CORGI homeplan

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Am I mistaken, or is this a bit shit?

We used to have a British Gas Homecare policy, but it got so we felt the pricing was taking the mickey. But we don't want to be without an emergency boiler care plan, so we shopped around. The CORGI plan is about half the price of the British Gas one, so we signed up. Direct debit has been going out now since November.

As part of the signup process, we were informed an initial inspection of the system would be required. No problem, went to book one online as directed. Failed. Followed the process, booking failed. Repeatedly. Never mind, I'm sure CORGI will notice that we haven't booked one, and will be in touch.

Silence.

Until now. We've had a series of emails and texts asking us to book our annual service and providing a link to a web booking service.

There are never any slots available. Go forward about 6-7 weeks in the calendar and it says that new slots are released on Mondays. Got up this morning, first job, book a slot. No slots available - new slots will be released on Monday, etc.

So, so far we've been unable to comply with the requirement for an initial inspection, or with the requirement for an annual service. What chance they'll honour the deal in the event of a genuine emergency?

Beginning to think this plan is cheap for a reason. Anybody else got any experiences that might help, here?

 

[Vinny]

I know someone who worked in a British Gas call centre and the home care schemes were pushed hugely - they are very profitable.
CORGI probably employ almost no-one, but just operate a website, it is a trade organisation for small-medium gas-fitting outfits, so far as I know.

How worthwhile they are (either scheme) will depend on lots of things, not least how simple a breakdown is and how available spares are. If anything but a thermocouple died here (which I'd probably change myself), it would need a new boiler as it is so old that other spares will be non-existant.
On newer boilers, if the controller card dies (not unusual from what I hear), you'd save massively in most cases by "swapping" for a repaired one on EPay.

 

[Rodrat]

Now that crapita have sacked 500 engineers British Gas will be just as rubbish, not that they were much good anyway.

 

[mandryka]

I avoid boiler plans. The reason, apart from price, is that they may be slow to come out and they may keep you waiting for parts. A local firm will come quickly (if not you go elsewhere) and can source a part anywhere. A national boiler care company will have deals in place with a limited number of companies and will only supply from them, even if it means you’re kept waiting.

 

[fegs]

I also avoid boiler plans
A decent local plumber has always sufficed for us
I recently had a new boiler installed with a 10 years warranty so hopefully this should cover most eventualities

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

I've just spoken to a very pleasant and helpful Scottish lady called Stacey on the CORGI support line (only 10 minutes' holding which isn't too bad, I guess) who has arranged to get an engineer to call me to book the service. The initial inspection thing is a misunderstanding on my part, apparently, and not necessary. And yes, the booking website is new, and not working properly yet.

So I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for now, and hope this will be sorted promptly as she assures me it will. Hopefully it isn't shit, then, after all.

 

[cutting42]

A decent local plumber has always sufficed for us

Great if you have one, I have always had nothing but trouble with "local" plumbers. Never available in an emergency, reluctant to do any work unless it is a huge job and totally unreliable. It is the trade I have had the most trouble with. We ended up with BG plans mainly because of this.

I avoid boiler plans. The reason, apart from price, is that they may be slow to come out and they may keep you waiting for parts. A local firm will come quickly (if not you go elsewhere) and can source a part anywhere. A national boiler care company will have deals in place with a limited number of companies and will only supply from them, even if it means you’re kept waiting.

Never had any delays from BG, with my last call out for an exhaust fan, the engineer did not have one in his spares but on his system he could see another engineer had one so he popped out to meet with them and get the spare in under an hour. They do promote their own services and try to get us to change the boiler every so often but apart from that are reliable and we have had a few tricky issues, all fixed promptly and expertly. We will not be changing, the confidence in the service is critical to us with elderly parents living with us as well.

 

[kabayiri]

I'm not naturally inclined to support BG.

However...BG have access to a large parts inventory, including models which are no longer supported by others. This is actually good value for those people still insistent that their old boiler be kept running, and not replacing.

This comes at a cost, of course.

Another issue is logistics. There are certain parts of the country which are much more profitable than others. It's not unknown for a BG engineer to do 120,000 miles in their van in a period of just 3 years, if they are supporting the SW England or remoter parts of Scotland.

