Scottish Power Home Comfort cover problems

[maisiemonk]

I've had very similar problems. I pay £14.82 a month to cover my boiler and radiators. My heating went down on 19/12/11. An Engineer from KBFM came out on 21/12/11, said it was my burner and that the system was immediately dangerous. He disconnected my gas supply to the boiler and we had to wait a full month, until 19/1/12 to get it working again (temporary repair). In that full month we experienced 1no show; 3 lost burners; an Engineer showing up with a burner for a completely different boiler; an Engineer with the correct burner, but no compression union to reconnect my gas supply. It then took 5 more days to reconnect me, this time the Engineer had to tape the electrodes to stop them shorting on the boiler casing. he ordered several new parts for the boiler.

 

I have been left with a Heath Robinson system since 19/1/12. I have had to reset the boiler at least 40 times since then (some days it takes hours). I warned them on 20/1/12 that my 11 year old son was going in for an operation on 26/1/12 and needed 2 baths daily following the procedure, to promote healing. An Engineer was supposed to come between 11 -1 on 27/1/12 (confirmed that morning by Engineer) but, again, no show, no phonecalls. It took 3 calls for me to be finally told that parts had been lost again. Apparently the same Engineer will fit the parts tomorrow. I am not holding my breath.

 

My son has now on antibiotics for an infection in his wound site. I cannot blame SP for this point, but we have really struggled to keep the heating going for the hot water, and the poor mite has been really stressed out about the heating.

Although I have been in touch on several occasions with John Stagg (a director I believe) he believes the ball lies in Eager's court. I have a complaint number (3551100), this was generated on 4/1/12, I have received only auto responses.

I have had to fork out money for heaters, cancel trips over Xmas and New Year and could not have any visitors around. We also had to drill a hole from a disused shower room (cracked tray) to feed a trickling shower hose into the bath - our only source of hot water for a whole month. Filling a bath took an hour and 10 boiled kettles. I have also lost out on shifts -I am a nurse on the Nurse bank - due to the freezing conditions or waiting in for non existent repairs.

 

I have threatened to go to the papers and Umbusman to no avail. So far we have received £20 to cover phonecalls and empty promises.

.

[TeenieBee72]

I called Scottish Power to report a boiler fault last Wednesday - 08/02/2012 - I advised them that the boiler had failed completely. I also told them that I have a disabled son and was assured this would be treated as a priority. Their engineer came out on Thursday and advised what was wrong with the boiler - the PCB had failed (again, think this is the 7th time since we had the boiler fitted in 2004, but thats another rant for another time). Engineer, who was very nice, very helpful advised that he would send the fault report off that night and we should hear back from SP on Friday morning, afternoon at the latest. Friday morning, no call. Friday afternoon, no call. So I called them back myself. I was advised that they haven't received the engineers report. I pointed out that this was a priority as I have a disabled son, still no joy. I was getting a bit annoyed to say the least. The advisers on the other end of the phone, were unhelpful and patronising telling me that the repair wouldn't be done until next week - some priority eh?. They just couldn't seem to grasp how important for my son that we have heating. So I gave up before I really started yelling at someone. I called them again on Saturday to be told that the parts team(?) was closed over the weekend - obviously SP don't think that boilers breakdown out with office hours! I was very clear on the phone and explained exactly what I needed to be done. The first adviser then hung up on me, I then called back again, waiting for almost 20 minutes to get through, had to explain everything again. I asked for someone to call me back to discuss this priory case was told that no-one could call on Saturday but that someone would call on Sunday. Surprise, surprise no one called on Sunday. I called back this morning, explained everything again.Heard the same words repeated, yes the case is a priority, it's with the parts team, but they didn't know what part was needed. I asked why I never received a call back on Sunday and was told that call backs weren't done at the weekend again I reiterated how important this repair was and asked for another call back. Adviser explained that he'd send an email to his manager - heard this repeatedly and still no convinced! - and get a manager to call me back. I can tell you something as soon as this boiler is repaired I will be asking them to complete an inspection on the boiler to ensure that it is 100% and then I will be cancelling my Home Comfort plan and returning to Scottish Gas Home Care - was with them for years with no issues, but swapped to SP to save money! More fool me. This contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on, they've even gone against their own terms and conditions and out with their own service level agreements for a normal repair, never mind a priority repair. I'm going to call their customer service/complaints dept now and see if we can get this moved further on. Going on priors I doubt if well be any further forward! I will be writing a formal complaint to them, but again we'll see if it make any difference now.

