British Gas is this a Rip Off

[bev7896]

My father who is in his 70's has always been with British Gas and a few years back took out a boiler policy with them. I have just noticed they have billed him £275 for a years basic boiler policy with a service yet a lot of other company's charge less than £200 for the exact same policy. They have insisted he needs a new boiler on his last service which he's now worried about and they have applied their high pressure sales tactics and bamboozled him with all sorts of jargon and guarantees which quite frankly he doesn't understand but is too embarrassed to say no. Anyone else come across these problems with British Gas. Hopefully I can have this policy cancelled and get local tradesman in to change the boiler IF it needs done at all.

[ericsbrother]

It is always a problem with elderly relatives. They think they need such cover and think that changing things to another supplier is difficult so they stick with the same old faces. My aged parents had this, dad couldnt cope with online contracts and billing and mum thought that when they switched suppliers the gas would be cut off for a fortnight and then reconnected by a new supplier. They also had issues with insurance and got ripped off in a couple of phishing emails which I managed to deal with but now they tell us children very little as they dont like to admit that they cant cope with changes and as a result we are certain that they have been taken advantage of in other ways but dad says nothing as it just gets mum upset and she then shouts at him as it is clearly all his fault etc etc

[bev7896]

He's been with British gas all his his life and showed blinding loyalty to them for some unknown reason , its a shame British Gas can't do likewise.

[Leakie]

The gas engineers are also sales men

if you do need a new boiler always get 3 quotations, not estimates.

Bg will be the most expensive,

If in doubt get a second opinion with regards to the boilers state

[ericsbrother]

sometimes they will give a quote for a new boiler with the labour separate to the boiler price. If you buy your own boiler for several hundred quid less then their quote all of a sudden they wont keep to the labour charges quote.

[Leakie]

If you buy your own boiler the you will have no installer warranty if it goes wrong, just the manufacturers warranty.

Also if there is a problem with it, in the initial install there would probably be an extra charge to put it right.