My boiler occasionally fails to fire for both heating or hot water - it is inconsistent. I called in the engineer and he mentioned a circuit board and thermistor, and said that he would need to get a quote as he he did not keep the spares to hand.

I was contacted by phone with a quote of £383 plus vat for the parts, which included the following: a power module, flow switch regulator, two sensors and a control module. I've researched these items on the internet and the most I can cost them at is around £195. The engineers wanted payment up front for the parts!

I have asked for a quote for a boiler replacement and an itemised quote for the repairs (the latter has not yet been provided). I am a little concerned that potentially I could be hugely overcharged for this work. Can anyone advise?

Many thanks

M, January 2009

I have had a similar problem with mine, in that it has recently started to fail to fire up (whilst not showing a flame failure signal). This has usually been rectified by turning off the boiler for a period of time, but I am increasingly frustrated by its unreliability. The British gas engineer who came round to look at it told me he couldnt do anything with it as it happened to decide to work at that time.
Does this sound anything like your problem?

Val8, January 2009