[Lee&Sarah]

To any interested parties,

 

First of all we sympathise with you all. No hot water and heating is a nightmare when it's this cold!

 

We have joined the long list of customers who have now been without hot water and heating for weeks thanks to Scottish Power. Our breakdown was first reported on 14th Feb. I am told that the Engineer will be here today to fix it but I won't hold my breath as 3 previous 'confirmed' appointments have been missed or cancelled. We have two children 2 and 5 years old which has made the whole thing a nightmare, having to travel to friends and family for help!

 

The most ridiculous part (you're going to like this one) is that only our hot water was cutting out intermittently when we reported the fault. But when the Engineer first visited (within 24hrs of course to meet their promise) to inspect the boiler he left shortly after informing my wife that the main heat exchanger had gone and he would order the part today and return to fit it as soon as it arrived. What he failed to mention when he left was that he had now managed to completely knacker the whole system and we now had no hot water at all or any heating.

 

After this we have had pretty much all of the same issues that others have raised plus a few more. 30 mins to get through to advisors, lies about waiting for parts, being put on hold and then hanging up on us, promised call backs that never came taking days off work for arranged appointments only for Engineers not to turn up, excuses about the wrong part being sent.

 

I work in the construction industry and maybe am naturally sceptical about tradesmens stories so after being told the part (main heat exchanger) could take up to 5 days to come I checked myself. There msut be around 10 suppliers online that had it in stock which if ordered by 2pm could be delivered the next working day. I also rang a local Plumb Centre who also had one in stock for collection. ANYONE ELSE THE WAITING FOR PARTS STORY IS A LOAD OF BULL SO DON'T ACCEPT IT. The truth is if you have a main stream boiler less than 10 years old then pretty much any part can be sourced for delivery next day.

 

My guess would be that Scottish Power have driven their sub-contractors costs (Carillion Energy Service in our case) down so much that the only way they can manage to meet their obligations for the prices they tendered is to have low quality Engineers with huge workloads working only normal working hours. The emergency cases (initial report of fault) always take precedence so that they turn up within their promised 24 hours and once they have made the initial visit you join the back of a huge que to get the repair works done.

 

We are going to make a claim against Scottish Power for the inconvenience we have been caused over and above a reasonable 3 days for the repairs plus the wages I have lost in work. We have also registered a complaint with X-Ray (only in Wales) and Watchdog. We urge you all to do the same and claim and complain to these people. If enough people do this, then they will be forced to face up to their failings and we may all get some compensation.

 

Thanks

 

Lee & Sarah

[Mrs Winn]

Hi Philipadrian

Your story is eerily familiar. We were left without hot water by Scottish Power from 9th December 2011 to 1st Feb 2012, when another engineer deigned to visit, made matters worse, and then spent a further 10 days without either heat or hot water until we gave up in sheer anger and frustration and got Scottish Hydro to look at the boiler. They came out within 24 hours and sorted the problems, Night and Day contrast in customer care.

We spent many days at home waiting for calls or for engineers who did not show up, and one who showed up with the wrong parts. I now have high blood pressure which was not a problem before! They do not seem to realise that its not just being cold that's the issue it's the frustration of dealing with them!

Did you ever get any compensation?

[jack47]

I have an Scottish Power Online Platinum Fixed Energy Plan.

 

Which includes Home Comfort Platinum cover

 

 

 

 

 

The following is a brief description of what as happen in the past week.

 

 

 

Fri 16/3/12

 

Called Scottish Power to report that the Central Heating over flow was running

 

 

 

Sat 17/3/12

 

An Engineer called had a quick look and informed us that he could not repair the fault today.

 

But he would tell his firm about the situation and they would contact me, to arrange for the

 

A time for fault to be repaired.

 

 

 

Mon 19/3/12

 

I received a phone call from the contractor saying they do no longer do work for Scottish Power.

 

Therefore they will not complete the repair. So I called Scottish Power and tried to inform them

 

Of my situation .After speaking to 5 different departments and 7 People. Arrangements where finally made for an engineer to call the next day Tuesday20/2/11

 

 

 

Tues 20/3/12

 

An engineer called informed me that the cause of the over flow running may be in the

 

Boiler. Because of cupboard support needed to be removed. He could not access the boiler.

