Thames Gas
Reviews and Complaints

Do not use this company ! My thermostat where the radiators were controlled by had blown we called this company to send out an engineer to rectify the problem . The guy turns up checks the boiler and the thermostat he tells me he needs to go in to his van to price up the job to give me a quote on new part and labour . Alarm bells starting to ring I was thinking if he is an experienced person why can't he price of up the and then ? So I guessed he wanted to go over the 30 minute call out .He told me the only issue was the thermostat had to be wired up again . I knew allready the part costs £25 and wiring as we all know takes roughly 10 minutes max so guessed he is going to his van to price up the Job so he can go over the 30 minute call out time so he can charge me for one hour . He comes back and says it will cost me £220 plus vat ! I told him I know the part is 25 so he's charging me 195 labour ? He said he can offer me a discount and reduce the price to 200 ! I said no thanks I will wire it myself! He then tried to tell me I have gone over my 30 minute call out by 1 minute and he will charge me for one hour ! I obviously refused to pay it as I was able to prove he was actually there for 28 minutes! I am disgusted with how this company charges and tries to over charge people ! Do not use them !

An engineer was supposed to service a 4 years old commercial Valiant boiler in August 2015. However, he had the gas turned off by triggering something in the gas metre. When I questioned him how he could get the gas turned off, he was very rude and said I don't know anything. An emergency gas engineer has to be called to restore the gas. Afterwards, the company sent me a quote for repair for £520 + vat in addition to the original annual service cost for £160/hour + vat. After I refused the new quote, I was sent a warning notice for the subsequent repair. I ignored but was charged for £192 for the engineer to cut off the gas without the annual service. I was advised by the emergency engineer to contact Valiant directly. A Valiant engineer did a superb job within a hour. I'm making a complain here and hope people won't be trapped by Thamesgas.com any more.

Condense trap on my condensing boiler was blocked. Engineer came out, established this in 10 minutes, hung around for another 3 hours, then charged me 4 hours (!) for this minimal mini job. £264.
I spoke to other boiler engineers later, who said this should have been done and dusted within 1 hour. Now considering how to get the money back, complaints / ombudsman, etc?
My tenant was standing next to the guy and was trying to rush him out as it was clear that he was just hanging around "making sure the boiler was running fine now", but he was stubborn.
The company has hundreds of local sounding listings in yell.com (e.g Tottenham Heating and boiler specialists, Seven Sisters Heating and boiler specialist, also Heating+Plumbing Central, etc, etc. Hundreds!). Awful. Felt robbed. I am attaching the invoice which shows this ridiculous overcharging.

I have used Thames Gas for 4 years in a row for CP!2 landlord certificate and boiler servicing.
I've never had a problem with them due to the same engineer visiting the property.
However this year a new guy attended the property. He found several 'faults' and replaced one part at an extra cost of £100 on the spot. I'm still unsure if that part genuinely needed replacing as he never showed me the old part, I just had to trust this man.
As he didn't have parts for the 'other issues', he told me he would email with a quote for the work and would have to fail my gas safety certificate until this was done.
I still had to pay for the failed gas safety certificate even though I was due for the remedial works.
The quote emailed was over £300 including paying for a brand new CP12 safety certificate. Other parts were none essential for the CP12 to pass, however Thames gas said that unless I had all of the works done, they would not pass boiler for the certificate. I asked for a breakdown in parts and labour and again they insisted that this was not possible and should I not wish to carry out all the work then they would not help me and leave me with a potentially unsafe but working boiler.
Needless to say I didn't use them ever again. I have since called out another engineer who happily applied, for free, insulating tape to the boiler (the reason for the boiler not passing the gas safety certificate), he also told me that the parts Thames Gas wanted me to replace was absolutely fine and didn't need touching.
Avoid this company, they have gone down hill and will rip you off at any given chance!

After realising that I need to replace a part on my very old boiler and that the parts have ceased manufacture a good few years ago that I would not be able to replace the part but instead would likely need to replace the entire boiler, I called Thames Gas to get a quote. The engineer, David, came over and checked the boiler and had a long discussion about my options and then told me how much it will cost to replace the boiler all inclusive. I then booked the job and the price was confirmed and I was told the engineer would come first thing on Monday morning to check that he has all the parts that he needs and will start the work on Tuesday. By midday on Monday there was still no sign of the engineer so I called him, he said he had forgotten and thanked me for reminding him and that he would be over in an hour, when he came he said he thought he'd mention that the price he quoted doesn't actually include VAT and that it is going to cost me an extra £450 odd pounds! What the hell?! I couldn't believe the audacity! Any way I rang Thames Gas back to complain as I thought this was appauling service and so unprofessional especially after Thames Gas had confirmed the total price less than 72 hours earlier. Their response was that the engineer has the right to change the quote. Well yes, I agree maybe they do have the right to do so in exceptional circumstances, but not when they have approved a price and the job is due to start the next day and when there is absolutely no apparent reason for the quote to change/increase. If in the first instance it did NOT include VAT, then why was this never mentioned - until now, the day before the job is due to start? So I have cancelled the job and will NEVER use or recommend Thames Gas in the future, in my opinion, their service is unprofessional.

