Posted 21 February 2024

Free boiler? Too good to be true?

Hi. So my dad has had a visit from Green Phoenix Energy, randomly cold called on the door who has said after asking some questions he would qualify under the government for a free boiler. Does anyone have experience on them? Know if it’s a scam or what? Seems too good to be true is all. Any thoughts? A Google doesn’t show up much other than this gov grant but unsure. Help
Community Updates
New Comment

16 Comments

sorted by
's avatar
  1. AC-ZEP-GEN-DC's avatar
    Cold calling of any sort should be banned.
  2. Deleted041071960810's avatar
    Depends - cold caller isn't great and there are quite a few scams around.

    However, we went through a charity a couple of years ago (one of my kids has a disability) looking to see if they knew of any grants to help us replace our boiler - next we heard was an organisation called Warmworks Scotland who came and did an assessment, and ended up replacing our entire heating system for free under a Scottish scheme. So yes, it's a possible thing.

    But may be worth going through a charity and referrals rather than a cold caller.

    (We also keep getting calls about loft insulation, but think they want to do the foam spray stuff - which I don't think ever seems to be a good idea)
  3. guilbert53's avatar
    Best to tell your dad NEVER to deal with cold callers at the door.

    A lot of older people are very trusting and sadly there are a lot of scammers around.

    And of course once your dad is happy to talk to one cold caller word will get around and he is likely to get a lot more.

    Best to nip it in the bud now.
  4. HOWDEY3's avatar
    Author
    It is yeah. Seems legit. Just too good to be true comes to mind
  5. bigwheels's avatar
    I had it done via Eon, 5 years ago I think it was.
    The Gov green deal or somthing like that.
  6. Willy_Wonka's avatar
    What is the company name & the company number & registered office address on the paperwork he was given & have you checked it matches 100% with companies house website?
    C0mm0d0re_K1d's avatar
    Being registered on companies house database is not a guarantee of anything. They have a big problem. Anyone can easily register any company details, as they don't check them. scammers are also using companies that are already registered and copying their details and registration numbers etc. Apparently there has been a huge number of fake companies registered and it's more difficult to get something removed. Than it is to register something.
  7. tommydelboy's avatar
    Is it an electric boiler? Be careful, running costs could be huge
  8. 1234emk's avatar
    Don't like the fact it's a cold caller but they may well be fine. We used a company like this 3 or 4 years ago who were essentially just middle men. Tried eon first but the wait was considerably longer. If your dads boiler is working okay but just old and inefficient I'd be tempted to try Eon or other energy firm first. I think they all have to allocate some funds to help homes become more energy efficient. At least that used to be the case
  9. C0mm0d0re_K1d's avatar
    Sounds very dodgy to me.

    Hasn't the government scrapped the boiler scrappage scheme, to try and force everyone onto unsuitable heat pumps?
    tek-monkey's avatar
    Heatpumps are fine, British houses on the other hand...
's avatar