5 weeks for an appointment with no hot water or heating.

She offered someone to come today.

Boiler all fixed now but certainly makes me anxious should this scenario occur again. A quick google search showed it's not uncommon unfortunately (with BG).

The contract is almost at an end so will definitely give it careful consideration! Thanks for sharing how you save/deal with your boiler repairs, really useful to learn.