Am I being ripped off by British Gas ?

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Am I being ripped off by British Gas ?

26 posts & 22 voices | Started 1 year ago by trailofdestruction | Latest reply from bassman

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trailofdestruction - Member

As we have a contract with British Gas to service the boiler, we thought we'd get them in to sort out a couple of other things.

I got them to quote me for fitting 1 new radiator, 5 thermostatic valves on the other radiators and a magnaclean system. They wanted nearly £900 !! Shurly shome mishtake. So I phoned them up. Nope, that's the price. Looking online, the parts don't cost that much, and I know I'll be paying for labour and VAT on top, but sounds like a rip off to me. Am I wrong ?

I know nothing about plumbing btw, electrics I can do, but water pipes I stay well clear off.

Alternatively, and heating engineers near Preston ?

Posted 1 year ago #
simonfbarnes - Member

pipes is similar to electrics but there's only one wire and it's fatter and hollow...

Posted 1 year ago #
woody2000 - Member

Yes, they are.

I've just had a couple of new rads & thermo valves fitted on a couple of others for £220 (mates rates admittedly, but even double that is still half BG)

Posted 1 year ago #
falkirk-mark - Member

Phone an independant heating engineer and do not be put off by the fact he is not as big as British Gas. Chances are if you went to British gas you would get the independant guy out and pay the British Gas price

Posted 1 year ago #
Penrod Pooch - Member

Not so much rip you off as try and cover a huge cost base that can't compete with white van man, THB.

Posted 1 year ago #
Super Scale 20 - Member

Just call in a local plumber who will be far cheaper that is simple work. Why did you cal British gas anyway?

Posted 1 year ago #
hug - Member

sounds a little heavy on the price (don't know the size of rad' of course) sod the magna'thing and flush your system through then corrosion inhibitor in the system sorts that,and sadly i'm in Essex 900 would make it worth the journey but that's not saving you anything is it.

Posted 1 year ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

I haven't read you post, but yes, you will be getting ripped off by British Gas.

Okay - now I have read it, yes you absolutely are being right-royally ripped off. I wouldn't pay much more than £400 for that work.

Posted 1 year ago #
missingfrontallobe - Member

Get an independent qoute. BG rely on those on service contracts to go "oh alright" to get a job done (heard that from a BG service engineer).

ToD, I know a good plumber based in St Helens, but he's always busy, not sure how keen he'd be to do a job in Preston, but I can give you his number if you want. E-mail in profile.

Posted 1 year ago #
trailofdestruction - Member

Cheers for the replies. We went with British gas as we have a service contract with them, and so far haven't had anything bad to say about them. All the engineers we've had out (including the bloke who did the quote) had been great, so we thought it would keep things simple and we would be assured of a decent standard of work. Just got caught completely off guard by the quote. This was excatly the face I made when I saw how much they quoted

Guess I'll have to keep it local. Thanks for the offer missingfrontallobe, but I think that may be a little too far out the way.

Posted 1 year ago #
PeterPoddy - Member

BG are rip off merhchants. All they do is subcontract anyway. They are usually about double the price of a good local small firm.

Roughly speaking, I'd expect something like this:

Magnacleans are about £100, = say another £100 for your rad, valves and a bit of pipework + a day's labour @ £200-300 a day + VAT

Posted 1 year ago #
cynic-al - Member

PP+1 *shudders*

Posted 1 year ago #
paulosoxo - Member

PeterPoddy - Member

BG are rip off merhchants. All they do is subcontract anyway.

Not true at all

They are usually about double the price of a good local small firm.

No where near double in price

Posted 1 year ago #
spooky_b329 - Member

I got a quote frm BG for a new boiler. The quote was horrendous, plus they wanted over £1000 to relocate Tue boiler. I queried this and it turned out it was a fixed amount, whether the boiler is being moved to the opposite side of a stud wall or being relocated to a completely different part of the house.

Posted 1 year ago #
Waderider - Member

British Gas are poor value full stop.

