Central Heating
 

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[Closed] Central Heating

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Well thats Christmas and New Year over with.

Now down to the serious business of replacing an old gas boiler.

Specifications are decided, but supplier is not decided.

Have got a quote from British Gas and from Homeserve. Just waiting for a local company to turn up this morning to survey / quote.

Can anybody provide any feedback on Homeserve. They are cheaper than B G for the identical specifications.
What was their service like?


 
Posted : 02/01/2019 9:03 am
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I thought they were the same company?

I'd wait and go with a local independent guy, will be much cheaper, if you use BG or homeserve you won't act6know who will turn up to your property to do the work.

Where abouts are you, sure the collective STW can recommend some local plumbers


 
Posted : 02/01/2019 9:09 am
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In my experience British gas make up a price, then double it and then add more for luck.
A good local company would usually spank them on price and service.


 
Posted : 02/01/2019 9:11 am
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The previous owner of our house told us that going direct with Vailiant was the cheaper option. Since then we've had excellent service from them, with Valiant phoning every year to ask us if we want to extend the free parts warranty offer that was given on the original installation. Boiler is 8 yrs old.


 
Posted : 02/01/2019 9:12 am
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I heard once of someone doing the correct thing and getting 3 quotes done for a new boiler. The quotes they got were around £2k, £3k and £4K. Most expensive was BG but as they didn’t know too much about it they went with them as they had heard of them and thought it was a safe bet.
Install day - the people who turned up to fit the boiler were the people who had quoted £2k, they had been employed as subcontractors from British Gas.


 
Posted : 02/01/2019 9:14 am
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I used to work for BG heating installations, as I no longer do so I would say take a look at
1/ a good locally recommended installer
2/ https://www.boxt.co.uk/
Before either BG or Homeserve

ETA: The above is true, BG use contractors to deliver c40% of their installs, so you could get a man in a white van who quoted 2k doing their 4k install. BG have £700 in office, sales and HQ costs to cover before the install and profit!


 
Posted : 02/01/2019 9:19 am
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Install day – the people who turned up to fit the boiler were the people who had quoted £2k, they had been employed as subcontractors from British Gas.

But at least they got the peace of mind of a BG guarantee. If the people that quoted £2k went bust the day after they installed it and it failed the customer wouldn't find it so easy to get things sorted. (I would never use BG myself, just making the point it isn't always a simple choice to make).


 
Posted : 02/01/2019 9:52 am
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But they’d have £2k spare to cushion the blow!


 
Posted : 02/01/2019 10:30 am
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But they’d have £2k spare to cushion the blow!

Agreed, but (some) people buy in to paying more for perceived better quality work and more trust.


 
Posted : 02/01/2019 10:49 am
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The guarantee on boiler is 7 years, outside of a particular installer and direct from manufacturers.


 
Posted : 02/01/2019 12:33 pm

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