Quote Originally Posted by montesquieu View Post
Yes I got bumped three times for a routine service by BG, allegedly because their person got routed to restore service to someone 'vulnerable'. In January you can kind of accept that but not in September/October when the thermometer barely dips below 10c and then only at dead of night. My view is that BG's management couldn't organise a raffle. However I'm not sure there's any serious alternative.
Almost every town will have a serious alternative. Lots of central heating companies offer service plans. I can think of at least two firms in Preston who offer this.

We had a British Gas service plan a couple of years ago. Our boiler had an intermittent fault, where sometimes you couldn't get hot water. We called them out, and within a couple of days they were round to "fix" it. A free repair, apart from the £60 excess.

Three weeks later the boiler was up to its old tricks, so they clearly hadn't dealt with the fault. Out they came again, and because more than 14 days had elapsed since the last call out, it became a new claim. Which meant another £60 excess. They still didn't manage to sort it, said they'd have to order the part. Boiler was only two years old.

Anyway, after the third visit they finally got it sorted. Anita decided they could whistle for their second £60. After six months or so of letters threatening legal action they finally relented and waived the second payment.

My brother is a heating engineer, and works 3 days a week for British Gas. You'd think I would use him, but he is even more unreliable