British Gas Homecare Review
British Gas HomeCare
What is it – and is it worth it?
British Gas's home maintenance plan, HomeCare, boasts a total of eight plans ranging from HomeCare Flexi 100 (lowest cost) up to the premium HomeCare 400 which, in the words of British Gas, “offers worry-free maintenance and repair for virtually every household system you rely on". David Holmes of HeatingGuide.co.uk takes a closer look...
Our Heating Controller Fails – Friday 1st February
Eight weeks later, and over the last few days our boiler heating controller has been playing up. It sticks in the On position and I've been waking up in the middle of the night roasting hot. I've been able to reset it, but with two young children in the house, I was growing concerned that it might fail totally.
The final straw came yesterday when controller stuck and developed a constant buzzing noise; it hadn't done this before, so I decided to call in the experts.
HomeCare 200 covers that the electrical controls for the heating system, so I phoned British Gas HomeCare this morning. The call was answered by an automated system and after a couple of ‘press one if…' prompts I was routed through to an operator – the entire process commendably hassle-free. The operator asked for my postcode, located my account and asked what the problem was. He then went on to confirm whether or not we had hot water and heating. We certainly did; the boiler was stuck on.
However, it dawned on me that we wouldn't be treated as a priority because of this, and sure enough, the first date I was given was February 21, a whole three weeks away. This might have been fine, but the house was hot. After a little persuasion and explanation that we couldn't comfortably live with the whole system blazing away for three weeks he agreed to change the priority and scheduled an engineer for the following day, a Saturday, between 8am–1pm.
The call lasted just five minutes and was painless, certainly better than leafing through the yellow pages to try and find plumber at a weekend.
Engineer Visit – Saturday 2nd February
True to their word, the British Gas engineer turned up at 8.45am this cold Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after I've called. He introduced himself as John, one of the local team which covers the Market Harborough area.
I showed John the boiler and explained the problem. He took a look, said it was a common fault and that he thought he had a spare in the van, which he had. He also asked if we wanted our first safety check carried out as he was here and rang his control centre to let them know we were having it.
An hour-and-a-half later John had replaced our timer with a new British Gas-branded one, carried out the safety check and advised on the safety of our flue, which was not up to current standard. He also found some wrongly coloured wiring from the boiler to the programmer and replaced this with the correct type. Once he'd tidied up and showed me how to use the programmer he completed his reports and was on his way.
Old Faulty Timer
New British Gas Timer
Summary - Is It Worth It?
I've always treated cover plans with a little scepticism and British Gas HomeCare was no different. I couldn't see how the monthly payment was worthwhile when I could just ring a local plumber as and when the situation called for it. However, I can honestly say I've been proven wrong. The service was impeccable and exceeded my expectations; the engineer was polite and knowledgeable and arrived within 24 hours – and according to him they manage to get to a lot of call-outs the same day.
If you are considering a home maintenance plan then I can recommend British Gas HomeCare, I've been impressed.
Signing Up The HomeCare Plans On Offer
