[derekgas]

If I may digress slightly to give another example, In my occupation, costs vary immensely, British gas are the dearest company around, where I work are a mid priced company, and there are obviously a few cheap companies about, overheads are the main difference, starting at the lowest priced, a one man band working from home, they are not usually accredited by any boiler or fire manufacturer, concentrate on being cheapest, so you would likely get the cheapest appliance available, because they are cheap, a service for example would consist of a flue and burner check and hoovering out the appliance, the other downside is, when they move house, they usually change the phone number, so getting them back is a problem, in the mid range, there is usually at least an office, or showroom involved, this is an investment and usually means there is no intention to flit around properties, and the phone number stays, quite often there will be some accreditation from at least one manufacturer, and if so, standards have to be higher to keep that accreditation, when we service, it is the old way, strip appliances down, and complete a safety report, and bring the appliance to as near new condition as possible, including cleaning any decorative effects, (coals, brassware etc), then the rip offs, who proport to be mid range, what they actually do is service as the cheaper guys, and charge more than the mid range guys, will buy the cheapest equipment and make a packet, (some of these do it for 2 or 3 years then emmigrate on the proceeds), then the big boys, who have shareholders, the annual service has been reclassified as an 'annual inspection', they charge twice as much as the cheap guys, and do the absolute minimum for it, also, with service contracts (breakdown cover), they include an annual inspection, only you find that you have to phone THEM to get them out, they also install the cheapest boilers available to them at the time, and contract much of the work out. There is much more than this, but the point is, you don't always get what you pay for, sometimes (more often than most would realise), you pay for what they make you THINK you are getting, and the costs to them are offset by the quality to you. Out of all the heating, gas, and plumbing engineers in Hyndburn, I would only allow a small handful into my house, and 3 of them work alongside me.