warmsure cover complaint

Kat_wwe

No wonder this company seems to be in trouble....I feel now that I am at least amongst company and not alone in this nightmare I am having.

I am in my 3rd week without hot water.

I have had 3 engineers separately sent out to me in the last 14 days by Warmsure/Homeserve.

• First engineer inspects my water cylinder and orders a part to replace a fault. It takes approx a week for the part to be in stock and for them to book a return visit to install the part.

• The second engineer arrives to install the part and tells me they ordered the wrong part. I subsequently am left waiting for another week whilst the correct part is ordered and to re-book a return visit.

• The third engineer arrives today and tells me that AGAIN they have ordered the wrong part??!?!?!

Firstly I can understand a mistake being made once but how can supposedly 'professional experts' order the wrong part twice now?? I even told them what part was needed and provided each engineer with the original installation manual as to how to build the thing?!

I now seem to be unable to make contact with Warmsure. After spending my lunch hour on hold I got through to a young girl who subsequently put me back on hold for another 10 minutes whilst she 'read through my notes' and then informed me she couldnt help but the 'planning department' could as they deal with ordering parts etc. She proceeded to 'transfer' me through to 'planning' where another young girl answered and, in a very suspiciously jovial voice, proceeded to say 'hello?, hello?, anyone there?' a couple of times before, conveniently for them as by this time I was really annoyed, hanging up.

I have spent what seems like hours on the phone trying to salvage some sort of clarity and solution to my hot water cylinder. I even know what part is required (new diverter valve) and have given serious thought to just ordering the darn thing myself.

I can not understand how they can leave someone without hot water for 3 weeks and not offer any sort of solution. There are 3 of us in our household and given the current weather situation it is utterly miserable to wash, shower, clean etc using stone cold water. I'm fed up of boiling kettles!

They appear to be paying the salaries of completely incompetent engineers who, I presume, create any opportunity to bill for another call-out rather then just fix the thing first time round.

So I am into week 3 with no hot water. I keep trying to contact Warmsure but feel utterly powerless as to how I can get them to just come and fix this once and for all. I am completely in their hands as to whenever they want to return and have the part 'in stock' part of me just wants to pay for a decent professional to fix this and say "sayonara" to the money paid into the policy.

Kat_wwe

Can you believe it has been another 4 days and I am yet to find any sort of conclusion with warmsure as to when I will have hot water again. I think I must have called them 10 times over the last 4 days. A few occassions I have had to give up after being on hold for near to 45 minutes a time. I eventually spoke to someone who said they would call me back with news. Well, he called me back, told me he had no news and that he would DEFINITELY call me back within 2 hours with a conclusion and an approx time/date they can return. The usual "totally unacceptable", "sincerely apologise" blah blah useless banter that call centre people are obliged to tell people

Did I hear back from Warmsure you ask? NO, I did not.

24 hours later I am on my second attempt today at calling Warmsure after aborting the first earlier on after 35 minutes on hold (during working hours I might add as they dont seem to be open after 5pm) its been 20 minutes on hold so far.

I am in a foot of snow at home and thank god we have heating, but it truly is miserable to have to wash and clean in cold water. Not to mention expensive as our hot water is essentially going down a waste pipe. To make matters worse our immersion is not functioning properly (something I also mentioned to warmsure) so we are completely held to ransom as to when these people decide to help us.

J--nB

In 2008 I was contacted by South Ribble Council that I may be entitled to a new boiler if incapacitated or a pensioner through Warm Front. I was granted funding for a new boiler which was replaced by HIS of Preston in March 2009. I was also given 2 years guarantee covered by Warm Sure. Under this cover I had a fault the following May when I contacted them on the 23rd May but it wasn't until the 27th that a Bosch Engineer came out to carry out the repair (not a Warm Sure engineer). In comparison to the service I have had over the previous 21 years with British Gas this was to me a bad response.
Since then they have carried out one service.
I did have a gas fire but I had to agree to have this disconnected to qualify for the grant so now I have no alternative heating and no hot water when the system is down.
Yesterday my boiler packed up on me so tried to phone Warm Sure numerous times on the number they had supplied in their paper work, after being cut off numerous times I tried the company which installed the system who gave me another telephone number which was not a freephone number. this just kept me waiting 5 minutes before cutting me off. I tried this a number of times. I then tried ringing the number for Bosch who last attended a fault they had a message that due to the high volume of calls the lines were closed. So was unable to contact anyone.
I must admit that I had no idea that there was a web site for WarmSure nothing was on the paper work or on the telephone then tonight when a friend experiencing the same problem with another make of boiler told me to look on the internet and there is a notice about pipes freezing due to the adverse weather conditions.
However I did have to venture out to the local shops and low and behold there was a Warm Sure engineer walking to his van. Obviously I said I had been trying desperately to contact them as my system was down. His reply was he couldn't get through either but could not attend to my problem without it going through the office. However I didn't give up.
He gave me another number to try and whilst he was putting his things away I persisted and explained what was wrong. He suggested I tried getting very hot water into the gutter where the pipe that takes the condensation to if it is iced up. He also confirmed that the job he had just attended had a problem in that he had to cut this same pipe due to it being full of ice. Obviously I couldn't do this so got someone else to risk their neck and sure enough it was solid ice.
How crazy is this that we are having these boilers fitted and when we need the warmth from our heating it packs up because the pipes can freeze which stops the boiler from working.
Surely this is a design fault and if it was a car they would be recalled for an adjustment. Surely in this bad weather for the elderly and infirm especially this can be as much a killer as a defective car. It isn't just the boiler systems that have been fitted under this grant scheme that are experiencing this problem so surely the government should step in and force the company's that are manufacturing these boilers either by grant or from their own savings be made to make some adjustments to the installed systems. After all we didn't use to have this problem with the old style systems.
This in my mind goes to prove to me that new technology is obviously not properly researched has surely these boilers are 'not fit for purpose'. I am sure I speak on behalf of many households experiencing the same problem at this time of adverse weather conditions. In fact I caught the end of an report on the BBC national news at lunch time showing a home that was having to have their pipe cut to release the ice built up in it.
Does any one have any idea's as to who to complain to for something to be done about this.
Maybe if a good number of people complain to the right place something can be actually done about this.
I am new to this forum so hope that I have done this correctly.