I too have never felt the need to print a complaint and do so because I feel so strongly about the poor service of these plumbers.

We reported a fault of hot water only working when the heating was on high, an employee from this company identified a faulty valve and charged us almost £700. He was went to great lengths to explain our boiler ( Alpha )was not well know and could have many faults, the parts were expensive and we should look to replace.
The same fault continued and he came back and advised that the fault was different, it was the domestic hot water flow switch which had to be removed to fit the valve and he said it could have been damaged then .When I questioned him on this he got very defensive and quite aggressive shouting at me and could not say either way with certainty.

He then proceeded to complain about people wanting something for nothing and why had I not reported it sooner, we had been on honeymoon but really it was not his business - the fact was a fault existed despite paying for a service.

The second cost he quoted was £310 plus vat which I feel is very excessive for a part that may well have been damaged during the last repair which actually I have to question as it could have well been the fault on the first visit.

Despite calling Thames Gas immediately and reporting their employees conduct, putting it in writing and via email I have received no response, not really what I expected from the website.
Incidently the expensive parts they mention retail at less than 20% of the charges made - nice work if you can get it.
Clearly these are my experiences and opinions - please feel free to form your own.

I consider myself as a fair individual and would not normally make a complaint of this nature. However I feel forced to act due to what I consider fast practise but the company Thames Gas.com.

They sent around an engineer who was very plausible and who fixed our problem of a broken pump. This individual (Jacek) then proceeded to try to sell upgrade after upgrade and was insistent that other parts of the system were about to fail. Lo and behold the following day the underfloor system we have then fails, very convenient dont you think.

Following this the company does not want to know when I requested someone to consider matters. They initially offered to send someone out so we waited during a period of cold weather for over a week for this visit. On the day of the visit this offer was withdrawn.

I would avoid them like thepague, they appear to be very substantial if you look at the website but it appears to be a small business with very little substance. I think you can find better,

Take my advice and go elsewhere

I'm not the type to complain about poor service and this is the first time I've ever publicised a concern I've had about any kind of service. In fact it didn't even cost me a whole lot of money. It's just the seemingly blatant rip off that compelled me to warn others about Thames Gas.com.

I called them (as it turns out, and this is contrary to the attractive website and flashing references and the close name association with a very large company, that this is a small one man owner/operator) to repair my boiler that had just stopped working for no apparent reason. He sent a repairman around then next morning who spent approximately 15 minutes looking at it then called me to discuss the problem. He said that I needed a new PCB (printed circuit board) and that he could replace it for £483 plus VAT, but that there would likely be other things wrong with the boiler so he suggested I replace the entire boiler and quoted a price of £2150 plus VAT. I explained that I had to think this over due to the high cost of the estimates. When I explained that I couldn’t afford to spend that kind of money the engineer gave what seemed reasonable advice if I was to try to change the PCB myself but emphasised there would likely be other things wrong with it.

Following the directions in the boiler service manual I took out the PCB in preparation for looking for a replacement but noticed that the fuses were not in it. The engineer didn't mention blown fuses to me at the time. But I also noted that 2 of the capacitors on the board had broken leads. In addition one of the resistors next to one of the capacitors was flattened against the board. It immediately appeared to me as if someone gave those capacitors a twist with a pair of pliers.

I replaced the 2 damaged capacitors, straightened up the resistor, put new fuses in and reinstalled the PCB. I found that the fuses blew when I turned the house heat on, just as it did when I tried to turn the heat on before calling this service in the first place. I installed a new spark generator and the boiler ran normally, and has been running normally since. The new spark generator cost a mere £32 plus shipping.

Now I'm not a boiler repairman but it doesn't take an engineer genius to see what likely happened. What I believe happened is that the engineer took the blown fuses out then gave the 2 capacitors a twist with his pliers and tried to sell me a new boiler. He was very clear that there would probably be other things wrong with it once the PCB was replaced when I told him that I couldn't immediately afford for him to do the work. I tried to speak with the manager (Adrian Cronin) but he wouldn't return my calls. He also didn't answer a letter of complaint. I'm sincerely open to alternative explanations but Mr Cronin wouldn't even speak with me so what am I to think. What would you think?

Not knowing much about boilers I spent two days off work learning and effecting the repair. I definitely didn't want another engineer in my house at this point, because of how betrayed I felt paying someone to come in and sabatage my property. And guess what, in the end it only needed a new spark generator which I bought online for a mere £32. A little less expensive than £2150 plus VAT that I was told I should be spending. My boiler has been running normally since then, 3 months ago.

You've been warned. Use this company at your risk. Even if you have a fat wallet, you may not like the idea of someone so dishonest coming into your home.