 

He left saying inform Scottish power when the boiler is made

 

Accessible. The required work was carried out and Scottish power

 

Informed of this on the evening of Tues 20/3/12 and they said

 

Arrangements will be made for the engineer to call next day

 

 

 

Wed 21/3/12

 

Stayed in all day no sign of any engineer.Called Scottish power and they said

 

That they had no record of making any appointment for Wed

 

22/3/12. They also told me that a manager would decide

 

On what action was required But there was no manager available

 

until 8.00 am Thurs 22/3/12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thurs 22/3/12

 

Having not heard from Scottish power all morning . I called them to arranged time for engineer to call. engineer came adjusted Central system this seemed to work. The engineer told me if the over flow starts

 

To run again inform Scottish Power

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fri . 23 /3 /12

 

The same fault on central heating again. Called Scottish Power in the morning,

 

And again in the afternoon both times they said they would call back with a time for an engineer

 

To look again at the fault. Still waiting for a call.

 

 

 

Sat 24/3/2012

 

Central Heating overflow still running. Heard nothing from ScottishPower

 

 

 

We are both disabled over 60s andboth recovering from major surgery

 

And we have no form of Heating .

 

Can you tell me what’s going on please???????

Edited March 25, 2012 by jack47

[ihateyes]

they are rubbish. the use subbies.... no one know what the other person is doing.

 

go elsewhere. they never come with parts either.

[Mrs Winn]

Dear Jack42

My advice would be to change to another company for your boiler cover immediately. We were left by Scottish Power for 9 weeks without hot water in December and January then another 10 days without heat or hot water. Then changed to Scottish Hydro who do not sub contract out the engineer work. Their customer service is excellent and they had an engineer out within 24 hours.

The platimun fixed energy plan does provide good value fixed price energy, but their boiler cover is not worth the paper its written on.

[jack47]

Thank you for all the information andadvice.

I decided to get an independent gasengineer, ( British Gas )

To access what was required to repairmy central

Heating.

I called British Gas on Monday 26/03/12at 10.00 am

And they where on site ( my place ) by 1.50 pm the same day.

While they ( British Gas ) whereattending to the repair.

I received a call from Scottish Powerinforming me that they

Could not repair my central heatingbecause the fault was

Due to the system been incorrectly installed.

At 2.20 pm less than one hour since theyarrived British had repaired my central heating and give me a written reportthat stated the system was now in good working order and had been correctlyinstalled.

I informed Scottish Power about thisand now I wait to see what will

Be the outcome.

John A White

( Harrogate )

[ihateyes]

Thank you for all the information andadvice.

 

I decided to get an independent gasengineer, ( British Gas )

 

To access what was required to repairmy central

 

Heating.

 

I called British Gas on Monday 26/03/12at 10.00 am

 

And they where on site ( my place ) by 1.50 pm the same day.

 

While they ( British Gas ) whereattending to the repair.

 

I received a call from Scottish Powerinforming me that they

 

Could not repair my central heatingbecause the fault was

 

Due to the system been incorrectly installed.

 

At 2.20 pm less than one hour since theyarrived British had repaired my central heating and give me a written reportthat stated the system was now in good working order and had been correctlyinstalled.

 

I informed Scottish Power about thisand now I wait to see what will

 

Be the outcome.

 

 

 

John A White

 

( Harrogate )

 

 

 

 

DOnt expect too much.

 

The muppets in SP dont have a clue about gas. They only go by what the SUB CONTRACTOR says.

The have no engineers or Gas Safe managers.

 

The sorry fact is SP only pay these subbies buttons, so whenever a big job comes up the Subbie will use a feeble excuse such as incorrectly installed. This gets them out of the job. they report this to SP who will take the engineers word.

[Desparately cold and fed]

We opted for the "free" boiler cover/service in return for the new fixed rate tariff.

Oh what a mistake.

"They" came to service our boiler on 9th March. All ok according to the engineer.(no 1)

A few days later they ring to say your part is in ...what part?...advisory part we will fit.OK heating /boiler all working fine .

Another sub contractor (no 2) comes to fit this part..says another part crumbled so went to van to get replacement..he said .Says he has checked all working ok. How i wished Id checked the rads while he was there..that evening ,switched on ..nothing ...no heat /hot water .

Next day ,after much hassle ,partner loses 1/2 days pay ,engineer (no3) arrives and says he needs to order part.

7 days later heard nothing.

Phoned City Technical Services who said they emailed Scottish power the next day to say the part is obsolete.Also told me they employ all there staff but then admitted that theyd used subcontractors too.This is evident from the different names on the vans.

SP say no email received from Citytechnical Services. They will look into it ,escalate it etc etc etc ..

