Scottish Gas ripoff?

[Jackie]

Hi I just found out today that my sister in law(a widow) is paying Scottish gas £3500 to replace her old boiler and hot water tank central heating system with a combi boiler. They will be removing the old hot water tank and boiler etc that was installed about 20 years ago which supplied hot water and radiators. Is this about a fair price nowadays or is Scottish Gas taking the piss? The old boiler is leaking as is the hot water tank hence the need for replacement. She had a maintenance contract but they said her old boiler was too old to be repaired and they could no longer get spare parts so cancelled the contract last year and of course it now needed fixing. It is too late to do anything about it now as they started work today but I just wondered if she could have got a better deal elsewhere

Thanks Jackie

[Andy Hall]

Without all the details (and the devil is sometimes in that), it's not easy to be accurate, because there may be a need to do a fair bit of new pipework. However, if there isn't, this price is at the top of the market.

At an educated guess, she could have saved anything up to 50% of that figure by going to a local heating engineer.

.andy

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[EricP]

That price would bring a smile to the face of the worst shyster fitter in the area, unless some really strange circumstances are involved.

Get her to get quotes from a couple of local firms.

[Mary Fisher]

Well, in all fairness, they give the price in advance, it's up to the customer to say yea or nay.

Mary

[Andy Hall]

Well yes, except that they are playing on their "safe" reputation as "the gas board".

That could reasonably command some price premium, I suppose, but I think that they are abusing their position.

Sooner or later, consumers will begin to wise up, and then, justifiably, BG will be screwed.

Form without substance works for a little while, but sooner or later collapses like the house of cards it is, and usually spectacularly.

.andy

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[Rick Dipper]

But people trust these big companies, cause of the name ...........

Rick

[ty]

The problem for the consumer is that it always seems better to trust or rely on a big company name, it is difficult to know for sure who is the best deal, even first hand accounts from satisfied customers cannot always be relied upon. The old saying you get what you pay for comes to mind.

[Jim]

Sounds like a real rip-off. I you aren't comfortable with it maybe you should get as much info as possible and try to get "Which" involved.

[Tony]

Need to know more details - spec of boiler, fitting issues etc. For comparison 12 months ago we (in Cumbria) had quotes for a new oil fired boiler (Worcester somewhere in the mid-top of range) and new hot water tank. Quotes from 3 companies ranged from 2500 to 3400. The top quote came from Shell Direct. We went with a local plumbing company, the cheapest quote and by reputation the best of the local bunch.

We still regret the decision! Various problems during install, the worst of which was not checking their initial connection to the oil line so that when we came home late in the evening we had a utility room flooded with oil. They never commissioned the boiler we had to get someone else to do that. Twelve months later we got a further bill out of the blue for various things they'd presumably forgotten to bill us for first time round. So sometimes you do "get what you pay for"

tony

[David Hearn]

Remember that Scottish Gas = British Gas which is often slated on this group for over pricing work by a huge amount.

David

[Colin Wilson]

I just paid =A32100 for a complete install from new, all copper plumbed,=20 Worcester Bosch 28SiII non-condensing boiler.

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[BillV]

But British/Scottish gas ain't what it was. Its now just a division of Centrica, like the AA which it has also f**ked up. I think they should have the British bit of their name taken away (same for BT) as they are not a nationally owned company anymore.

[Mary Fisher]

It's owned by the shareholders. What nationality are the majority of those?

Mary