Questions and answers.

Yes, and by a technician rather than a message service. There is no separate out-of-hours number and no answerphone to leave your details on. The clock at the top of this page is the shift running right now, and that shift covers weekends and bank holidays the same as any Tuesday.

In most of the towns we cover, thirty to sixty minutes. When you call we will tell you which technician is nearest and give you a realistic time rather than an optimistic one. If you are out in a village, or the nearest van is already on a job, you will be told that on the phone instead of finding it out by waiting.

We cover 83 towns and cities across nine regions of England, and each one has its own page listing the postcodes and neighbourhoods a van reaches first. The villages in between are covered too, with no mileage charge for getting to them. Have a look at the full list of areas, or just ring and give your postcode.

You hear the figure before any work begins, and it does not move once the technician is on site. Our hourly rates for every service and every time band are published on the prices page, and those figures are maximums rather than a starting point. If something genuinely different is found once a panel comes off, work stops and you are given a new price to accept or decline.

The rates published on the prices page are before VAT, and materials are charged separately on top. When you ring, ask for the figure including VAT and you will be given it, so there is no arithmetic to do at the door and nothing on the invoice you were not expecting.

One hour, on every job, and it is fairer to say so here than to let you find it on the invoice. After that first hour the clock runs in half hour units, so a job that takes an hour and ten minutes is charged at an hour and a half rather than two hours.

It covers a technician coming out, looking at the fault properly and pricing it in front of you. Plenty of jobs cannot be costed honestly down a phone line, and £49 buys you a figure from somebody who has actually seen it rather than a guess you cannot hold anybody to.

Every technician is Gas Safe and WaterSafe registered and carries the card to show you on arrival. Ask to see it. They are our own people, employed by us and known to us, and nothing is passed out to a subcontractor you have never heard of.

Most of the time it is on the van. The failures that come up again and again, pumps, valves, thermocouples, seals, traps and the common boiler parts, are all carried, which is why the majority of jobs finish on the first visit. Where a part has to be ordered we will tell you what it is, what it costs and when it lands, and the system is left as safe and as usable as it can be in the meantime.

Yes, for twelve months. If the same fault comes back within the year we return and put it right at no cost, and that includes the call-out and the labour, not just the part.

We will look at it before anybody says a word about replacing it. Old systems are usually simple ones, and the faults that stop them are often a pump, a valve, a thermostat or a thermocouple, all of which are repairs. A repair that keeps a working system going is cheaper for you than a new installation, so that is what we will tell you if that is what we find. Two honest limits. Parts for some older models are genuinely hard to get now, and we will say so rather than order something that never arrives. And if a technician finds a real safety fault, it gets turned off and stays off, and you will be shown exactly what was found and why.

For a leak or a burst, turn the water off at the internal stop tap, usually under the kitchen sink, then open the cold taps to drain the system down. If water is anywhere near electrics, switch off at the consumer unit and do not touch anything that is wet. If you can smell gas, do not touch a switch of any kind, open the windows, turn the gas off at the meter and get out. Whoever answers your call will talk you through all of it while the technician drives.

Somebody over eighteen needs to be there to let the technician in and to agree the work, but it does not have to be you. Plenty of jobs are arranged by a landlord, a letting agent or a family member and met at the door by the tenant or a neighbour. Tell us on the phone who will be there and what they are and are not able to authorise.

Yes, and it is worth doing wherever the job can wait. Booked work in weekday working hours is charged at a lower rate than a call-out, so a tap that has been dripping for a fortnight or a boiler service that is due costs less if you plan it than if you treat it as an emergency.

Yes, and a good share of the work is exactly that. Rented houses and flats, gas safety certificates, commercial heating and gas work, drainage and air conditioning are all covered, and the rates for each are on the prices page. Paperwork, invoices and certificates go to whichever address you tell us to send them to.

Ring 020 3411 2027 and ask for customer services, or email [email protected]. Every complaint we receive gets an answer. We speak to the technician who did the work and investigate what was done and what was charged for it, and if the technician has not followed our instructions and your concern is borne out, you get a refund, either of part of the charge or all of it.