Re : OT : Boilers - BGs quote

Man from British Gas came round today to work out a quote for replacing
the boiler, removing old one, re-siting it, removing hot water tank,
etc, etc.

£5260 inc.

Hah.

I asked why it was so high and got various reasons "£500 for the
vertical flue" (parts cost £99), "£250 for the condensate pump" (parts
cost £71, which isn't needed as I pointed out and he ignored completely)

So I had a grope round the web and worked out how much it'd cost for the
parts, so I could work out the labour.

Parts cost is £2653 inc.

I'm guessing it'll take two people two days to fit it all, which works
out as £162 per hour, excl, labour charges.

How much does it cost to get Corgi certified?

I think I shall be getting a quote from that geezer Alan put me onto.

 

The BG quote I had was about £3600 last year (after their engineer broke my
boiler) and an independent chap put a slightly better system in for £2300 or
thereabouts

 

Is that, like, a lot then, as hourly charge-out rates go?

 

Try a local firm or two. It's been over a decade since we had our boiler
replaced, but I do remember we got a decent quote from aplace within
walking distance, and we took it, and we've used them to service the
boiler ever since.

 

'ogden' wrote...>

Seems high to me? I'm guessing BG will pay the installers £15ph (£30kpa,
40 hour week).

How many IT contractors pull down > £150ph?

 

(The Older Gentleman) wrote in

I had a quote from a local fitter listed on the Worcester Bosch website.
The price was competitive and we went with them. That was 4 years ago and
the firm is stil trading and comes once a year for a service. They are an
independent CORGI registered firm and will quote for other makes of boiler
i.e. Vaillant.

 

It's hardly unusual for a large company to charge an end customer an
obscene multiple of their employee's internal hourly rate. My multiple
is about 4.5 in office hours, while V's is about 9. You're not just
paying for the work, you're also paying for it to be done under BG's
name.

About as many as charge £150ph to fit a boiler, I suspect.

 

Can't be true - several people on here have said so

I'll say it again - BG are rip off artists, avoid them

Where are you ?

Unfortunately, this is the wrong time of year to get a boiler changed

You could find out who does the service contracts for the local social
housing

 

How come this message appeared under my name? I didn't send it.

 

because you are using a shonky operating system and an inferior server.
Paid for the privilege too.

in the real world it appeared under mine. Even google got it right
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.rec.motorcycles/msg/d68aaf8db3a0b13b

 

Because of the run up to xmas, or because it's winter? I need to do mine
sometime and I'm happy to wait until summer.

 

BG quoted £4500 for ours this year, we got local Corgi guy to do it for
£1500.

That was a new condenser boiler, installed, wall bricked up etc.

 

Because it's winter. In the summer people are happy to shop around, but in
the winter a new boiler is often a distress purchase.

 

<Flashback to "A cask of Amontillado">

Don't go down into the catacombs OK?

Phil

 

Plumbers can make good money in winter doing emergency callouts as
well. In summer there is less business so you're more likely to be
able to cut a deal.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, all obvious really. Cheers chaps.

 

'ogden' wrote...>

Oh I fully realise that. A multiple of 4 or 5 I'd be happy with. A
multiple of more than 10 is taking the piss IMO.

 

'geoff' wrote...>

Milton Keynes. Concrete Cow land.

For independant plumbers and small/medium indie companies, certainly. I
guessed that a huge company would easily have the staff to cover the
additional seasonal work, so getting a quote this time of year wouldn't
be any different to summer. I'll just wait till spring/summer now.

Might buy the bits in the new year if I can find anywhere selling them
cheap.