British Gas Engineers. Are they ripping me off?

[JacobSwan]

I have a 5 yr old Potterton combi boiler that developed a leak on a pipe at the bottom a few weeks ago and blew the circuit board. I got British gas to come in and fix it and the engineer replaced the board, fixed the leak and said everything should now be fine.

As it was warm, we didn't switch the central heating on for a few days, but did notice that the hot water was hotter than normal. When we did switch the heating on, steam was pouring out the top of the boiler within a few minutes.

Got BG back in today and the (different) engineer said that the heat exchanger is scaled up and will need replacing. He said this without actually looking at the heat exchanger, just the steam coming out of the top.

Now call me cynical, but this sounds a little odd. is it possible that the first engineer could have damaged a seal while doing the other work and we are now paying for his carelessness? The engineer is coming back tomorrow with the parts and I'm going to ask him to leave the old one so I can get it checked out. Has anyone else had a problem with BG engineers causing more problems than they fix?

[Gilbert]

No, I fix the boiler myself...

:-)

[bs]

[ARWadsworth]

I am more surprised that the engineer did not turn the heating on. How was he supposed to know that he had fixed the problem without doing so?

IMHO BG are expensive but unlikely to try tricks like you suggest.

Adam

[bs]

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What I would like to know is is there was any type of incentive scheme ( reward scheme ) that rewarded engineers who passed on sales opportunities to the sales side of the business. If there was I would be suspicious that it could be abused. Can anyone inside British Gas tell us. As for tricks.trying to sell £1800 of work for £3000 is a bloody good trick if you can get away with it ! Ask a regular plumber about BGs prices if you want to hear a laugh.

Barry

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[JacobSwan]

He turned the heating on for a few minutes to see if the pipes got warm. If he'd left it on for 5 mins he would have seen the problem. The good news is that they came back with the parts today and fixed it for free. They haven't charged me the =A3190 +vat for the heat exchanger nor the =A3100+ for the original circuit board problem. I've just had to pay the callout/labour fee of =A3145. I think they realised that I would kick up a fuss, or felt guilty. It helps that my wife is a journalist and I work in TV, which we managed to slip into conversation. I think they're scared of Watchdog and the like.

[FurryWurry]

They also have to perform the work with due skill and if they don't you can refuse to pay the full bill. So if the first guy didn't do this, you should expect the second visit for free.