old tup Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 I don,t know if its me but every time you buy something or need a service for household appliances or your car serviced you are quoted extortionate prices !.British Gas serviced our boiler and as usual the engineer found something needed changing, the filter he said,they would do it for £230 if I had ordered it at the time if not it was £290!.I don,t see why it jumped £60 as he would have had to come back to do the job anyway!.Next thing my car service,I phoned my usual garage to be told it had gone up £71 since last time,so I said I would get back to them later!.I had a shufty on my laptop and found a different garage same dealership at last years price,I rang back to my usual and told them the news,"Hold on sir I,ll have a word with my manager!".Lo and behold "Yes sir we will match the price!",£71 saved by a couple of calls, it makes me so angry why do they try it on all the time,if I had won euromillions and could afford anything I would still not be took for a fool and ripped off by anybody".Rant over(for now). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salsafan Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 It is the way the world is. I also had British Gas quote a boiler installation, but having done an independent method and went to find my own local suppliers and so forth. I rather have paid that bit extra for a piece of mind. Several years later, I am still paying for the bad workmanship. That is a lesson learnt for myself. I think in this day and age, you really got to ask yourself whether something is worth fixing or not. It has indeed become that kind of throwaway culture based on actual cost of labour unfortunately. I used to love able to get things fixed under warranties, but then again, those days are now gone. As companies are pushing customers to buy new and spend more, seems to be the way of the world unfortunately. By the way, have you thought about going to the boiler manufacturer directly and ask if your boiler is under warranty ? Or if they can recommend people who can carry out the work correctly and so forth ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geared Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 You're using British Gas to service your boiler and a main dealer to service your car?? and you wonder why you're being mugged off??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien52 Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 You're using British Gas to service your boiler and a main dealer to service your car?? and you wonder why you're being mugged off??? It is not just the "big boys". Our local boiler servicer wanted £220 to replaces a central heating part. I bought the part,installed it and had it checked by an electrician.All done with the aid of a Youtube video ,simple tools and 35 mins of my labour.. Total cost £75. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penistone999 Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 You're using British Gas to service your boiler and a main dealer to service your car?? and you wonder why you're being mugged off??? Main car dealers are rip off merchants . Better of using smaller independent garages . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mecky Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 It is the way the world is. If it is it's because a few people want it that way, most of us don't Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salsafan Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 If it is it's because a few people want it that way, most of us don't It is never because people "want". It is because they have no choice. Then it becomes a state whereby people "need to", than want. Businesses have to run, and for businesses to survive, then they need to find more and more ways to make money. It's like, in my father's generation, he was quite industrious, and went along the flow of slow automation in the household. Making life easier, and better and so forth. Yet, in my generation, going through the (what socialists formally call) it as the "informational age", I have to make sure that I am up to date in my knowledge to even do my job. I don't try to do much manual things any more, but I have to stay online to make sure my automated things go through. I dare say that if I have children, then my children have to also learn how to run a business possibly and to be a part of this kind of global supply-chain which is quite evident that most governments are now trying to push for. My father was in a blue collar job. I was in a white collar job. I often do wonder if my children have to be business owners. To be honest, it is quite scary how fast things change, even in my years of being in the IT industry. One thing I also realised for the UK is that we do not champion good and solid design or products. We let lower entry product be created along with higher quality products, such that it creates a different kind of market. I do not know if anybody notices this at all. If the lesser quality product is taken out of the market and be left with a few of the better ones, then at least, I'd imagine the wages of people will go back up. (I hope.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bloom Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 If it is it's because a few people want it that way, most of us don't Since Thatcherism changed our country into a place where greed is seen as a desirable attribute to have, instead something to be ashamed of. ---------- Post added 10-02-2014 at 17:29 ---------- You're using British Gas to service your boiler and a main dealer to service your car?? and you wonder why you're being mugged off??? Indeed; British Gas who are ripping people off that much EVEN the Torys have started bleating. (Or is that because Labour have already vowed to put an end to this and they want to be seen to have a least an ounce of sympathy for the people of this country?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Hardie Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 About 15 months ago I arranged online for British Gas to service my boiler for £59 and that was supposed to be a special offer. After digging a bit deeper and speaking to them it became clear that it wasn't a service at all but just a safety check. They would only service it if the emissions were above a certain level. I asked for a refund and a tradesman who posts on here did a proper service (strip and clean) for £50 and it'll be £40 next time as a returning customer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchresearch Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Main car dealers are rip off merchants . Better of using smaller independent garages . Depends on what's needed. For basic servicing, absolutely. But for anything which requires the plugging in of the diagnostics I wouldn't be so sure. Its indy garages using generic diagnostic fault code readers and misdiagnosing faults that keeps me very busy. They read the code, Google it and throw a part at the problem and hope it fixes it. If not they throw another part at it and keep doing so until they fix it - all at the customer's expense of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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