Scottish Elises

Can anyone recommend an alternative provider to British Gas Homecare for boiler and central heating cover?

I am getting tired of missed appointments and poor service from British Gas!

TIA


Dom

if its a worcester, use them direct.
i do, no complaints so far

I switched from British Gas to Scottish Hydro 3 years ago, Shield central heating cover.
Boiler seems to me to get a better service, not had any complaints so far.

Do you really need it ?

whats up with your boiler ?

get yourself a service manual off the internet

No idea what make it is

Hydro sounds like a good shout.

Just due it's annual inspection (where Brit Gas miss their appointment a few times, turn up, poke about at it for 5 mins, tell me that the model is obsolete and parts are hard to get, try to scare me into a replacement, and advise that the previously legal flue is now illegal, but is okay to leave in position, then leave,.. and repeat again next year - although chances are the flue will magically be legal again by then).

I barely trust myself to program the thing; would not go near it with a spanner!

BiggestNizzy wrote:Do you really need it ?

whats up with your boiler ?

get yourself a service manual off the internet

My thoughts too! Just not sure about the legality of it. I stopped using British Gas after I watched the guy do nothing over than remove the cover and have a fag out the back. I have used a small company in Bearsden 'Boundary' http://www.boundaryheating.co.uk/who made a noticeable difference and even fixed a long term fault.

You must get some shoddy engineers. I'm an engineer with them, 10 years, I do a good job.
With 7000 engineers you will get a % of "nuggets", they just don't seem to weed them out for some reason.

Regarding your flue, i presume it's "not to current standards". We have to tell you every year or every time we are i your house and leave the paperwork. We get into serious bother for not advising as previously people got free boilers etc because there was no proof that we advised them that some of the parts are obselete, then it breaks, then they complain because we can't fix it ( If the boiler is 18yrs old and the parts are obselete, tough) and then we have to fit a free chb and apologise!!!

SOme engineers know the regs better than others, we are supposed to use manufactureres instructions, but if none or don't advise of a specfic criteria, we use industry standard. That is why you will get conflicting advice, and it is down to engineer perception of the rules.

A lot of these new companies only look after nice new shiny boilers, good lick geting the 18yr old, reduced parts listed boilers under any decent cover.
I'm sure you ahve been messed about with appointments etc, their computer systems are no all compatible and are years old and need a 40milion plus upgrqde..

Probably better off getting a new worcester chb with 5yr guarantee and going from there, especially if you are going to stay in your property for another 5yrs.

Dom, Check out AA home emergency cover - they do boiler servicing and warranty cover and seem quite reasonable ( I don't have cover so can't comment on how good or otherwise it is but have been looking into taking it out too).

Does anyone know who else does "commercial" systems ? (3 combi's linked)

j2 lot wrote:Dom, Check out AA home emergency cover - they do boiler servicing and warranty cover and seem quite reasonable ( I don't have cover so can't comment on how good or otherwise it is but have been looking into taking it out too).

I would watch watchdog before you punt for the AA

I personally have never had any issue with BG for boiler cover, infact the service has been excellent with repairs done without issue.

GRAHAM wrote:stuff

I appreciate that the engineers are just doing their job. And agree, (like most companies) there are good guys and, erm, less good guys!

I don't think our boiler is a Worcester, and at most will be around ten years old, as that's when the house was built. AFAIK there is nothing wrong with it, but given it's age I appreciate the peace of mind of having the cover in place, and keep it till it dies.

Not in too much of a hurry to use the AA given their cock ups in arranging my membership for the elise. Thanks for the feedback!

Another big for British Gas. I have had the cover for a number of years and the service has been exceptional. I had a look at the AA as it seemed very competitive but after researching it isn't a like for like comparison so sticking with BG.

Another <thumbs down> for BG here too. Cancelled my contract with them earlier this year after basically being lied to and treated very poorly indeed. Hacks me off when they send through letters telling me they'd love to have me back!! I'm sure they would.... paid them £100s to do feck all and then the one time I wanted them to do something (at an extra cost I was willing to pay)... they messed me around massively!!!

Grrrrrrr.

Next time I'll PM one of the engineers on here when I need a job doing then...

Had a Scottish Gas contract for the last 7+ years after the boiler in our old house broke down 3 days before Xmas.
We had to take out a contract but they were the only company that would guarantee getting somebody out to fix it before the holidays.
Since then the service has been excellent; we transferred the contract to our new house 4 years ago and they have no problem with the LPG boiler, turning up on time every Oct for the servicing.
It's not cheap but for piece of mind when things go wrong I think it's money well spent.
Mark

us gas fitters are all doggy i now doing boilers for 25 years and hate them