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British Gas Homecare vs Homeserve

paulfromcamden

paulfromcamden

Baffled
Dull question, sorry. I have a British Gas Homecare agreement. Both times I've had to use it in the past couple of years they've been worse than useless. Does anyone have any experience using alternatives like Homeserve?

Ideally I would just stick some money aside every year and use a local plumber but I live in London and I've never met anyone who could recommend a good plumber.
 
Friends of mine use Homeserve and seem very happy.

Personally I 'self insure' many things and will/do not pay for a service I may not need. But everyone is different.
 
JensenHealey said:
Personally I 'self insure' many things and will/do not pay for a service I may not need. But everyone is different.
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Me too normally but finding a good heating engineer when you need one can be hard work. Though possibly not as much work as having to deal with British Gas.
 
You need a heating engineer specialist company. They are plumbers but have the other specialist skills so can install and maintain complete systems.

Ours charges less that BG for an annual service and is reliable and punctual but it took us time to find them. Put the annual money that you expect to pay into a rainy day fund but in the meantime find a reliable heating engineer to service your heating.

DV
 
A recent Homeserve experience.. our heating/hot water timer started turning itself on and off every 15 seconds or so, this logically caused the boiler to do the same. I phoned Homeserve at 10.30am on a Sunday, an engineer called me back before noon. He knew what the timer problem was (old & not worth repairing) and needed to order a replacement unit. He arrived with this on Monday afternoon and duly fitted a new timer, job done.
 
I( found a local chap who I got on with quite well. So if I need help I call him and he is responsive 'enough' for my needs. I have to remind him to service the boiler every year (I told him, he should schedule these things for regulars - but he doesn't). ON the other hand when he does some work - I don't see the bill for usually several months - he knows I 'll just pay up when he gets round to do his invoicing.
 
Wine Man said:
A recent Homeserve experience.. our heating/hot water timer started turning itself on and off every 15 seconds or so, this logically caused the boiler to do the same. I phoned Homeserve at 10.30am on a Sunday, an engineer called me back before noon. He knew what the timer problem was (old & not worth repairing) and needed to order a replacement unit. He arrived with this on Monday afternoon and duly fitted a new timer, job done.
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That's good to hear.

We've had two British Gas (actually Dyno Plumbing) engineers turn up on consecutive days to look at a hot water pipe leak, suck their teeth and wander off. After an hour on the phone today I've been told it needs a more senior engineer and earliest they can do is in nine days time.

I have had some good experiences with British Gas engineers - including one guy who was a big jazz fan and record nut! - but the emergency service is just woeful.
 
paulfromcamden said:
Dull question, sorry. I have a British Gas Homecare agreement. Both times I've had to use it in the past couple of years they've been worse than useless. Does anyone have any experience using alternatives like Homeserve?

Ideally I would just stick some money aside every year and use a local plumber but I live in London and I've never met anyone who could recommend a good plumber.
Click to expand...

I gave up on British Gas about twenty years ago. After paying their service contract prices for years, I did get the annual service, but when a real emergency occurred they were about as much use as a chocolate teapot. I now just get a local company to service the boiler every year, secure in the knowledge that the money I've saved is more than enough to cover anything that goes wrong.

Luckily, I don't live in that London though.
 
BG have been very good in repairing and maintaining our very very old gas boiler. Soon it will reach a time when parts will not be available, and we will need to relocate the boiler. It will cause issues as we dont have access to an external wall
 
BG have been very responsive for me when I needed them.
No complaints apart from expense.
Finding plumbers and electricians round here is like looking for the Holy Grail.
 
Problem seems to be at least partly that (in London at least) they've contracted out the emergency service operation to Dyno Plumbing. Dyno don't seem to have enough experienced engineers and the two parties aren't really communicating so you spend hours getting bounced back and forth trying to work out what's going on.
 
Can't get reliable heating engineers locally so went back to BG who have been good on emergencies and regular servicing. Only fly in the ointment was a very delayed December service (march finally) but we were informed of the delay.
 
We use Homecare and have no complaints about response times or quality of service for both regular servicing and emergencies. It is more expensive than trying local trades but is reliable and efficient.

p.s. I live in Worcestershire not that London or the South-East...
 
Be careful with British gas. I had been a customer for many years but some repairs ( in the small print ) cost extra. A few years ago I had a blockage in my upstairs central heating. When the engineer came to look at it he said the system needed cleaned by putting it under pressure. He then told me that this would cost up to £400 with no guarantees of success. I declined, so they sent an advisor out who quoted me £7600 to fit a new system in a 3 bedroom house. Oh...and all the laminate downstairs would have to come up. I got a guy and his son to fit a new system for £2600 and I didn't have to lift the flooring downstairs either. So a lot of money saved. My nephew, who is now a central heating engineer, looks after the system for me.
 
whats the boiler ? worcester B run their own service and extended warrenty which is quite reasonable . last time i asked it was £17 a month

and Vaillant have one done though Domestic and general or homeserve .

plumbers now in London are horrendous and can easily earn 100K a year with pimlico etc .

I am a huge fan of homeserve for plumbing [ apart from their overcharging !! .. you have to ring each year to renegotiate ] saved my bacon 2 weeks ago with a nasty leak and used them 3 times for my friend . totally invaluable as getting tradesmen as short notice very hard
 
Kicked BG into touch about a year ago after they couldn’t come out for two weeks and then cancelled the day before, absolute crap service. Not the first instance. Now have a local plumber who is great and a lot cheaper.

I don't have homeserve for heating but I have their cover for appliances, so far excellent service when needed.
 
Homeserve here - always quick to respond and never an issue sorting the problem. Even rebuilt a smashed external drain after the water company didn't want anything to do with it (it was getting clogged up and subsequently backing up and had to be "rodded" periodically). The repair by Homeserve was arranged by one of their plumbers when he was here to fix something else and I started moaning about the drain. Saved me about £3k.
 
Thanks for all the feedback to such a dull enquiry!

Dull update: I found an independent contractor who could tackle the leak sooner. Phew. Called British Gas to cancel the engineer for tomorrow and was told someone from Customer Services would call me back to discuss the case in two to three weeks time... zzzzz.
 
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