Now been without heating /hot water 11 days. My baby grandaughter is coming to stay for Easter and this situation is so stressful.

We had a perfectly working boiler ,which SP sub contractors have now wrecked .Endless phone calls, stress ,different people passing the buck and non returned calls.

Where will it end.????

Reading this forum ,i wish i knew then what i know now.

There must be tv programmes that would like to highlight these cases?

There always the Energy Ombudsman i suppose ...

Desparately cold and so so fed up.

[jack47]

We opted for the "free" boiler cover/service in return for the new fixed rate tariff.

Oh what a mistake.

"They" came to service our boiler on 9th March. All ok according to the engineer.(no 1)

A few days later they ring to say your part is in ...what part?...advisory part we will fit.OK heating /boiler all working fine .

Another sub contractor (no 2) comes to fit this part..says another part crumbled so went to van to get replacement..he said .Says he has checked all working ok. How i wished Id checked the rads while he was there..that evening ,switched on ..nothing ...no heat /hot water .

Next day ,after much hassle ,partner loses 1/2 days pay ,engineer (no3) arrives and says he needs to order part.

7 days later heard nothing.

Phoned City Technical Services who said they emailed Scottish power the next day to say the part is obsolete.Also told me they employ all there staff but then admitted that theyd used subcontractors too.This is evident from the different names on the vans.

SP say no email received from Citytechnical Services. They will look into it ,escalate it etc etc etc ..

Now been without heating /hot water 11 days. My baby grandaughter is coming to stay for Easter and this situation is so stressful.

We had a perfectly working boiler ,which SP sub contractors have now wrecked .Endless phone calls, stress ,different people passing the buck and non returned calls.

Where will it end.????

Reading this forum ,i wish i knew then what i know now.

There must be tv programmes that would like to highlight these cases?

There always the Energy Ombudsman i suppose ...

Desparately cold and so so fed up.

 

Hi

Try this number 0845 2700053 office hours it is a direct line to somebody who as some say

 

Good Luck

[Desparately cold and fed]

Thanks jack47 ..i will keep that number ready.We should have had a promised call Friday, to tell us the outcome of a senior technicians (from the company that have wrecked the boiler ..not even an independant technician!)visit last Thurs evening . No call so far ..surprised ? no !

Have spent all weekend trying to keep the house warm,with electric heaters, for my 5month old grandaughter ....have been unable to dry her dribbly wet bibs and clothes or do any washing as no way of drying it.

The saga will resume tomorrow....

[Mrs Winn]

Dear Cold and Fed up

I have been through exactly what you are describing. 9 weeks without hot water and then another 10 days in february without heat or hot water while Scottish Power and their subcontractors drove us round the bend.

My advice is change away from Scottish Power now and get a competent boiler servicing company. Have heard good reviews for British Gas and I can recommend Scottish and Southern Energy.

The Ombudsman cannot help you in this situation, (see their reply to me below) they have details on their website of what you cannot compain about, and although bioler service is not on that list, this is one of the issues they will not address.... I quote from their letter to me

"Dear Mrs Winn

Thank you for your email received on 24 February 2012.

Although the list does not specify that we cannot deal with complaints about boiler servicing, the

list is not exhaustive and is simply there to explain some of the complaints we cannot look at.

As the nature of your complaint is regarding boiler servicing, we are unable to investigate any

complaints surrounding that. Therefore, the issues you describe are not ones that the Ombudsman can investigate.

Yours sincerely ....etc"

[shell31]

I was horrified to read all the complaints people have had on here, I can't believe after 2 years people like myself and all you that have posted on here are still having the same problems. I have kept a diary 5 pages long as all our problems stem from the 12 month check on 30th August 2012 when all was supposed to be perfect, little did we realise when we switched heating on 5 weeks later on the 7th October our nightmare would begin, it is now 12 weeks later and problem still isn't sorted and they are now saying it may need flushing out after several parts have been so called replaced on a couple of occassions. We have also had many incompetent engineers out who replace parts and then we are having same parts replaced again a couple of weeks later, we have lost countless time off work and money spent on phone calls constantly having to chase them up because they don't get back to you. I have complained several times and put in an official complaint but it doesn't seem to make much difference, we have 4 kids in the house from 5 to 16 but they are happy to leave us with no hot water and heating and water dripping out the boiler for 4 days, just because the children aren't under 6 months old or we don't have anyone over the age of 60 yrs old living with us it isn't an emergency, after all we had only had a broken boiler for 10 weeks at this point and was supposed to have been fixed and checked by a so called inspector to make sure all the work had been done correctly only for it to break down completely less than 24 hours later. They are the biggest joke around and will certainly be losing my business very shortly and I would recommend no one touch them with a barge pole. All the money I have lost in wasted energy, time off work, phone calls, I could have got an engineer out to fix it in less than 12 weeks and still counting.

