Boiler Pricing Quote.......doing it remotely?

[NHW]

Now the problem I have is that I need a boiler replacing in a 2nd property which is about 2.5 hours away, and to then have to go there and back every few days just to get quotes in would be a slight hassle.

When they come to do a quote they tend to look at all the same things, exiting position, new position, size of gas pipe, where the gas feed comes in, measurements etc

i was just wondering if many boiler fitters do quotes based on pictures or even a video of what they need to see?

 

[Dan Robinson]

No.

 

[Agile]

I give a budgetary telephone quote based on a series of verbal questions without needing to waste my time visiting.

There are really only three questions that are needed, distance and pipe size to gas meter, flue position and condensate drain possibilities.

One reason why many like to visit is that they are frightened of finding something unexpected ( like a one pipe system ) or they think that they will be seen as definately the person you would want to have to do the work because of how they look or speak.

A short video showing rads, existing boiler, gas meter and pipe route, flue exit areas and drainage within reach of the boiler both indoors and out would enable most competent installers to give you a budgetary quote if not a firm one.

But do you really need to get so many quotes? Three should usually be adequate. Are you the type of time waster whom we call "quote collectors" ?

Tony

 

[NHW]

Hi tony,

I completely get what you mean, its like providing a face to the service which i guess can sometimes be a deciding factor. And yes you are able to spot things which may be out of the ordinary but I guess those costs can also be pre-approved on the quote?

As in, giving a base price on the job and then for any of the abnormalities that you think might be a problem, quoting those separately and then you basically have a best and worst case scenario on pricing.

Hmmmmmmm.......i guess in that case i would be what you call a 'quote collector' BUT i think it is all within good reason. I will give you my most recent example:

I was on the hunt for a boiler not too long ago for my own house and eventually I found what seems to be a good deal.

Job consisting of:
-Conversion from gravity vented system to combi
-move from kitchen to airing cupboard (vertical flue will be used)
-fill the gap in the wall where the old flue went out
-vaillant ecotec plus 831 -8 TRV's on radiators
-hot flush + inhibitors
-removal of all old tanks + cylinders etc

Quote was roughly £2,000 all in. and also because they are an advanced installer there is a 7 year warranty on the boiler and not 5.

Now bear in mind I got 2 other quotes similar to this price after going through about nearly 15 quotes in total.

The problem I have is that all the other quotes were totally different in pricing. they were quoting £3,250+ just to have a combi installed in the same position and without the TRV's, also the boilers quoted were 24/28kw gloworm/baxi's. When asked how much to have it installed in the airing cupboard and upgrade to an vaillant ecotec 831 the additional costs were around £650-£800. So it'd be nearly £4,000 (nearly double) to get the same job done from these companies and only getting a 5 year warranty.

I totally understand that every company is diff and will have overheads to cover etc hence the difference in pricing, but at the end of the day if you could choose to pay 2k for a job or 4k then i'm sure most would choose the cheaper alternative.

For my first 5 quotes they were all £3,500+, so if i would have stopped at 5 quotes then i would be overpaying at least £1,500 compared to what i am paying today.

 

[Dan Robinson]

15 quotes? FFS.

 

[dazza87]

I would get some more quotes think there may be a couple of us that haven't quoted
I would be happy to put diesel in my van and drive 4 hour round trip and quote if you like...

 

[NHW]

also not sure if its a coincidence or not but as i started to get more quotes in i started to understand more about what could/needed to be done. e.g. vertical flues, 15-22mm pipe, boiler warranties, boiler models, kw requirements, gas servicing requirements, rough pricing etc.

Before the 1st quote I had no idea about any of those things, and as i started to learn more about the process and tell subsequent quoters about my opinion on what could/should be done the prices started dropping.

I even had one chap who tried to convince me that an ideal logic 24 would outperform a worcester greenstar 32cdi and also quoted me £30 per TRV, when i questioned him on the logic of both he said that I wouldnt be able to find anywhere cheaper than him in the entire UK.

 

[NHW]

15 quotes? FFS.

I thought it was a case of the more quotes the better? lol

 

[Agile]

OK so you have 15 quotes! All visiting as you did not call me.

To visit takes 1-2 hours, then 45 minutes to calculate the quote.

So you have totally WASTED about 35 hours of engineers time as well as a little fuel etc. That's a week's working time!

That wasted time has to be paid for somehow!

When I quote it is not necessary for me to visit. Only if my budgetary price is acceptable then I do visit to confirm and I rarely need to make any adjustments.

Even so, my quote would have been £2200 for the boiler replacement and £35 for each TRV. But then I use the more expensive liquid filled Drayton TRV4.

