Boiler service €39 power flush €68

jimbojetset

My girlfriend had a €39 boiler service last week. Her boiler packed up on Tuesday! She called a specialist Dublin boiler servicing company she found on the net to come and have a look. When the guy got there she told him she only had it serviced last week. He immediately said was it a €39 deal. She said yes. He asked how long he was there for, she told him 20 mins. He said a professional service should take an hour. He had a look and said it was a broken diaphragm valve whatever that is. He also said by the state of it was in a proper service would have picked it up. He told her that the power flushing for €68 was a bigger joke! he said it should take 4-5 hours to be done properly and Bord Gais charge €600 and his company €450. She asked how much a service should cost, he said standard was €99 the company he worked for charged €59-€89 depending on the model. He said the low end was very rare she would have been charged €79 by them. She ended up having to pay €110 for the fix! I called the company and they said it was a subbie and they'd look in to it but I've heard nothing yet. Has anyone else had a bad experience with this crowd or was she just unlucky?

slimjimmc

I presume this was a gas boiler. Did the first guy who serviced the boiler give her a safety certificate?

jimbojetset

Yes, I know it's a gas boiler. I don't know if she got a certificate, I will ask her though. I presume then she should have got one?

delahuntv

If it sounds too good to be true etc etc

€39 for someone to travel to a house, service and travel back is simply too cheap. It would take about 2 hours, + cost of travel + build in insurance costs, material costs etc and you basically have a "professional" person working for under a tenner an hour.

€60-€80 would be a market price that would make it worthwhile.

The newer company sounds good - so tell her to keep their number in a handy place and use them fro servicing every year or so.

As for the €39 crowd- I'd just put it down to a bad experience and never use them again.

jimbojetset

Thanks, I think she's learned her lesson. It's just sad that there are companies out there ready to stitch people up.

slimjimmc

jimbojetset wrote: »

Thanks, I think she's learned her lesson. It's just sad that there are companies out there ready to stitch people up.

I've never seen any RGI dismantle the diaphragm valve on my boiler to check it's condition so it's possible that the defect occurred after the service.
You shouldn't rule out the possibility that the second guy is just running down a competitor. Don't forget he was called out to fix a fault so he was going to find something wrong regardless.
BTW I've had several different companies service my boiler and none of them took anywhere near an hour.

893bet

Even 60-80 doesnt sound like a robust service to me.

jimbojetset

Thanks, I'm no expert so you could be right. I posted because it just seems it's wrong that it would break a week later. I did just Google how long a boiler service should take Npower say between 30-60 minutes. I suppose it depends on how quick the engineer is and how dirty the boiler.

delahuntv

893bet wrote: »

Even 60-80 doesnt sound like a robust service to me.

That's the standard price for standard service for most gas and oil boilers. Its not rocket science, but you do need to know what you are doing.

893bet

delahuntv wrote: »

That's the standard price for standard service for most gas and oil boilers. Its not rocket science, but you do need to know what you are doing.

It may be standard price but it is too cheap if being done properly.

Decent info below.

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2056908433

jimbojetset

Thanks for that thread, seems an hour or even more should be about the time it takes according to those guys.