Hi

I have a policy from Scottish Power that covers Central Heating Boiler repairs but have been without my central heating since 28/12/2010. Main problems appear to be with them using sub-contractors who are incompetent. Has anyone else experienced these same problems please?

Hi DJB,

Welcome to CAG.

In what way?

have you had to call numerous times?

is it for the same 'fault'?

Hi djb29

I am sorry to hear about your situation. Have you contacted the boiler maintenance company? What advise / information have you been given so far?

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

Hi,

I have had months of problems with Scottish Power and their sub contactors WarmSure/ Eaga. I have had no heating since December 20th. The problems stem from woefully incmpotent organisation from top to bottom. The customer services team are just ok although there are too many numbers to call and you end up giving your security details two or three times, put on hold to different people so by the time your query is looked into you've wasted 10 minutes already. The main issue is with the engineers themselves. I've had engineers who have brought the wrong parts, noted down the wrong serial numbers of parts and therefore have had to re book them days later. I've taken time off work and then received a call saying they are not coming at all because their last job has taken so much time. Their time windows are 8 in the morning till 4.30 pm and have hd them turn up at 8.30 PM ( with the wrong parts ). The last engineer told me he has fixed the boiler so it is working perfectly but not the heating! I need a power flush, something that Scottish Power do not do. The customer services department have told me their service has been " embarrassing " and consequently I have left them. The irony is I could have got a good independent boiler repair person to come weeks ago. There's no point in having an emergency number to call for boiler breakdown if one month later there is still no heating and it has not been fixed. Just ridiculous and I advise you to not put up with this company as they take your money evry month but provide no real care. Let me know how you get on. By the way I've ommitted most of the details of just how bad this has been as I could write an essay on here!

Hi philipadriaan

This kind of service is simply not good enough and this must be investigated. Do you currently have an ongoing investigation in this matter? If you do not, please send me a PM with your details and I will make sure a thorough investigation is carried out and to make sure you get your heating back on as soon as possible.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

Hi Colin,

Thank you for your concern. Apparently an investigation has been launched although I haven't even had an acknowledgment of my complaint and cancellation of my direct debit so at this end I don't even know if my thoughts and views have actually been taken on. If Scottish Power's complaints procedure is anything like their service I may be in for a long wait. The problem when you sub contract engineers and other companies is that when they go wrong everybody hides behind the other so all I have got from Warmsure, on behalf of Scottish Power and on behalf of Orion is apologies. When you have heard 20 or so apologies and nothing has been done to rectify something you begin to think the apology is irrelevant. Once companies start providing real care to their customers who have already paid them things will change, but at the moment, with all too many businesses, once they have your money in the bank they tend to drop their service immeasurably. That's just my experience, and I'm sick of it. Also its the good people on the customer service desks who get the brunt of anger purely because there really is no one else to turn to.

Finally, from an organisational point of view, if Scottish Power would like to improve their service and make this complaint a thing of the past, I would suggest keeping things simple. Telephone numbers that are clearly stated with the minimum number of options, sub contractors who are reading from the same page where direct lines of communication are open, logs of up to date customer queries that are closed once a job has been done so that the customer does not need to have to follow up their own issue. It sounds simple and yet SP have messed this up badly.

Hi

I have a policy from Scottish Power that covers Central Heating Boiler repairs but have been without my central heating since 28/12/2010. Main problems appear to be with them using sub-contractors who are incompetent. Has anyone else experienced these same problems please?

___________________________________________________________________________________

I have had an near identical experience. Our family includes my mother-in-law, diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and a 6 year old child. We have now been without central heating in mid-winter for 10 days. We have been waiting over a week for parts being ordered, there was another 2 day delay between confirmation they had arrived and an engineer being available to install them. When the engineer finally came to install them, you guessed it, they were the wrong parts. The same issue with incompetent sub-contracters, even this company's own engineer described this kind of delay in winter as, "completely unacceptable."