I would expect that at that low price you will have had cheap wax TRVs which take three times as long to respond ( and may risk getting jammed in a few years time ). I also use top brand chemicals like Sentinel. Did your installer use Sentinel or Fernox or an unknown name?

So while you think that you are getting the best price, I would say that you are a complete timewaster to the industry and its because of people like you that so many firms are having to quote unnecessarily high prices.

Tony

 

[NHW]

Ok on one sense i can see what you mean but i think you have to take into account that I am the consumer in this standpoint.

Builders, mechanics, engineers, plumbers all have a similar position when they charge a price. Its normally to quote a price based on the specifics of the job, and like you said some can price based on visuals or description over the phone but then the majority can quote by doing a non-obligation visit. They are the ones who normally insist that they need to see the job in order to quote, because they would rather not take the risk of under-quoting thus making a loss or less profit.

The visits I had took around 30-40 mins max in total, except the first 2-3 which were slightly longer. They put my postcode in and they know the distance and travel time etc, so if it was too far for them to be worth the while then they would say no i assume.

Now i don't understand how I have 'wasted' anybodies time? You even said to get 3 quotes. So if i get three quotes and then i can obviously only take out one of them to do the job then surely i have wasted the time of two of the others.

I can understand that if I got 15 quotes from the SAME company then I have wasted someone time unnecessarily, but I am sure not every company expects to win every single quote?

If you want to put it that way then I could say exactly the same about yourself. I assume that you compare your prices for your mortgage, electricity, gas etc

so lets say you use a comparison site, and it shows up with 100 results, you can only choose to go with 1 supplier. But those other 99 suppliers still have to pay a fee or a percentage or a promotional cost to show up in those results, to give you a quote and to grab your attention of their product. For you to compare 1 supplier, take on their services and save yourself some money you have 'WASTED' the money of 99 others.

But you dont think about it because you saved yourself £5 a month compared to your original plan.

 

[sooey]

A good job done by a decent installer using decent materials etc. will NEVER be the cheapest, or anywhere near.
So any decent installers you may have had out will have been wasting their time entirely if you just base your choice on price, because you've ruled them out before they start.
15 quotes....fck me.

 

[NHW]

A good job done by a decent installer using decent materials etc. will NEVER be the cheapest, or anywhere near.
So any decent installers you may have had out will have been wasting their time entirely if you just base your choice on price, because you've ruled them out before they start.
15 quotes....fck me.

Yep I never really put that into consideration and that is indeed a valid point too if it is based 'purely' on price.

But then the cheapest quote I had which I eventually went with was a 'Vaillant Advance' installer, to which I got 7 instead of 5 years warranty. None of the others had that benefit. So surely I must have had a decent installer if they get that accreditation?

It's also slightly unnerving how you can say that the best installers with the best materials etc will NEVER be the cheapest?

Thats just like saying joe blogs whos been in the industry for x amount of years experience, does local jobs and works for himself or a small firm which isn't then VAT registered because its a small business, his price is £2,000.

British gas who have tv adverts to pay for, big offices, company cars, CEO pay cheques, shareholder dividends etc, who would charge £4,000 for the same job, sending out guys who have x amounts of installs to complete in x amount of days just to meet their targets etc

So your saying that going with british gas is better in this scenario purely because joe blogs is charging cheaper than them, so there is NEVER a chance that he will actually do the better job because he's cheaper?

 

[sooey]

No, you are twisting my words.
The point I was making is that there is a right way to do a job and there is a wrong way to do it, which tends to involve cutting as many corners as possible to save time and using inferior materials to save money.
To an untrained eye it can be difficult to see the difference in the final result, that usually takes a couple of years to come to light.
There's plenty of examples on this site if you look for them.

 

[Andy4444]

You will 100 per cent find the installer you deserve.....

 

[NHW]

Didn't mean to twist your words, I was just taking them into context because if that was the real case then maybe in the future I shouldn't just base price as the deciding factor. But yeah I can see what you mean.

Put it this way, you will know the 'right' way to do a job. I technically dont because I am not in this line of work, hence why I use this forum. I most definitely have the untrained eye, so I have no respectable opinion on what is and isnt going to be the right way to carry out a job.

seems like I have hit a nerve with the people who actually know what they are on about in this regard. I never said that I was expecting the best install in the world to be carried out at the cheapest possible price. I just said that I obviously took my time and effort to try and find something in the middleground but apparently that is frowned upon in this sector.

if i asked the people who thought 15 quotes was unnecessary how many quotes they got for their home insurance or remortgage etc then I guarantee you everyone's number is going to be different, so it would only be right to label the person with the highest number a timewaster? just seems like such a negative attitude towards doing business.

But yeah guess thats just the timewasters opinion.