Shopping around for a Boiler Service

This year I cancelled our contract for boiler maintenance as it was going to cost over 300 pounds a year. The central heating boiler is a condensing one but it is now 8 years old and all the companies wanted nearly 1/3 of the cost of a new one just to have an annual boiler service and the insurance if it breaks down. With no small children in the house I decided that we would self-insure and save the money towards a new boiler.

That meant finding a different company to do the annual safety check. An internet search identified what I thought was a bargain, 50 pounds, but it turned out that the company was in Northern Ireland so could not come to us ! Next stop all the national companies where we were quoted between 79 and 90 pounds.

These prices seemed a bit steep so today I called round local heating firms, also rather expensive, between and 82 and 94 pounds. I told them that British Gas could do it for 79.80 so I would not be booking with them. Half an hour later I got a call from one of the firms who said that they would have an engineer in the area today and could do it for 69 pounds. A bargain says I and duly book the appointment.

Now the nice chap who came did do a proper job in about 15 minutes which was rather quick but then added VAT to the bill so it was over 82 pounds ! I'm sticking with British Gas next time and saving 4 pounds !!