MrMoore

Well after reading all the above about the awful service from Warm Front, Warm Sure, Eaga or whatever fitted free central heaing systems I am wondering if it would be best to keep my old Baxi back boiler/gas fire heating system. On the other hand at least we will get some free radiaters and an Ideal boiler that may last from a few days up to a year by the sounds of it. I think I will have the system, but if I get the Warm Front run around I will have the boiler ripped out and replaced at my own expense. Or even have my old Baxi reconnected if it is still in place.

J--nB

Hi there, I noticed your reply and I guess with a little more information you may make a more informed decision.
My experience and that of others that I have spoke to with the problem of the pipe freezing appear to be with any make or model of the Condencing type boilers. No matter of make model or who has fitted them or supplied them be it through a government grant or out their own pocket. I know someone who paid out thousands for theirs after a lot of research a different model than mine in fact a Baxi and installed by British Gas and they also had the engineers over the cold period several times. Lucky they were able to get someone out. I guess at times like this its who you know rather than what you know. So to me it says that the manufacturers who designed this did not think of extreme cold weather which of course is when we need them. I hope this is of some help.

Cliffy44

Just an addition to what has been said.
In April this year my Mother in Law had a new boiler fitted (Ideal ISAR HE24) under the warm front grant scheme. unfortunately she passed away shortly after it was installed. As the house was going to be uninhabited whilst her affairs were sorted out and the house sold we left the heating on low to keep everything running safely. We visited the house twice a week and everything was OK until the week before Christmas when the boiler went off sometime since our last visit. We contacted Warm Sure/Egaheat who sent an engineer around the next day and without taking a cover off told us the boiler heat exchanger was frozen due to the condensate pipe being frozen up. He ordered the part and said we would be contacted with a date for fitting. We did not hear anything, we phoned them two days later they said the would chase it up. They didn't. We phoned again they said they would escalate the enquiry and we would be contacted that day. They Didn't, We phoned again the next day and was told it would be made a priority and they would phone us within two hours. They didn't. The next day was Christmas day so we had to wait 6 days before we could ring again. This time a very assertive lady told me the boiler was not covered by the waranty as it covered the person who had died not the boiler. I argued the point to no avail and asked to speak to a manager as I had been fobbed off for ten days when I could have been given this information as soon as the engineer had reported back. I was told that I would be put down for a "Manager Call Back". Guess what? I did not get a call.
I phoned Warm Front who confirmed this situation with the waranty. So now I have a boiler which by all accounts would not be reliable even if hadn't been frozen up and I don't have a warranty or service agreement.
I am having a new boiler fitted now at a cost of £1000.

Thanks for nothing Warmfront/Eagaheat/Warmsure.

So be aware, if you are not the named person on the warm front grant application the two year warranty and service agreement is not worth a light to you.

letty2

J--nB wrote: »

Hi there, I noticed your reply and I guess with a little more information you may make a more informed decision.
My experience and that of others that I have spoke to with the problem of the pipe freezing appear to be with any make or model of the Condencing type boilers. No matter of make model or who has fitted them or supplied them be it through a government grant or out their own pocket. I know someone who paid out thousands for theirs after a lot of research a different model than mine in fact a Baxi and installed by British Gas and they also had the engineers over the cold period several times. Lucky they were able to get someone out. I guess at times like this its who you know rather than what you know. So to me it says that the manufacturers who designed this did not think of extreme cold weather which of course is when we need them. I hope this is of some help.

your condensate pipe needs to be in 32mm and lagged ,,or installed inside the property to stop it freezing up ,,this needs to be passed back to the installers,,for a recall:j