Since the engineer confirmed that either he or his manager would phone with an update, we have heard nothing. Contacting the company direct is a frustrating, time consuming experience and has only resulted in some vague reference to the "correct" part being ordered. No time scale about how long our family are expected to do without central heating in mid-winter?

I now also have a similar dilemma, do I stick with this company and take the risk that this could go on for the same amout of time or even longer. Or, do I bring in a professional company to fix the boiler, possibly risking longer delays, if they do not have the parts on standby and they also have to order them. Right now, all I am interested in is whatever option will get central heating back on for my family. However, having paid for this cover, I should not be in the position of having to choose between these two options.

Hi philipadriaan and mauled

These issues should be highlighted to us immediately and we should be keeping you updated with the progress of your complaint. Look at our internal complaints procedure to get this matter addressed as soon as possible.

http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/support-centre/service-and-standards/complaints.aspx

Again, I can investigate for you as well so drop me a PM if you wish.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

spons

Hi Colin,

Well I still have not heard anything more than three weeks after my complaint. Please look into my investigation ( investigating the investigation! has it really come to this?! it's jut ridiculous. ) What do you need from me and do I just give you a reference number on this forum? . Please advise.

As for Mauled, I totally sympathise and wonder what has become of your situation. Taking out this sort of cover must always negate the need for these sort of dilemas. We all have, at times difficult personal situations and I sympathise with yours. My partner is 5 months pregnant and the stress of this is really difficult to take, on top of the fact we have been without heating in the coldest part of the year for 5 weeks. These personal and massive issues are problems that Scottish Power does not know but affect most families so instead of seeing customers as commodities, maybe if they could empathise that its not just another customer complaining about their heating and more about the lives that each family leads in the face of heating issues ( a basic right in this day and age and one that we all pay for ), then they would be more urgent and accommodating in their ree.

Hi philipadriaan

PM me your details and I will find out what is happening with your complaint. When a complaint is logged you should be kept up to date with the progress and also made aware of the potential timescales. To have heard nothing after 3 weeks in just not acceptable and I sincerely apologise for this. Once I have your details, I will be able to confirm whether we have received notification of your situation and confirm what actions are being taken.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

Hi,

My 71 year old mum has been without heating for 18 days (and will be indefinitely) and has been constantly on the phone and getting nowhere. Initially she was told that the engineer would order the part, she phoned and was told it had been ordered, phoned a week later to check as she hadn't heard anything and was told that no part had been ordered! She was then told that the part would be ordered there and then but when she phoned the next day was told it hadn't been ordered. She has phoned numerous times but the upshot of it is, they ordered the wrong part and have had to reorder. Nobody can give her any guarantees of when her boiler will be fixed, she can never get a straight story, nobody takes responsibility and there is an absence of any managers willing to take on her issue. A manager did speak with her but told her the 'parts' dept would phone her back. When they phoned back, she told him that another weekend without heating was unacceptable, he said there was nothing he could do about it! She has also had to cancel a visit from my brother and his new baby as the house is freezing. Disgraceful service and Scottish Power should be ashamed of treating a pensioner in this way.

Hi Angie1972,

Sorry to hear about the problems your mum is having. Can you e-mail me with your mum's address details and a contact number for her and I will ensure this is escalated.

[email protected]

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

Hi,

I have sent a message to this e-mail address with my mum's details. She has already made a complaint but to no avail.

Regards,

Angela

Hi Angie1972,

I have escalated this for you this morning so fingers crossed you get a positive result.

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

Dear Scottish Power

I wanted to write to express my deep dissatisfaction with the level of service offered by home comfort.

We have been without any heating and hot water since last Friday. Living in these conditions during winter is making home life almost impossible.

The level of communication and respect when contacting the call centre is unacceptable.

Waiting time for calls to be answered are over 30 mins.

Advisors don't call back when the say them will.

I called on Friday when their systems were down and was promised a call back, I am still waiting for this to happen.

I have requested to speak to a supervisor, I am still waiting for this to happen.

