British Gas Boiler Homecare Agreement

[riptide]

People beware. In my previous question I mentioned I was thinking of leaving my Homecare Agreement with British Gas. Just rung them up about it, seems that the annual service they quote on my letter is not an annual service but a safety inspection. Always thought it was a bit odd as they were only here for about 15 minutes and my friends who have an independent boiler man say that their service takes an hour. They said I could always have someone service it and remain with them for £10.00 a month for breakdown cover. They would probably come out and say I was not covered no doubt, so have cancelled today. I just hope when it is properly serviced that nothing is found. How an earth they can say it is an "annual service" when clearly it is not I do not know, surely against trading standards!!!

[Bigfellah]

Domestic and General provide a breakdown maintenace contract but with a proper annual service. Cost is about £140 per annum.

[askyourgran]

I have a homecare agreement with British Gas, we have just had our annual service. I have been told this does not now cover our gas fire. But our agreement is that if anything goes wrong with said appliances, which in my case covers my electric oven, gas hob, washer, drier, gas fire, boiler their engineer is usually on call and arrives to repair them within 24/48 hours. I think the annual service means if it aint broke don't fix it. Many a time it has come to winter time when we need it and the boiler has gone on the blink, so they've had to come out to fix it. It is a gripe of mine, why bother servicing it in August when it isn't fully operational.

[AlBags]

Apart from a build-up of carbon in the burner, and checking the pressures, there is little difference in safety inspection and service. Panels come off quickly.
If you were having to replace parts, that is a different much more expensive issue.

[keyplus90]

I have had the same problem. I asked the British Gas engineer and he said that now days boilers really do not need servicing as they set themselves. In other words they only need care once broken. I thought about cancelling it but never did due to two reasons. Number one laziness and then number two that once you need a local plumbing/ heating engineer then they are never available until after two weeks. So what do you do especially if you have young ones at home?

[AlBags]

Modern gas boilers are very very clean. The only thing that will wear is pilot and main burner injectors .. and the gas valve will pack up eventually.
If you're unlucky, a board will fail. Use reputed premium brands and you can help avoid this.
In my opinion, the worst brand for expensive electronic failures is Wickes's own brand of cheap boiler. They are not so cheap when boards at £150 regularly fail after 2 years use.