Am I being conned?

[nykkieberry]

I have a homecare agreement with Principal Choice for my central heating. On Saturday it packed up. They came out on Sunday and told me that they would need to replace the electrodes that sense the burner (a �30 part apparently). They ordered the part and returned this morning, fitted the electrodes and they are now saying it needs a new gas valve. My excess is �300 and they said they have now exceeded this (two - three hours labour at the most and a �30 part). They want to charge me labour and parts from now on...the job has cost �360 so far...am I being conned?

[archbishop]

�30 is about right for a thermocouple, but 2-3 hours labour is excessive.I did mine having never done it before in 1 hour on my own. The gas valve shouldn't go wrong and probably only needs a blast of compressed air to clear the soot that has been churned up by changing the thermocouple. Yes I do think you are being ripped off. An awful lot of these service contracts are a total rip off.

[gilf]

archbishop, are you corgi registered ? if not then you shouldnt be doing home repairs :) yeah sounds like a bit of a rip off.

[nykkieberry]

Job now up to �400 - asked for an invoice with a breakdown of parts and labour - and they said that they cannot invoice me until I have paid!!

[gilf]

An invoice is something which details what they expect you to pay for. If they give it to you after you pay then this would be a receipt.

[nykkieberry]

Exactly. I've never heard anything like it! I have found out from a heating engineer that a new valve and labour should cost about �120+VAT depending on the make of the boiler. A new electrode is about �4 and takes an hour to fit. On my reckoning that's at the most �200 worth of parts and labour?

[Gef]

I might be missing the point here but the excess is the maximum amount you are expected to pay. For example, if your car insurance has an excess of �100 then you pay the first �100 and the company pays the rest - even if the total bill is in the thousands. I no longer have gch but when I did I had 3* cover with British Gas and I never paid anything, other than the premium, even though there were some expensive repairs.

[archbishop]

nykkieberry - please do not pay any money to these people. You have a �300 excess but they will claim it is for different jobs. Thermocouple and valve. They are ripping you off. If they want their money let them take you to the small claims court, which they won't.Mention the press etc and they will go away.