[Mrs Winn]

We finally changed our gas and electricity to another supplier, we were so sick and tired of Scottish Power. In the end I felt sorry for the person on the end of my emails and phone calls. They seemed powerless to help!! However, we eventually got £200 compensation from them. Did not even cover loss of earnings from all the days off work as you have also found. If you are offered compensation just take it and change supplier!!

 

We finally had our boiler replaced, and the advice we were given by the heating engineer who did that job, was to contact the maker of the boiler via their website and get a heating engineer via the company who manufactures the boiler. They will often have obsolete parts and these engineers will have experience of servicing the type of boiler you have. The Scottish Power heating engineers are sub contracted, do not have training on any specific type of boiler, and in my experience were often young lads who had little boiler servicing experience full stop, hence the catalogue of errors from Scottish Power so-called 'Home Comfort'. Hope this nightmare ends soon for you!

[Desparately cold and fed]

We finally changed our gas and electricity to another supplier, we were so sick and tired of Scottish Power. In the end I felt sorry for the person on the end of my emails and phone calls. They seemed powerless to help!! However, we eventually got £200 compensation from them. Did not even cover loss of earnings from all the days off work as you have also found. If you are offered compensation just take it and change supplier!!

 

We finally had our boiler replaced, and the advice we were given by the heating engineer who did that job, was to contact the maker of the boiler via their website and get a heating engineer via the company who manufactures the boiler. They will often have obsolete parts and these engineers will have experience of servicing the type of boiler you have. The Scottish Power heating engineers are sub contracted, do not have training on any specific type of boiler, and in my experience were often young lads who had little boiler servicing experience full stop, hence the catalogue of errors from Scottish Power so-called 'Home Comfort'. Hope this nightmare ends soon for you!

 

 

Hi We eventually had a visit from a more knowledgeable engineer ..many weeks after they first upset/ damaged the bolier ...we accepted £400 compensation from them ..we have stayed with them but they will Not be setting foot over our doorstep to touch our boiler ever again ..even though this is included in our tariff. We began to feel we would go insane from the constant lies and evading tatics but all we can say is persevere and dont give up!

[Zoejcksn]

Evening all

 

Ok Scottish power.... I have boiler care with them after switching from British gas( wish I hadn't now)

Since November 2012 my boiler has faulted when producing hot water.

Engender visited nothing wrong will have to get worse before we can mend it!

Called back few weeks later same problem , no fault found! So the engender sticks in screwdriver in the water pump ( witnessed by my other half) to stop it going! He the decides it needs a new pump.

Engineer fails to show up on day after waiting 8 till 6 he claimed he did despite me and two girls who work for me were here all days....

New pump installed fault still happens and to further to it it now faults and stops the heating coming on!

 

Boiler still faults so the send a senior engineer out he decides it needs flushing..... So refused to do any thing else.

Next the boiler starts to leak due to senior engineer not re assembling it correctly.....

After many phone calls over a weekend they finally attend to fix the leak. This engineer was the same one who came out the second time and stated the system did not need flushing the water was clean as far as he was concerned!!!

We consulted an independent plumber he was also in the same option on it did not need a flush and the engineers had not diagnosed the problem correctly.

So now the boiler is faulting still no hot water or heating with out resetting it!

The boiler is now emptying its self outside via the same pipe which was leaking before due to engineer visit.

Called them to get them out again on Sunday they will be here Wednesday ok i said.

Now the boiler is empty and I have to keep topping pressure up to get hot water or heating.

I call them back to try get them out today! I will call you back they say did they ... No......

I call them at 10 on the emergancy help line as I now find the water running out side! And the boiler is off again!

They tried to call but it was engaged! I have answer phones on both my mobile and home number no message left

 

So with a 4 year old I now have no heating or hot water. Come tomorrow I will have to wait between 8-6 for them to come as a childminders I will have 9 children under the age of 5 in my house with no hot waters or intermittent heating!

 

Of which they are fully aware and there reply is sorry cant help .... Engineer will be there tomorrow......

To which I reply ok who do I complains to ... He said me ... I have done that when the engineer failed to turn up and had to reply to that.

 

There engineers are useless what am I paying them for?