The team who answer the calls are rude and unhelpful. They don't seem to be empowered to solve any customer service issues.

I feel it is unacceptable that our replacement parts HAVE come in, yet they "can't fit me in until next tuesday, as they have more important jobs to complete first"

We have had a number of engineers to our home, they leave before testing the system telling us that everything is working fine, then we find nothing is still working. How is this acceptable? When I called the helpline to report this, I get screamed up telling me the problem has been sorted.

We can't even have the COLD water turned on in our home, as when we do water floods out the bottom of our boiler, so when we want to use the toilet we have to turn on the water then run and turn it off again before it causes any more damage to our home. Water has already leaked though the ceiling into the room below.

I truly believe that you can't accept customers to live like this.

Iain

Hi Iain_is_freezing_cold

I have received your e-mail and will escalate your complaint today.

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

Dear Scottish Power

** Update of the below Complaint**

I have not received any communication from SP what so ever, this says everything about the poor level of service that you offer your customers.

I can't believe that you are letting me live in these conditions.

I called HomeCare and was told the parts were in and booked an engineer to fit at the next free appointment - Tuesday 20th.

I called the day before - Monday to confirm the appointment and to check all 4 parts were in stock - YES I'm told.

I receive a telephone call from the engineer in the morning confirming the appointment at between 3-5pm.

I book the time off work - unpaid.

At 4:45pm after I called SP, I get a call back to tell me that the engineer doesn't have the parts and so wont be coming, it actually turns out that NO parts have been ordered yet, so after waiting 2 weeks i'm not further.

I have spent the rest of the afternoon, and evening, being transferred from one department to another to try and get any answers about what is happening, I have to say that everyone in your call centres are so rude and unhelpful.

I'm told by SP Customer Services is nothing to do with them.

I'm told by HomeComfort that they have no answers for me?

PLEASE CAN YOU HELP ME?

I wanted to write to express my deep dissatisfaction with the level of service offered by home comfort.

We have been without any heating and hot water since last Friday. Living in these conditions during winter is making home life almost impossible.

The level of communication and respect when contacting the call centre is unacceptable.

Waiting time for calls to be answered are over 30 mins.

Advisors don't call back when the say them will.

I called on Friday when their systems were down and was promised a call back, I am still waiting for this to happen.

I have requested to speak to a supervisor, I am still waiting for this to happen.

The team who answer the calls are rude and unhelpful. They don't seem to be empowered to solve any customer service issues.

I feel it is unacceptable that our replacement parts HAVE come in, yet they "can't fit me in until next tuesday, as they have more important jobs to complete first"

We have had a number of engineers to our home, they leave before testing the system telling us that everything is working fine, then we find nothing is still working. How is this acceptable? When I called the helpline to report this, I get screamed up telling me the problem has been sorted.

We can't even have the COLD water turned on in our home, as when we do water floods out the bottom of our boiler, so when we want to use the toilet we have to turn on the water then run and turn it off again before it causes any more damage to our home. Water has already leaked though the ceiling into the room below.

I truly believe that you can't accept customers to live like this.

Iain

no still not heard anything....

still no reply...

I've only been without hot water since the 4th December 2011 it took until the 13th for an engineer to come and tell me a new board was needed it then took until the 20th, after many phone calls because they do not call, for another engineer to arrive and after about an hour he told me he had fixed it. When he left I tried the hot water to find it was still cold, luckily I had his mobile number so I called him "Oh yes", he said "I need to order another part". Why did he tell me it was fixed?. I called HIS office to be told I would have to call Scottish Power which I did to be told another part will need to be ordered and they would call me. On the 24th I called SP, funny that, NO, they didn't call me!!!!. I was told it takes 2 to 5 days to get the parts in, I said I will go round the corner, buy the parts and their engineer can fit them OH NO thats against policy and they would call me on the 28th to confirm the new part had arrived. On the 29th I called THEM, I had forgotten they do not keep their word, Yes the part had just come in and an engineer could call on Tuesday 3rd January 2012. If it is not fixed this time I will get a proper company in, get it fixed and bill SP for the cost of the repair and the cost of losing 3 days pay. I did make an official complaint to SP customer services who were also going to call me on the 28th December 2011 = still waiting, can't be bothered with them anymore, I will go elsewhere to a proper company - TO ANY COMPANY BAR SP or their associates.

