Avoid rip-offs: buy your own boiler parts!
Posted on 16 May 2007
One of the commonest tactics of the cowboys - and perhaps even the guys in the grey hats might be prone to from time to time - is overcharging for parts. The average householder doesn't know or care how their central heating system or boiler work, and there's no reason they should!
Unfortunately this can make it easy for a less-than-scrupulous plumber to charge you far more than you need to pay for parts. Some customers will see a list of odd sounding widgets, realise they have no idea what any of it does (and therefore no conception of how much it will cost), and simply accept the price shown to them.
It doesn't have to be this way.
Many plumbing and boiler parts suppliers now have their full catalogues online, in many cases with the option to buy over the web. Frequently these are the same places the boiler servicing engineers themselves are buying from, and if the prices here are much lower than the price your plumber is quoting, something is probably amiss.
Judging if you're being ripped off for boiler parts isn't a precise art: your plumber is most likely buying from a local trade outlet, probably at a reasonable discount, so don't expect to see the exact prices he's paying on the web. If you can find the same thing on the web at a much lower price they're probably trying it on though.
The first step to researching this is to ask your boiler servicing/repair engineer the name of the part or, even better, the exact make and model number he intends to use. Armed with a list (and any company which refuses to give you one is probably not to be trusted) take a look at some of the following sites:
Cross check your list of parts with those on these websites. A google search on the part names isn't going to hurt either - you may turn up other wholesalers. If you find prices on the web are way, way lower than you're being charged, start asking questions of your plumber or boiler servicing company.
It seems like a hassle, but if you've only got 2-3 parts to research it'll take 20 minutes or less and could save you hundreds of pounds, so be sure to give this a try when you're next presented with a big bill for parts!
One proviso is that your plumber or engineer may not guarantee parts they have not sourced for you, so if something goes wrong with the part you may be charged for the work to replace it. Another concern is that your chosen firm may refuse to work with parts they have not sourced for you altogether, though this should be pretty rare for standard parts.
Just make sure you get a qualified professional to install the parts...fitting is one area you don't want to scrimp and save!