Again, offering national coverage carries an overhead. I have no doubt that other companies could cherry pick lucrative parts of the market to offer better deals.

BG also do try and make a point of supporting vulnerable customers. This is expensive to do, but you could argue that it's also the right thing to do.

 

[Bob McC]

I also avoid boiler plans
A decent local plumber has always sufficed for us
I recently had a new boiler installed with a 10 years warranty so hopefully this should cover most eventualities

It will, if you can wait the week it will take for them to get to you.

We are with BG they have always come out the day we phoned.

We also phoned a month ago and got the plan cost reduced.

 

[Nero]

I also avoid boiler plans
A decent local plumber has always sufficed for us
I recently had a new boiler installed with a 10 years warranty so hopefully this should cover most eventualities

Normally, the 10 year warranty requires an annual service plan? I got caught out by that recently. I'm not one for service plans, but when my 7 year old boiler blew up last year, the 10 year warranty was invalid

Still, what I had saved on the service plan more than paid for the repair

 

[mandryka]

Normally, the 10 year warranty requires an annual service plan? I got caught out by that recently. I'm not one for service plans, but when my 7 year old boiler blew up last year, the 10 year warranty was invalid

Still, what I had saved on the service plan more than paid for the repair

This is a really interesting question.

A boiler with a 10 year plus guarantee will require a record showing annual servicing for the guarantee to be valid -- here in London I pay about £100 p.a. per boiler for the service.

It may well make more sense to buy a cheap boiler with a five year guarantee, don't get it serviced (I think the short guarantee cheap boilers don't require it) and then replace with a new cheap boiler when it fails.

 

[Vinny]

Still, what I had saved on the service plan more than paid for the repair

Posted here before, but the gas control valve on my ancient boiler packed-up about 5 years back - I diagnosed that myself, but found a no callout fee gas fitter who confirmed it. I then found a spare valve online (I just beat him to that) and he collected the valve and fitted it. It cost rather little for the fitting.
While he was here, I asked about life of boilers, were expensive ones worth the cost? Cheap ones last about half as long as more expensive ones before they have major problems/need replacing. Expensive ones are around double the price of cheap ones - ball park. Cheaper ones last 7-8-9 years in his experience.

The boiler here is well over 20 years old - the control valve failed at 15-16-17 years old, probably - the boiler was far from new when I moved in 22 years ago.

 

[twotone]

I've just spoken to a very pleasant and helpful Scottish lady called Stacey on the CORGI support line (only 10 minutes' holding which isn't too bad, I guess) who has arranged to get an engineer to call me to book the service. The initial inspection thing is a misunderstanding on my part, apparently, and not necessary. And yes, the booking website is new, and not working properly yet.

So I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for now, and hope this will be sorted promptly as she assures me it will. Hopefully it isn't shit, then, after all.

That mob will go bust shortly.

 

[Mike Reed]

Normally, the 10 year warranty requires an annual service plan?

A boiler with a 10 year plus guarantee will require a record showing annual servicing for the guarantee to be valid

This is new to me, and I can understand the guarantee's requirement for an annual service record but NOT for a service plan. Surely, the regular service is what is important, not the means by which you acquire one.

 

[twotone]

This is a really interesting question.

A boiler with a 10 year plus guarantee will require a record showing annual servicing for the guarantee to be valid -- here in London I pay about £100 p.a. per boiler for the service.

It may well make more sense to buy a cheap boiler with a five year guarantee, don't get it serviced (I think the short guarantee cheap boilers don't require it) and then replace with a new cheap boiler when it fails.

Depends on the manufacturer, if the service isn't recorded in the manual (most folk don't have them) then the engineer can basically tell you to do one if he wants ie he's up to his eyes in it.

Worcester Bosch won't dump you if the service record isn't filled in and neither will Vokera IME but some manufacturer's will try whatever they can to avoid a warranty call out.

I had a guy on a two year warranty with Glowworm (Valliant) who was refused a warranty call out cause the boiler hadn't been serviced since install.

