Alternative to British Gas Home Care

Rikki

Rikki

Rikki

Associate
Joined
1 Dec 2004
Posts
2,279
Location
Glasgow, Scotland
Hey folks.

Got my renewal through from BG and its nearly £400!

I've got a tiny 2 bedroom house with a combi boiler and havent had a call out in years so looking to change.

Anyone recommend anywhere else? Having had a google around there are alternatives but some say in reviews "had to wait 5 days for an engineer to come out and look at our boiler" which isnt the greatest when you have no heating etc.

Thanks folks!

R
 
Ring them - I have to do this every year.

every year they increase the price,
every year I ring and complain I'm going elsewhere,
every year they reduce the price,
every year I'm with British gas lol!!!
 
I do the same with HomeServe. Battered them down from their renewal price (for full heating system cover including annual service) of £29 per month down to £14.50 per month with one simple phone call.
 
Same as zoomee. It's cheaper this year than it was the first year :)
There was something came through the post from "Corgi" that claimed to offer the same for about half the price, but I ignored it.
 
We have BG HC mainly because round these parts it's hard to get hold of an emergency plumber or gas engineer, not without paying an extortionate amount to a company in the Thomson or Yellow Pages. And our last "indie" engineer left the system only half filled after a quick bodge repair (he didn't spot the cold fill was blocked) almost leading to a meltdown.

So the insurance effect is of some value although on the last visit the engineer was muttering about no longer being able to get parts for our boiler. The annual service is the minimum possible and when I asked the engineer about which is better - X100 etc. or Furnox - he didn't seem to have a clue. Last year I ended up doing a drain and X400 clean on the system myself and this year I did a partial drain to top up the X100 and X200 fluids. As my missus commented, shouldn't they be doing that to keep the system sweet, but appears all BG are interested in is selling £800 power flushes.
 
I think all the BG engineers are on commission as they're always keen to push a new boiler or a power flush on each visit. They always go on about the boiler being old etc, might not be able to get parts each time also.
 
Selekt0r said:
I do the same with HomeServe. Battered them down from their renewal price (for full heating system cover including annual service) of £29 per month down to £14.50 per month with one simple phone call.
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Same here was paying £17.50 p/m then renewal put it up to £37.50 p/m, rang them and it's back to £17.50 p/m.
 
I find it better to just save some money each month into a rainy day account. It has enough to cover anything, why people pay monthly for boiler cover when after 2 years you probably paid enough for a new boiler is beyond me. Just get a new boiler every 5 to 10 years, would be cheaper.
 
Even if I had a new boiler fitted, I'd still have BG home care on its very cheapest tarrif for the annual service and also the peace of mind factor.
 
robj20 said:
I find it better to just save some money each month into a rainy day account. It has enough to cover anything, why people pay monthly for boiler cover when after 2 years you probably paid enough for a new boiler is beyond me. Just get a new boiler every 5 to 10 years, would be cheaper.
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This is what I do.

I have had a few gas engineers tell me, if your boiler is about 15 years old then get it replaced. If not, get it serviced every 2 years, no need to do it every year.
 
tribz said:
Even if I had a new boiler fitted, I'd still have BG home care on its very cheapest tarrif for the annual service and also the peace of mind factor.
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The annual service is a con as well. They basically do an emissions test and gas pressure test to make sure that its safe. The rest you can do yourself.

I cant find anything that says they check the CH water/filters unless it comes under "clean (as required)" bit.

"At one extreme some (bigger) companies have their engineers do no more than put a probe in the flue outlet to analyse the contents of the flue gasses, and if all is well, announce the boiler is working correctly and start writing out the invoice."
 
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I cant find anything that says they check the CH water/filters unless it comes under "clean (as required)" bit.
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As per my earlier comment, they don't.

This year the guy didn't even touch the magna-filter which BG actually fitted. As it happens I normally give it a quick drain every month or two to remove any accumulated debris, not difficult but it gets hard to justify the cover as being for "central heating" when they don't do much beyond the boiler.

And in fact I'm sure our policy has been amended to exclude blocked pipes due to sludge or limescale *which is the main reason we signed up in the first place.

*Except when they're pushing the hard sell on that £800 power flush.
 
Food for thought folks, I was thinking along the same lines of just putting money aside and ditching it entirely but as its a slightly older unit (10+ I reckon) I was hedging my bets
 
Columbo said:
Great attitude to potentially the most lethal device in your house.
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a modern boiler properly installed is unlikely to go wrong let alone in a way that will kill you and as someone pointed out a carbon monoxide detector rules that out and should be installed regardless of the boiler being serviced as it could go wrong at anytime!
 
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