Are british gas trying to rip me off?

[ollski]

Another small update. We are to recieve a cheque for £80 compensation for the additives and to replace the rubbish pump they put in to replace a grundfost (sp) that was working perfectly.

Will be either a myson or a grundfoss pump painted blue. To be fair thats not a bad result as the only real fault was the amount of time taken to receive the water sample results and the attempt to sell a powerflush before the results came. As many posters have pointed out it wasn't easy to diagnose and many of us would have followed the same route. Just a small point about any central heating cover, there is no company offering cover from blockages or problems caused by sludge and scale.

 

[ellie1997]

there is no company offering cover from blockages or problems caused by sludge and scale.

Yep, we have discovered. BG told us when we took out the policy it covered **all eventualities** so we stupidly assumed **all** meant **all**.

They also didnt mention if you dont have them do any work they quote for it voids the celcia cover in effect because they will blame any further problems on the work you had done.

My recommendations? Put the £25 a month in a bank account, Im fairly sure it will more than cover a plumber when you need one.

 

[ollski]

They also didnt mention if you dont have them do any work they quote for it voids the celcia cover in effect because they will blame any further problems on the work you had done.

To an extent thats true, if it was proven that there was a problem with sludge in your system and a quote was given for remedial work you failed to carry out any future component failure caused by sludge would not be covered. Don't need to get BG to carry out the work though as long as the job is done.

 

[ellie1997]

Despite my thoughts that this had been over there is a final, shocking update to all this....

I had a call yesterday from another manager, he admitted that the results for the water tests had actually been revieved 7 weeks ago. They had been delivered to the engineers home address (common practice apparently), opened by his wife and disgarded!!! They admitted to that.

Every time we called to chase up those results we were told there was "A backlog". They lied.

And after this outstanding admission they still tried to get us to go back with them!!!!
I think you can imagine my reply.

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

You could always try PlumbFast

 

[ellie1997]

LOL. Or even take a 6 week plumbing course and do it myself!!!

 

[sidecar_jon]

LOL. Or even take a 6 week plumbing course and do it myself!!!

it very much seems that you have had a plumbing course. i must say BG hasnt especiely impressed me either and their "compleat cover" seems to be a "compleat rip off"... i wish the wife had never called them (another thread another story). From what ive seen on the net a central heating system isnt exactly rocket science, but BG seem to think so.

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

Unfortunately the powers that be have made it into bloody rocket science and
very expensive to fit and be able to fit

 

[sidecar_jon]

put in a wood stove...you know it makes sense.

 

[ArtmediaWho]

Personally I have a major problem with British Gas, from their advertising basically branding every other plumber / heating engineer in the UK a cowboy, to their blatently false claim that they are the only company to offer breakdown cover for a set ammount every month. Anyway here are two very true stories about British gas. British gas service engineers have to make a certain ammount of sales per month (no idea how many). I once worked for a company that sub contracted work from British gas, and one of the jobs I was on was fitting a full central heating system to replace an old warm air heating. Why? Because the service engineer had condemend the warm air unit as the asbestos cement flue was cracked. Was it? Er no it wasn't, the fire cement on one of the joints would have required replacing (hardly grounds for forking out way over the odds for a new heating system). I'm now self employed (have been for almost four years now) and my wife's parents are on the 3 star cover a few years ago the pump packed in BG engineer came and replaced it, about two weeks later the pump failed BG engineer comes out and surprise surprise recomends a power flush at the cost of six hundred odd pounds. So I go and powerflush the system for free (and very thouroughly I might add took me nine hours). Still few weeks later pump fails again, BG engineer comes out, story now is system hasn't been flushed properly (trust me it had) and they are now not resposible for the system as a third party has been involved. they changed the pump and sent a bill (which I dont think has been paid as this pump failed also. My opinion all along was that the cheap crap pumps they were fitting was the problem, and as the pump that came with the boiler (worscester 350) was a Grundfoss 15/50 that's what they should be fitting as a replacement. In the end I ended up cutting the flow and return pipework from the boiler to check for all this so called sludge (they were like new) the pump I removed was also as clean as the day it was fitted. It was replaced with a Grundfoss 15/50 and the system has been perfect ever since (almost two years now).

 

[Igorian]

Unfortunately the powers that be have made it into b****y rocket science and
very expensive to fit and be able to fit

OH Come On! Rocket science isn't hard! Take a tube, block one end, fill with explosives and light the other end.

 

[ChrisR]

YOu jest! Local plumbers merchant discovered that a tennis ball is a good fit in a standard guttering downpipe.
Cap bottom end. Get the end of a Superfire torch hot and melt a hole in the side of the pipe.
Shove ball halfway down pipe. Put end of torch into hole. Turn torch off with the thumbscrew, squeeze trigger and hold on then open thumbscrew so gas comes out unlit. Use skill and judgement to time the charge, and aim the downpipe. Then release and squeeze trigger.

Doing it in a warehouse full of boilers isn't a good idea, they tell me. Don't try it yourself.