OT : Boilers

'geoff' wrote...>

Ok, on your advice I have just "FGI".

The problems with BG fall into two categories.

The first if the price that BG charge for their gas. I don't use BG to
supply my gas, and AFAIK they cannot force me to switch to them if I use
them to install a new CH/HW system, so that group of complaints don't
apply to me.

The second complaint group is their customer service.

There's a hell of a lot of sites saying "complaints about BGs customer
service have doubled/trebled to 'XYZ'", but I needed to dig a lot
further to find out the other half of that figure so it'll make any
sense.

Depends on when the figures were taken, but it ranges from 1 in 400 to 1
in 1500 chance of having a problem.

To me, thats not a number I'm bothered about. Even less when you
consider that the cause of that doubling / trebling was the new
estimated billing system they introduced for gas customers. Even less
when you see that BG have admitted they have a problem and are investing
money into providing more phone staff and fixing the cause of the
problems.

I can't find figures just for customers of their CH/HW installation
section of the company, but they're going to be less than the above.
Less than a 1/3rd, 1 in 4300 or so. Perfectly acceptable to me.

If you've got anything contrary to any of this, please post it.

 

Let me finish your point for you : and probably more expensive.

In any case, not recommended for non-geeks it seems (plus more on the
face of it valid criticism of BG for your files):

http://forum.plumbingpages.com/british-gas-pt-plus-digital-thermostat--vt6594.html

I suppose I ought to offer to post a PDF scan of the instructions I got
with mine but I don't want to get embroiled in forum fuckwittery.

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Ah, I meant in my capacity as noise tzar. Industrial noise complaints
are often about fans.

Fair comment.

Fair enough. I go on previous performance. Perhaps like shares it is not
an indicator of future performance, but without personal recommendation
for good service in my immediate area I have gone with the devil I know.

It is indeed.


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<baffled>

 

Nope

Complaint one - They are overpriced on installations, usually 30-40%
above market rates

Complaint 2 is that they are good at finding ways for wheedling out of
honouring service contracts

take it onboard or ignore it - it's your installation not mine, I'm just
more closely involved than you are

 

Indeed. Baffles work quite well in some industrial noise control
problems.

When a Principal Environmental Health Officer (what Pip calls a 'white
hat') I used to have to deal with complaints about noise from factories.
The noise source causing the complaint was often a fan. On a much bigger
scale than in a central heating boiler, but the principles are similar.
In many cases, but by no means all, the noise was because of failed
bearings.


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.... or not, if they are noisy

 

I've heard of, but not seen it

If yo want to send me a digi photo some time, it would be appreciated

like someone said in the forum, prolly ACL

 

'Wicked Uncle Nigel' wrote...>

And I thought you cared!

<sulk>

Have your Wurthers back Uncle

 

'Pete Fisher' wrote...>

*snort*

 

'geoff' wrote...>

Haven't seen that anywhere in the pages google has thrown up about
"british gas complaints".

Got any links to stuff that mentions either of these?

Take what on board? You asked me to JFGI, so I did, and find out the
complaints don't relate to me or are skewed by the reports.

First hand experience from UKRM posters contradicts everything you're
saying.

I'm trying to find any first hand accounts that back up what you're
saying but I can't?

 

<BEG>

Sorry Pete, that was a case of demoniacal tail-twisting, I'm afraid.

I used to love fan problems, 'cos they could always be sorted, often
at a cost far less than the factory owner anticipated. The
number-crunchers could do all the calcs they wanted: air flow rates,
fan speeds, fan blade tip speeds, all of 'em - but if the ducting was
rattling or the outlet hood reverberating, it came to naught.

My favourites (after sending in the caretaker with a hammer and
screwdriver) were bits of plywood on standoffs and plastic sacks
filled with Rockwool. My bestest one ever though, involved night-time
extract fans from a plastics moulding plant. Massive fans,
hooorendous airflow and lots of waste heat involved. I humbly
suggested they park their overnighting artic trailer units between the
outlets and the houses ... it turned out that a few curtainsiders
offer quite a lot of attenuation, when parked in the right place.

 

No I'm not saying that, why are you talking about filling a tank? The
whole point of having a combi is that it does away with stored hot water
and gives you DHW on demand - when you have a demand for DHW, it diverts
the heat from the CH to the DHW for the few minutes required and that
you wouldn't really notice a dip for a few minutes in the CH when you
turned the DHW on.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, geoff

You keep asserting this Geoff, but my experience does not back that up.
Maybe I got an unusually good deal?

Again, my experience just does not back this up. They fixed a problem at
no extra charge that explicitly was *not* covered by their contract.
Maybe the fitter fancied me?

 

almost every post in uk.d-i-y is contrary to these couple on UKRM

The dozens of phone calls I get at work from people having problems on
BG contracts is also contrary to the couple on UKRM


Sorry, I don't log these phone calls specially for you, notr can I be
arsed to hunt back through uk.d-i-y archives

I am, however much closer to what is going on than almost anyone else
here, and that is my advice

 

Whilst working for a Telco I had a peripheral involvement in a case
where a neighbouring property was complaining of the noise from the
air handling units. Over some time we'd fitted baffles, changed the
controllers for the fans so they operated at a reduced speed unless
the temperature went IIRC above 30C and quite frankly they were
inaudible beyond a couple of feet.

Still the owner of an adjoining property complained, even when we
powered everything off. Turned out they had undiagnosed tinnitus and
hadn't been hearing our fans at all.

 

Well, it comes up so often in uk.d-i-y and I've seen articles several
time on Watchdog about their overcharging

I actually got them to quote to replace my boiler (just for the craic) -
I was going to do it myself. They quoted me £3200 just for a boiler
replacement (and powerflush). The boiler they quoted was £700 retail, so
I could have got it cheaper.

When I replaced my boiler, it took a weekend working at a leisurely pace
- take into account that if I was installing boilers, I would have been
able to do the job faster and more efficiently

So a fitter and his mate should be able to do a boiler change in a day

... for £2500 ?

nice work if you can get it

Pet fitters tell me that £1500 - £2000 would be the going rate for my
house depending on "things"

You are a statistic of one

I hear complaints of this sort on an almost daily basis

 

No sooner said than done - with scanned instructions. The photo is a bit
blurred though, like me at the moment.

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Not unknown. Also google the 'hummer' phenomenon. Mr Carley could
probably expand on the theories around tinnitus and hyperacusis.
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Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, fragmented

No, I only said that to get you into bed.

Has it been sucked?