British Gas - What IS an excess charge

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 FesteringSore 13 Sep 2016
In the past, when I have sought a lower insurance premium or similar, I have accepted an "excess".

I have always assumed this to mean, for instance, that if I have an excess of £250 and I make a claim then I have to pay UP TO the first £250 of the claim. Thus, if my claim is for £125 then that is what I pay out of my own pocket. If my claim is for £500 then I pay £250 and the insurance company pay the balance.

I have a servicing contract with British Gas on which there is an excess of £99.

Yesterday we had our gas boiler serviced and it was found that some insulation pads needed replacing and the engineer looked them up and said that a complete set came to about £15.

I was a bit gobsmacked, then, to be told that I have to pay the full £99. Something to do with it being a "fixed amount".

Anyone else come across this?

I cannot think that many individual boiler parts are going to cost anywhere near £99 so I'm inclined to think that this is British Gas' "licence to print money".
 wercat 13 Sep 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

dishonest Engineer?

It doesn't seem reasonable that you'd be paying for a contract for a service which then forces you into overpaying for anything replaced. Trading Standards or CAB?

Have you parted with the money?

MarkJH 13 Sep 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:
> I was a bit gobsmacked, then, to be told that I have to pay the full £99. Something to do with it being a "fixed amount".

The terms and conditions are a little ambiguous. They use the phrase "excess/ fixed fee", which they define as:
"the amount you've chosen to pay towards each completed repair or replacement. "

The use of the word "towards" may make it possible to argue that it shouldn't exceed the value of the repair, but possibly not. In any case, probably not worth making a fuss over once the cost of labour is added to the £15.
Post edited at 12:12
OP FesteringSore 13 Sep 2016
In reply to MarkJH:



> the cost of labour is added to the £15.

Surely that is what I pay the annual fee(£170) for
OP FesteringSore 13 Sep 2016
In reply to wercat:

> dishonest Engineer?
Given that the payment would be to "British Gas", I can't see what the engineer would stand to gain.

> It doesn't seem reasonable that you'd be paying for a contract for a service which then forces you into overpaying for anything replaced.
Agreed

> Have you parted with the money?
No, I assume I'll get an invoice.

KevinD 13 Sep 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

> I cannot think that many individual boiler parts are going to cost anywhere near £99 so I'm inclined to think that this is British Gas' "licence to print money".

Depends if call out/labour costs are included in it.
Did they get replaced during the service or did they have to come back.
MarkJH 13 Sep 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:
> Surely that is what I pay the annual fee(£170) for

According to the T&Cs, you agreed to pay them (though slightly ambiguously worded) £99 for each repair that they do on your boiler. If you argue that this figure should not exceed the costs of the repair, then the labour would probably be included in that. This is probably why they have a fixed fee. I don't see that there is anything in the contract stating that the £99 is for parts alone.

I would agree that it doesn't seem like a particularly good deal for you.
Post edited at 13:03
 Neil Williams 13 Sep 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

£15 would be the parts cost. You are then presumably paying for the labour on top up to the excess of £99. (You won't get many jobs that, once you have a call out fee and an hour's labour, will be below £99, so they might as well not bother considering that).
 Fraser 13 Sep 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

> I cannot think that many individual boiler parts are going to cost anywhere near £99 so I'm inclined to think that this is British Gas' "licence to print money".

A new circuit board will cost about £200!

 jalien 13 Sep 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

change servicing contract - I'm with Homeserve (terrible reputation) who sub-contract Vaillant to do the actual repairs (much better reputation?) and pay £120 a year for everything - unlimited parts, labour, callouts... unless they think the boilers beyond economical repair, in which case they'll give us something like £250 towards a new one. Have already had about £2-300's worth of parts replaced last year, so very happy to carry on paying £10 a month to keep our 15-year old boiler trundling along!

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