[ScottishPower Company Rep]

Hi, I'm one of the ScottishPower company reps on this forum. I'm really sorry to hear about the problems that you have had. Can you email account details to [email protected] and I'll get the situation investigated. Gerry

[Zoejcksn]

Have emailed you

[freemee]

I have been without heating or hot water for three weeks now, my problem started back in December, but up to my boiler being set on fire during a repair did have limited heating and hot water.

The management there are a joke, they never call you back when they promise to keep you informed. And mention to the call staff you want to speak to someone senior and they turn into blubbering wrecks! and can never find them?

Can I please have someone senior from this dreadful company phone me back....as promised.

You know who I am....

[ScottishPower Company Rep]

Hi, I am one of the ScottishPower official company reps on this forum. I 'm very sorry to hear about these problems. Can you please email me some contact details & I will escalate. [email protected]

 

Regards

 

Gerry

[freemee]

Hi Gerry,

I have now sent my complaint to the Customer Service Director by registered mail. I have tried my best to deal with your people there and have been passed to the escalating team and the complaints team and everyone else.

[Zoejcksn]

Ok how many weeks on now and still not solved! Given the run around still. Complaints made to the boiler care service phone number not followed up only reason it's moved on is because I commented in here!!

Since then been told to leave boiler off ( so no heating or hot water again) contractor needs to see it at fault ! Ok did that he comes and is none the wiser! Has to go off in front of his eyes so he can see why!?!? And he can put parts in!! Ok do you have any parts?? No he said!!!

Ok they say nothing they can do! Now a second opinion is been sought from another Scottish power contracto so I ring up when it goes off (7 pm Friday) ok will get back to you within 12 hours. 930 sat morning no call. So I call the emergency help line again!! Put me on hold and ring the second opinion company they won't be out this weekend so reset it. I asked was any one actually going to call me and tell me this , they reply that the contractor had tried to call my land line ( which they didn't)

 

Saturday

Contractor rings me trying to book in to look at the boiler on Monday. But as I have rest it he won't come out! He was under the impression it was still off!! Despite Scottish power telling me to reset it!

I then asked him if he tried to call me last night answer no he only got the call this morning to come and see me!

 

What on earth scottish power are playing at I don't know but there customer service is terrible and I am still with a boiler that has a fault!!!

 

Sort your self

[cdy]

Hi all,

 

Like many who have posted in the thread previously, I have found myself proverbially-kicking myself for changing providers to save a few quid. (Joined SP after 3 yrs as a Home Serve customer, and always had faultless service).

 

I reported a boiler fault on Tues 5th March, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised that an engineer was immediately sent to my home to investigate. Regrettably the engineer was unable to repair the boiler because parts were needed. I was advised that SP aims to resolve all boiler faults within 2 working days, but that repairs may take 5 days if parts are necessary. This, of course, is perfectly understandable.

 

However, I have now been without hot water and/or central heating for 8 days and recent contact with SP advises that I have to wait close to another week before the repair can be attempted. Given that the current outdoor temperature is below freezing, and the indoor temperature is only 7 degrees, according to my room thermostat, my wife, child, and I are struggling, to say the least. I have advised SP that they may wish to reconsider the wording of their '5 day guarantee', which is baseless. In fact, it only applies from the date that SP 'authorise' the engineer's order for parts, and this can take days, weeks even. It is SP's 'get-out-of-jail' card. However, after looking through my policy details I can't find any mention of this 'loophole', leading me to believe it may actually contravene advertising standards. So much for 8.2 of their T&Cs - 'emergency response' to breakdowns when policy-holders have no heating or hot water!

 

Yes, I am a 'newbie', but I have been a lurker for many years. I'm not intending to scaremonger here, but a word of warning to others; if it's a case of paying a tried-and-tested, reliable provider a slightly higher premium to renew or to save a few quid (about a tenner in my case) to join SP, pay the extra and stay with your current provider. (After haggling them down from the price on the renewal of course!) I really regret my decision to leave Vaillant/HomeServe.

[cdy]

After 2 weeks without hot water or heating, SP has agreed to offer some form of compensation. (They've agreed to cover the cost of 2 electrical heaters I was forced to purchase.) Nevertheless, we remain without hot water and central heating. The boiler was supposed to have been repaired early last week 'at the latest' ... It's now 'estimated' that it'll be repaired end of this week.

Certainly, I am thankful that SP has agreed to compensate me for the purchase I made, but, nevertheless, I'll be returning to Vaillant/Home Serve when my SP contract expires in Nov.