Ideal are another one but most of their boiler installs aren't registered with Ideal (no idea why) but they'll (Ideal) register the boiler for £125 and send an engineer out for a warranty call which includes a service at least that's what they used to do.

Baxi are 'difficult' with warranties.

 

[twotone]

This is new to me, and I can understand the guarantee's requirement for an annual service record but NOT for a service plan. Surely, the regular service is what is important, not the means by which you acquire one.

The warranty conditions require an annual service and the service record filled in in the benchmark (blue book) or the back of the installation manual but the manufacturer's can't enforce this condition ie they can't make you have the boiler serviced however they can refuse a warranty call out on the grounds that the boiler hasn't been serviced per their warranty conditions.

Why anyone wouldn't want their boiler serviced annually when they've spent a fortune having a boiler installed is frankly beyond me but it happens all of the time.

 

[Mike Reed]

with Glowworm (Valliant)

Why anyone wouldn't want their boiler serviced annually when they've spent a fortune having a boiler installed is frankly beyond me

Are Glowworm part of VAILLANT (though 'Valliant' they may be ) or t'other way round?

I don't have annual services but do have my Potterton Neataheat 10-16 boiler checked over every 2 or 3 years. However, it's probably 35+ years old and somehow it keeps firing up with consistently blue flames. Maybe the newer, much more complex boilers do need that annual check, as do the combis (one, a Vaillant) in my flats.

 

[twotone]

Are Glowworm part of VAILLANT (though 'Valliant' they may be ) or t'other way round?

I don't have annual services but do have my Potterton Neataheat 10-16 boiler checked over every 2 or 3 years. However, it's probably 35+ years old and somehow it keeps firing up with consistently blue flames. Maybe the newer, much more complex boilers do need that annual check, as do the combis (one, a Vaillant) in my flats.

Yep, Valliant own Glowworm and Heatline and a few other brands, Biasi too I think.

Condensing boilers need checked annually mainly for blocked condensate traps, the boiler heat exchangers dissolve over time and block the traps ergo the boilers stop working, plus the gas valves drift and need resetting every year but some of the manufacturer's don't allow you to touch the CO2 settings now.

You have to be careful with those Netaheat boilers, the back panel corrodes leading to the escape of POC into the room/space that the boiler is in, make sure that you have an up to date CO alarm in the same room as the boiler.

Most parts are now obsolete so if it were me I'd be thinking about changing that boiler.

 

[wylton]

We've had nothing but trouble from British Gas. We have a Homecare policy, for what good it is. Just before Christmas, we had a message from BG to say that the annual boiler check was due. We made an appointmnet and on the due date, a gas fitter arrived, but he wasn't BG, he was a contractor. Our boiler is up in the loft, but this fitter wasn't up there for long. Agreed it's normally a quick job, but this time he broke all records. The paperwork wasn't BG either. My wife and I agreed, that he couldn't possibly have been very thorough in that short time. A couple of weeks later, I went up in the loft to retrieve a couple of boxes and noticed a pool of water, milky white in colour, underneath the boiler. So we made an appointment to get it fixed. Around about the same time, one the radiators developed a pinhole. The liquid in the loft turned out to be due to a blocked condense pipe. Again, this was a contractor he sorted the blockage and ordered a new radiator, or at least he said he had. Thereafter, followed numerous telephone calls and cancelled appointments and eventually, the new radiator was fitted, but not properly; it leaked from one of the joints. Eventually, the leak was sorted, but on each occasion that a BG fitter actually attended, he was a disgruntled worker, not happy with his lot. Some of the cancellations were due to personnel being on strike, but it seemed obvious to me, that British Gas did not have enough fitters to service the amount of customers that they have.

We also had an issue with a quote that they gave us for some work on the system; not only was it exorbitantly expensive, but it came via a text, which had to be accepted within the hour, else it would be null and void; needless to say, I didn't accept it. During a follow up call to British Gas, I mentioned the various problems and eventually, this turned in to a formal complaint. It was worthwhile doing this, because I was given a £50 refund and was told that at r contract renewal time, to mention the issues that I had encountered and ask for a discount! A real comedy of errors and sad to see a once great British company company fall so low.

 

[Bob McC]

So low indeed...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56746656