British Gas service engineer

[Richard Owen]

Hello,

I've recently moved house (September), and I continued my British Gas 3-star service contract that I have had for 5 years.

An engineer came round this Monday to do the annual service on the 24 year old Glow Worm boiler. As soon as the engineer left, the pilot light went out, and kept going out within a few minutes of relighting. The same engineer came back today to solve the problem by fitting a new gas valve, cheerfully joking about Murphy's Law when you start messing with something after months or years of fault-free operation.

During the fitting process the engineer accidentally bent the thread of an elbowed threaded pipe. This is an irreplaceable part due to the age of the boiler, so the only option was for the engineer to arrange for a quote for a new boiler. The British Gas quote-monger will be coming round this evening.

Cheek! If I took my car in for a service and the garage damaged the engine, I'd hardly get a bill for a new car would I?

Does anybody know where I stand regarding responsibility here?

1. Even if I wanted to replace the boiler, I would probably not choose British Gas because of the cost.
2. If I hadn't paid them to service the boiler, I wouldn't be in this situation.
3. The engineer admitted the damage, so shouldn't British Gas rectify their error?
4. If they offer a discount because of their error, could I get a quote from a different supplier and ask British Gas to pay the equivalent of their offered discount?

If I am posting this to the wrong newsgroup (I can't really call it "doing-it-myself"), could anyone recommend a more suitable one?

Thanks Richard

[EricP]

I would take this to one of the "legal" groups. I think they would like to have you there for a while to chat about this one.

Might be quite productive. :))

[stuart noble]

As the boiler sounds pretty old, maybe if you paid for the boiler and they fitted it free, that would be an acceptable outcome. Do you believe the bit about the threaded pipe being irreplacable? I don't.

[tarquinlinbin]

It is acceptaed that we are all human and therefore we sometimes fail or are unable to do the best we can.

Can you perhaps post a picture of the part which is allegedly unavailable and I'm sure a solution can be provided..

joe

[John]

I cannot think offhand of a bit of vulnerable threaded bent pipe on an old type GlowWorm boiler although the model details would be a big help. In any case it may not be beyond a bit of judicious straightening and maybe a thread clean up with a die nut. SERIOUS damage could hardly be considered accidental and it could be that Mr hamfist was bucking for his introducers commission from his employers. I'd get a local independant guy to take a look before chucking big money even after discounts at BG. If the local guy can and does effect a repair you should claim the cost of the repair from BG although it might take a bit of a fight to get it.

[Simon Stroud]

If it's a Fuelsaver 55F or compatible, you are welcome to any bits of my old one that is hanging on the wall waiting for me to pull it out and brick up the flue hole. It's been in that state for nearly 3 years since we put the new combi in the garage and it's serving a useful purpose of plugging the hole to stop draughts. You (or anyone else) are welcome to any "no longer available" bits out of it! Collect from Basingstoke or postage at cost.

Contact me by email avoiding the obvious "spam trap" if interested.

Regards, Simon.

[Andy Hall]

I had one of these. One word of warning if you're going to pull it apart. Some of the internal sheet metal parts and flue parts are poorly finished and have very sharp edges.........

I cut myself quite badly on one plate.

[Christian McArdle]

I had one of those. Expanding foam is your friend. Then it can go down the tip!

Christian.

[Richard Owen]

Thanks all of you - you've been very helpful.

I followed EricP's suggestion and posted my tale to uk.legal - this was also quite helpful.

To anyone who's interested, the model is a Glow-Worm Space Saver 45-60B.

B Gas did try to fix the part. The engineer even persuaded another engineer to come round and help fix it. But with no luck. I do believe the damage was a genuine mistake. I also believe that Glow-Worm don't supply the part anymore, but I'm going to try and get B Gas to pay for a machine shop to make one if it is possible.

Andy Hall - thanks - actually the engineer did replace the thermocouple first, but it didn't do the trick. I missed that bit out just to get to the important part of the email, sorry.

Simon Stroud - I'll email you a pic (I have no web space to put an image) - thanks.

A highwayman (dressed in a B Gas uniform) came round last night and gave a ridiculously high quote for a new boiler, then knocked off 15% as a goodwill gesture and suggested this was good value. After I laughed in his face I showed him the door.

My plan:

I'll start with the idea of finding a machine shop to recreate the damaged part (it's a copper pipe joint the size of a man's thumb). I'll also contact glow-worm in case they can provide the component specs.

Also I'll explore the "contract", and try to get them to restore my system to the same condition it was in before they broke it.

Also I'll get some comparative quotes from independent fitters in case B Gas won't cooperate. Then maybe a small claim procedure would be in order to recover the cost of someone else replacing the boiler. While they're at my house quoting, I'll quiz them about the damaged part. It's wishful thinking but they *may* just have a similar old boiler lying around in their garden.

Finally I'll use my household insurance free legal helpline. They may just quote extracts from trading standards law, but it could be helpful to use this in order to get a fair deal from B Gas.

Thanks again, I'll post a resolution when it's all sorted if anyone's interested. That's if I survive the winter of course! Richard

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Have a wade through the RS components website to see if there's something similar among pneumatic parts?

I can't believe they'd go to the trouble of making something like that specially.

[Colin Wilson]

I could put it online if you like - drop me a line per my sig, but remember to add "newsgroup" in the subject to bypass my filters :-)

[Steven Briggs]

In message , Richard Owen writes

Fight the granny-robbing scumbags all the way. I do hope you succeed to getting one over on BG. I can't for minute believe that simple elbow is un-obtainable or, indeed, was damaged accidentally in the first place. Good luck.

[Rejected_spam]

In message , stuart noble

The fitter has probably already filled in his commission claim form for the new boiler.

[Rejected_spam]

In message , John wrote

Thermocouple?

[BigWallop]

Threaded pipes are usually connected to the gas valve and other bits surrounding it. If they're soft malleable iron, then they can corrode. But Id've thought that they the gas valve and other bits could be easily replaced if the makers or parts licensors where still in business.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I recently removed some (dead) 100 year old gas pipe from the cellar. The fittings were still in near perfect condition - and unscrewed easily enough. Think it would be some circumstances where they'd corrode through in the lifetime of a boiler.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Do you remember the Channel 4 1900 house series? In converting the house back to how it was in 1900, they had to reconnect all the old gas pipework which fed the gaslamps. Although it had been unused for years, it all pressure tested out OK, and could be reconnected without any remedial action.

[John Rumm]

Just thinking aloud... I wonder if this part was common to many Glow-worms or the vintage? IIRC someone was getting shot of a Fuelsaver on this group a couple of days ago, perhaps it might be worth seeing if it has the same part?

[John]

If the OP sends me an image of the bit in question I'll take a look in my scrap pile

John (Don't miss the AntiSpam in my address)

[Colin Wilson]

I`ve put them online here: