Like most of us, you probably call out an engineer every 12 months or so to tinker with that white box on the wall. But how much do you know about what a boiler service covers and are you happy with the result?
Over the past few years I’ve had boiler services that lasted nearly an hour, sometimes just a few minutes. Sometimes I’ve been given a checklist of what the engineer has done, other times, nothing.
And those were just the obvious differences I could see. Who knows what happened once the engineers actually started looking in the boiler?
Unless you’re a heating expert yourself, it’s unlikely you’ll have much of a clue about what a good service includes.
Is your boiler being serviced properly?
Our research shows big differences in how happy you were with how your boiler was serviced the last time. One independent firm got a customer score of 84%, while British Gas scored just 36%, in our most recent survey of ad hoc services last July.
It’s a similar picture for boiler breakdown cover (which usually includes an annual service) – with 85% for independent firms to 42% for Scottish Power.
When we last investigated this area in 2011, we asked 10 engineers to service a boiler with a minor fault. Four of them failed to do their job properly.
Tell us your boiler servicing stories
We’ve heard from people who are worried their boiler isn’t being serviced properly. And from others who don’t know how to check or what a decent service involves.
Some people have told us their servicing appointments are repeatedly cancelled – or that the engineer simply does not show up at all.
We’ve also heard that engineers tried to sell other products or services – such as filters, flushes, alarms or heating controls – during an annual boiler check.
Have you had a problem with a boiler service? Has an engineer ever tried to sell you other products and services while repairing your boiler?
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