HOW MUCH!! (British Gas Network)

Member Name: jonroach

Product:	British Gas Network
Date:	10/08/02 (2917 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Expensive, Didn't turn up on time

Shortly after moving to our new home, my wife and I decided to upgrade our back boiler and gas fire. The boiler was getting old and was inefficient and we wanted a focal point fire to replace our old radiant fire.

We did some research and decided that we should stick with the Back Boiler system that we had at the time, and we saw several fires that we liked the look of in the BAXI range. The came the time to get some quotes for the fire and boiler to be installed. British Gas are a large company and we had seen their adverts everywhere. So we rang them. We then came across the first problem. British Gas can only offer you appointments at the following times 09:00 – 12:00, 12:00 – 16:00 or 16:00 – 17:00. Now since both my and wife and I work, and would both like to be present at the time of the quote we had to find a time that we both found suitable. In the end we opted for the 12:00 – 16:00. This meant we were both going to take the afternoon off. Now because neither of us work locally we felt we should tell British Gas that it would be best if they could arrive after 13:00 to guarantee at least one of us being there. I thought this would be a simple request, however the woman at the call centre was most rude and said that this wasn’t really an option and that if we wanted them to give a quote then we really should be in from 12:00. In the end she decided to “make a note of it in the diary.”

The day of the visit arrived and I dashed out of work and made it home for around 12:20 and my wife joined me shortly afterwards. We made a small list of things we wanted to ask and waited for the visit.

And waited…….

And waited some more…….

The time reached 16:00 and still no sign of our visit from British Gas so I rang the call centre who assured me that we were due a visit. Around 16:30 we got a call from the salesman saying he had got a bit held up and would be ther
e in an hour. This means that he wouldn’t be arriving until 17:30! This meant my wife and I had both taken an afternoon off work for no reason! We could have both finished work at our normal time and been home in time for the quote.

Eventually there was a knock at the door and in came British Gas. He started by asking us what we wanted. I told him, but pointed out that we were open to any suggestions he had. He had none, so we went with our idea of the Back Boiler system. We had a BAXI brochure shoved under our nose and asked to look which fire we wanted. Then which surround we wanted, and then out with the lap top and he started tapping away. The salesman then took time to tell us how wonderful the system would be and that they were going to install lots of special things. In particular he highlighted a ‘special valve’ which would mean we could have just the heating, just the water, or both on – therefore making the system more efficient. They would also drain the radiators, cleaning out all the sludge and we would also be offered a 5 year British Gas service contract.

Onto the price. After tapping away for some time a load of numbers appeared on the screen. And the cost…… £5,400!!!!

Yep, FIVE THOUSAND, FOUR HUNDRED POUNDS! But wait, there was to be a discount. If we were to get them to carry out the work they would give us £100 trade in for our old boiler! AND if we agreed there and then we would get a £100 winter discount. You can imagine the relief when he told us this! It would now only cost £5,200.

Next point, would we be interested in their finance? It would only cost £150 a month!

And how long would that be over I asked, after a bit of umming from the sales person, and comments along the lines of “£150 a month, that’s all you need to know, you can afford that can’t you?” it turned out to be over five years.

Now a quick be of mental arithmetic too
k place here. 5 years, 60 months, £150….. that’s £9,000!!!!!

What’s the APR on that loan was the next question. Bit of thinking again from the salesman, 19.9%. I pointed out this was very high since (at the time) interest rates were low. Then came the offer of their ‘interest free option’. 6 months interest free (to sort out a bank loan at a much more pleasant APR, Nationwide were offering 8.9% at the time) then pay them.

Right, when shall I book you in was the next question. I told the salesman that I was going to look around for other quotes. This was met with a very puzzled look from the salesman. “I don’t know where else you would go for a quote.”

I told him we weren’t going to make a decision there and then so he left me a copy of the quote and left. I then went to my bottle of brandy and poured myself a large glass to get over the shock. My wife then asked if there was anyway we could afford the £5,200 we had been quoted. I told her not to worry and I would get another couple of quotes and we would go from there. She looked at me puzzled and asked where else we would go for a quote. British Gas had obviously won over my wife’s view that only they could install such a system.

Anyway, it has now been around 7 months since we had our BAXI back boiler and Inset FS fire installed and we are very happy with it. Did we cough up the £5,200, or go for the £150/month? NO! I picked up the Yellow Pages and decided to ring a local gas installation company, now if you live in the Leicester area the name of the company is called T & S Heating Ltd and if they had a section on here I would definitely give them 5 stars and recommend them to anyone who lives in Leicestershire. Firstly the time of the visit of the salesman was based around when I was free, we got a 7:30pm visit AND he was on time. Would the clean out the radiators like British Gas offered? YES, it was standard practi
ce. Five year Guarantee? YES this was offered (subject to them servicing it every year) and what about the amazing ‘special valve’ British Gas talked about? It’s called a “3-port motorized valve” and yes, they would be fitting one. We also got them to install a heated towel rail. Total cost….. £2,700.

So to sum it all up. British Gas do offer a good service, I am sure their engineers are very good, and I am sure they will leave your house nice and tidy (as did T & S Heating Ltd) but you can expect to pay double what your local installer would charge. Save yourself some money and shop around. We saved ourselves £2,500.

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