Hi

I too am having similar problems with Scottish Power's boiler cover.

I am currently unable to get hot water out of my system. I have to turn the hot water off for 15seconds, turn it on again and maybe hot water will come out.

An engineer was originally meant to come on the 28th December but got a phone call saying that the engineer was stuck on another job. I had to take a day off unpaid due to the engineer visit. I thought, fair enough this happens, and was then rebooked for the 3rd January.

I had to take another day off from work unpaid. I called in the morning at approx 09:20 to make sure an engineer was visiting and was told that the engineer had some jobs in the Epsom area and would be getting the parts. I requested that I get a phone call advising me of an estimated time of arrival. I received none. At 15:20, I called and was told that the engineer’s phone had gone to voicemail and that a message was left to call the office and me with an update. At 16:50 I called and spoke to Carlos who said that he would be calling the planning dept and fine out where the engineer was. He said he would call back in 10minutes. by 17:15 I had no call back, so again I called and spoke to Julie who call the engineer only to be told that the engineer has not received the parts. Why was this not told to me at 3pm!!!! I was told that this would be raised to the parts dept and would get a phone call advising of a rebooked appointment. On the 4th I had no call. I gave Scottish Power a couple of days in case the parts had to be re-ordered in.

I called yesterday (11th January) to be told that the parts were in (Again why couldn't anyone call to tell me!?!?!) and that an engineer could be booked to visit today. I accepted and asked the representative to tell the engineer to call me an hour before he was scheduled to come round as I was not going to take any more time off work.

Guess what... today came... today past... I got no phone call. I've been on the phone for 1/2hr trying to get through to someone to find out what happened. No one is answering.

How can a company operate like this? I was told the parts were ordered and with the engineer, a week later the engineer hasn't got the parts, why wasn't I told of this on the 3rd!

And again today, a third appointment where an engineer has failed to turn up!

Utterly disgraceful!

Just called SP and spoke to Alex who told me the that the engineer had marked the job as complete! Alex said he would be raising a complaint about the engineer and that the job would be recalled and a new appointment will be booked. He also advised he would call me back... let's see if I do get a call back.

Hi,

You are not alone - my boiler stopped working 15/01/12 - an engineer came out and diagnosed a failed PCB.

A second engineer came out a couple of days later and diagnosed the same problem.

One week after the breakdown they turned up with a new PCB which did not fix the boiler - obviously mis-diagnosed.

This engineer found some internal corrosion in the heat exchanger which had then caused an exit pipe to be blocked.

He then went on to say that it was beyond repair - this I find hard to believe as the boiler is only just 6 years old.

I then looked at the small print of the Scottish Power Terms & Conditions - it states that if a boiler is 'in their opinion' beyond repair

then it is not covered and a replacement is down to me.

What a brilliant let out clause - in short all they have to do is declare a boiler as being beyond economic repair and therefore they are not liable!

I have called Scottish Power on Mon 23rd, Tues 24th & today Wed 25th - each time I call I am told they have not had the report back from the maintenance company.

They then promise to make it high priority and escalate it internally - lip service - nothing happens.

I asked for the contact number of the maintenance company, so I could chase it - they would not give it to me!

Can someone suggest how I can actually get Scottish Power to take ownership and act in an ethical , reasonable & responsible manner?

Hello there. We do have a Scottish Power rep here who posted earlier in this thread. If you don't get replies soon you might consider posting on the Utilities forum where hopefully they will pick this up.

My best, HB

Hi donmac1962,

I dont normally deal with the boiler cover issues, however you can e-mail me with your details and I will make sure it gets to the correct team.

my e-mail address is [email protected]

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower