My boiler problems started at the end of January this year with an engineer misdiagnosing the problem. At that time I had no heating or hot water although by some miracle the heating started working again. I am now 12 weeks on since my complaint was officially escalated with Scottish Power, but prior to that my family and I went 5 weeks without hot water. I was on the phone constantly during that time as nobody had the decency to keep me informed without my first contacting them. Today I am furious beyond words. After my complaint was closed several weeks back by 'sierra' the contracted service company without my knowledge, I have now been told by home comfort that they are unwilling to compensate me at all for the time we were without hot water. This includes days off work my husband and I, on several occasions, took unpaid, to meet engineers who either didn't turn up as they weren't booked in, sent to other jobs or had the wrong parts. I had to cancel my birthday meal with my family as an engineer was supposed to be with me on the afternoon of 27th Feb to fix boiler but wasn't here until after 6pm then wasn't finished until after 11pm at which point he could not continue because another fault occurred with the boiler (suddenly the motor which had worked until that point as our heating was running, suddenly wouldn't work, go figure). Boiler finally fixed on Friday 1st March, the day I came home from hospital after an op. Happy to have hot water but frustrated that it took so long. I am so angry that this could not have been dealt with more efficiently and even more so that they are being completely unreasonable where my request for compensation is concerned. I have 2 young children who had to live in a house without hot water for 5 weeks, 1 of whom is only 2 years old. I had to go begging to the neighbours whenever I needed to bath my kids. Luckily my eldest was able to shower as we have an electric shower in the downstairs bathroom. In order to wash my kids hands after going to the toilet, I had to boil the kettle and fill the sink that way. We are not a third world nation and we pay good money to have these services supplied to us, it is not free and I am not a charity case, I just want whats owed to me. I am extremely disheartened to see that I am not the only case like this on this forum. I have cancelled my Home comfort cover and I'm reinstating my 'shield' cover with Scottish Hydro as of today. I wish I had never changed cover to save a few measly quid as all it has done is brought me stress and reduced me to tears on more than 1 occasion, not to mention wages for the time off work. It sounds as though the contractors used by SP are not doing the job they should be and the same goes for the appalling customer services. The only redeeming feature has been 2 lovely people from complaints in Scotland and England, June and Bradley. I just wish they could solve this ongoing problem for me without the need for the too-ing and fro-ing that has been going on for so long. Why is this so difficult? provide me with some money back for all the stress and upset it has caused. As for the girl I spoke to today from Home Comfort, clearly you have absolutely no idea what it is to be a mother and watch a toddler who is being potty trained, try to wash his hands in freezing water with sub-zero temperatures outside. Try telling kids to wait a few minutes while you boil some water for them to get washed. Absolutely shocking treatment.