Posted 1 year ago #
FunkyDunc - Member

No they don't contract out services unless they can't keep up with demand, and then its only to large national companies.

The boiler insurance scheme is very good value for money, and if you have an oldish boiler can save you hundres of pounds.

I have to disagree with Paul though, I used to work for BG, and even with satff discount they could never compete against local firms for new installations. It was a point that the call centre staff used to raise routinely as they tried to sell stuff but always got laughed at by customers.

Posted 1 year ago #
samuri - Member

Their service contracts are brilliant in comparison to their installation costs.

Our service contract has been running for about 6 or 7 years now and we've had all the radiators replaced, a fair bit of pipework upgraded to the new wider bore and the thermostat replaced and moved, all as part of the contract. It's paid for itself many times over.

Posted 1 year ago #
TheFunkyMonkey - Member

I'd probably charge between 300 and 400. Price depends upon the new radiator, location, access to pipework and size.
How soon do you want it doing? I'm picking up a big pallet of stuff from preston within the next week. Could do it for you.
Email in profile if you want to send more details.
If you're after having it done in a few weeks though, it probably wouldn't be worth the journey for me unless I was quiet. Booked up for the next couple of months though.

FM

Posted 1 year ago #
Coyote - Member

No they don't contract out services unless they can't keep up with demand, and then its only to large national companies.

Sorry that is just wrong. My mate has a small central heating company and British Gas keep trying to contract out work to them. At piss-poor rates I might add.

British Gas are bobbins.

Posted 1 year ago #
chakaping - Member

Worst company ever.

Even if you do use them, their engineer won;t turn up when you've booked the day off work.

You'll then phone customer services who will explain that they have no way of contacting their engineers.

This will probably repeat three times.

Then you'll go to a local guy instead and get the job done cheaper and on time.

Posted 1 year ago #
trailofdestruction - Member

TheFunkyMonkey I've got to go to a (very boring) meeting now, but I'll mail you later on. Price sounds good though. Radiator is in the hall next to front door, fairy easy access to pipework. Whole house was put together poorly, so spent the last year trying to get everything put right. Hey ho.

British Gas are bobbins.

I've had no problems with BG, but their pricing can sometimes seem waaaay off.

Posted 1 year ago #
robdob - Member

I read a report on BG once where a lady wanted a new central heating system. She did the right thing and got 3 quotes. They were £3k, £4k and £5k approx, the two cheapest from local plumbers, the most expensive from BG. She thought she'd play safe and go with BG as she knew them and could expect a good install and good service.
On the first day of install, the engineers turned up to do the work. They were the local plumbers who had quoted the £3k to her, just a subcontractor. You can imagine her surprise.

Posted 1 year ago #
PeterPoddy - Member

No where near double in price

Err yes they are.

We had 3 quotes for a full central heating system. We took one at £3300. BG were £6k. That's pretty near double, as is the quote the OP is talking about. Most people will tell you the same.

Posted 1 year ago #
crazy-legs - Member

An old uni friend of mine bought her first house recently, I helped her move in then a few weeks later she texted me with the quote she'd got from BG for her new central heating - £5500.

She was all up for going with it until I showed her a thread on here moaning about their crap service and told her my own experiences with them then she started looking around a bit more. Local firm did it for her in the end, £3500.

After my experiences with the unbelievably crap service that is British Gas I will never use them again.

Posted 1 year ago #
trailofdestruction - Member

TheFunkyMonkey, can't find your email address in your profile. You can mail me directly at tsgregory@btinternet.com and I can give you some more details about the job. Cheers dude.

Posted 1 year ago #
bassman - Member

As we have a contract with British Gas to service the boiler.(Quote)

We have a service contract which includes replacement of parts, had a new rad in the bathroom this year.Service has just been carried out two weeks ago.
Wont they replace the rad then drain your system yourself and flush during the summer? warm weather.
fit new thermostatic valves whilst drained.
ADD the additives Job done for approx £300.00.

Posted 1 year ago #

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