British Gas One off boiler repair

“British Gas One off boiler repair”

Written on: 26/01/2012

What to do when you smell gas coming from beneath your boiler? Turn gas off at mains, obviously. Ring Gas Emergency number - OK.
National Grid turned up within an hour ( good ) and completely shut off the gas supply ( understandable ), which left us with no heat or water.
Tricky because my wife is very ill with cancer and needs to stay warm.
Then ..... who to contact to help out asap???
British Gas seemed a good idea.
I figured it must just be the gas valve and I reckoned the part would be about £125, plus labour, so the £69 one off boiler repair sounded too good to be true.
It was.
Engineer turns up and explains that the £69 covers just half an hour. It took him that amount of time to take down my details and set up his PC etc.
Anything over half an hour and up to 2 hours is £199. Anything over this is £499. Suddenly not so good.
Anyway, the good news is he didnt even turn the gas back on, let alone test the boiler ..... he took the cover off and immediately condemned it for broken seals. manufacturers parts now obsolete, so he stuck a badge on it, took parts off it to isolate it and condemned it. Nice.
He then immediately rang HQ and asked them to send out a Heating Advisor to discuss a new boiler installation with us ( golly gosh, what excellent service! ). Bloke in a BMW turned up 3 hours later, bored us rigid for 90 minutes, then hit us with a quote to supply a standard condensing boiler to be located in same place as the condemned one .... wait for it ......... £4,000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If we decided today, he would throw in Homecare for a year and give us £400 cash off ( wow! ). All standard deal terms I believe, the muppet.
We said we would think about it and get a quote from a Gas Safe independent. That scared him. Don't trust the independents, they take shortcuts, poor service, probably bypass building regs etc etc. Frankly this clown would be better off selling vacuum cleaners.
We organised a visit from a Gas Safe engineer. Turned up on time. Stripped the boiler down and thoroughly examined it. verdict : yes, the seals had gone, but he rang the manufacturer and dicovered that they are available, ordered a set and picked them up the next day. Fitted them on day two and also installed a new gas valve ( original part ). refitted everything, gas tested everything, and boiler now back up and running, better than ever. Total costs : £130 gas valve, £20 seals, £50 labour. £200 all in, guaranteed work and parts and boiler certified safe.
Let me see .... British Gas £4000 or .... Gas Safe independent £200.
You choose.
In addition, the local gas chappy also quoted me to fit a new boiler ( the same bouiler as BG quoted me £4000 for ) - his quote was £1200!
British Gas are running a scam and I fear for pensioners and the like who don't see through it and get their legs lifted.
I actually had my card debited for £79 by British Gas ( £69 on website ) just to cover some clown writing my boiler of and putting a sales lead through to his buddy ( yes, they do earn commission ).
Kick them into touch is my advice. get onto the Gas Safe website and pick a local man.
I am now going to plan how to spend the £3,800 I have just saved....