BG "repair and cover"

[ma701ss]

Hi, my boiler is faulty and likely going to cost a lot to repair. To know where we stand, I thought BG's "repair and cover" deal looks good. You pay £99 and they will repair it "whatever needs doing". You then pay for Homecare monthly, so you get the boiler repaired, a service (presumably just a gas safety inspection) and breakdowns are covered for the year. A gas engineer I know suggested this but I don't know if it's any good. How do they "get you"?

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Telling you things are wrong / need to add things that you don't need or want also telling you parts are not available eg down to age

 

[Alex Knight]

Depending on age and faults of boiler we do quite often get people to have a fixed price repair from the manufacturers, quite often works out cheaper for them

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Depending on age and faults of boiler we do quite often get people to have a fixed price repair from the manufacturers, quite often works out cheaper for them

That's quite different to British Gas service plan tho

 

[Alex Knight]

That's quite different to British Gas service plan tho

Realise that but they already know the boiler is faulty and will be expensive to fix, surely most service plans insist on a initial assessment to check the state of boiler/system before taking on the contract?

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Realise that but they already know the boiler is faulty and will be expensive to fix, surely most service plans insist on a initial assessment to check the state of boiler/system before taking on the contract?

Nope well not with bg as long as you sign up but you pay more in the long run

Because anyone know of bg fixing anything first time

 

[REDSAW]

they wont cover it if more than 10 years old.
the aherm, 'service' is just a safety check or an upsell oportunity to convince you it is dangerous and obsolete boiler and wont cover it anymore unless they fit you a new one, then wont do that unless you pay for a flush, which they wont do unless you have a filter (£1k for the 2)
the cost over a year will be more that of a decent indy engineer will charge to repair your fault in the first place!
never known a repair to cost more than £400 personally.


what boiler and what fault?

 

[tamz]

You pay £99 and How do they "get you"?

They get you with the years contract to homecare which adds another £150 or so to your bill on easy terms and they get the chance to sell you all the important things you never knew you needed to have to get a heat.
+ they know once people sign up to the "security"of big gas by direct debit, not many cancel after a year so you might be paying another 150 next year and the year after.

 

[REDSAW]

maffia insurance policy or get iced

 

[DaveTidy]

I read the original repair and cover a few years ago and we used to advise people to get the repair done and then cancel a little later if they didn't really want to go the full term.

Just read the terms and conditions, they shortened them a while back as they were too complicated.

They actually make most of their money through keeping people on a service contract for the lifetime of the boiler.

The upgrades and Rip off's as everyone puts it are extra's for them but if you took how much money they make for powerflushing and divided it by the amount of service contract customers it only put a few pence on the annual servicing charges.

Could probably give you a better explanation if we knew what the problem with the boiler was?

If it was corrosion then it may be different as not covered in the service contract, if it was a fault fan then seems like a good idea to take out.

 

[ma701ss]

They say they'll repair it whatever's wrong with it, so presumably that does mean anything and I won't need to pay anything more than £99. The fault: F1/F4 error message constantly, after a reset it would work for several minutes each time and cut out again. Engineer looked at it, said to try a new ignition lead and seal (scorch marks). He went to fit these and then found apparently a temperature sensor was hanging down and other circuitry was slightly burnt. He left it not working at all (doesn't fire up at all now), and said probably uneconomical to fix.

 

[REDSAW]

so its a vaillant circa 8 years old?

 

[ma701ss]

so its a vaillant circa 8 years old?

Its a BG 330 which I believe is a glow worm cxi, on the cusp of 10 years

 

[DaveTidy]

They say they'll repair it whatever's wrong with it, so presumably that does mean anything and I won't need to pay anything more than £99. The fault: F1/F4 error message constantly, after a reset it would work for several minutes each time and cut out again. Engineer looked at it, said to try a new ignition lead and seal (scorch marks). He went to fit these and then found apparently a temperature sensor was hanging down and other circuitry was slightly burnt. He left it not working at all (doesn't fire up at all now), and said probably uneconomical to fix.

Surely it's very economical to fix if BG are paying and you have a set fee?

 

[PhoenixServices]

Has it had the seals changed on the burner? If not that is probably what has caused the wiring to become scorched. Can you take a picture so we can advise better?

 

[leesparkykent]

you could get a new boiler on finance over 10 years with 10 year guarantee and the payments would be roughly the same as having a BG plan. You would have to get the boiler serviced every year to maintain the guarantee.

 

[ma701ss]

you could get a new boiler on finance over 10 years with 10 year guarantee and the payments would be roughly the same as having a BG plan. You would have to get the boiler serviced every year to maintain the guarantee.

Thanks, have you got any more info on particular deals you've seen?

 

[ma701ss]

Surely it's very economical to fix if BG are paying and you have a set fee?

Yes that's what I think, and hopefully they will cover it. Not sure when it was installed though but BG installed it around 10 years ago so presumably they have the details.

 

[Radioman]

For most of the GP this service gives peace of mind and they a prepared to pay the monthly fee for that alone. When my old mum lived on her own (80 plus years old) and I lived 200 miles away it was a no brainer. I didn't have to worry about any aspect of the heating or plumbing in her house failing, or her being ripped off by a local cowboy. Ok so they didn't always do a first time fix but there was compensation payed for that. But they did come out on Boxing Day when her hot water failed due to a frozen condesor waste outlet. On the other hand I would never have them fit a boiler as a paying job, far to expensive.