Sheila's wheels disastrous service

cam101

Our integrated cooker packed up in November, it's 5 years old (we've lived in the house for 2 years). We pursued a claim with home insurance, which went something like this:

November: Phoned up, told to arrange our own repair. If it cost more than the excess (£100), insurance would pay the additional cost. Told to get a receipt, then contact them again once repair done.

Early December: We arrange our own repair, part ordered and fitted. However once the new part is fitted, local repair company identify a much larger fault than originally thought. They tell us they could fix this fault but it was likely to only last a few months and they think we would be better off with a new cooker.

Mid December: Phone insurers again, to be told they would need to send their own engineer out instead. We obtain a receipt from local repairers, as instructed and tell them "thanks but we can't use you any more".

22nd December: Phone insurers AGAIN to ask when we would hear (after being promised a call within 48 hours which never came). They tell us it's now too late until 28th December. We still have nothing to cook on, despite them knowing this since 14th December they have taken no action.

28th December: Insurers pass us on to a third party company called SBS who tell us an engineer will call within 48 hours. Great, at least we might get to speak to an engineer to arrange a call out in very early January.

End of December: No phone call, we chase insurers approx 6 times, no engineer or reason.

2nd January: Phone SBS again, to be told they are emergency out of hours only and that nothing can be done until Monday.

4th January: duly call back on Monday, told engineers don't start back until Wednesday so nothing can be done (surely they must have known this before).

5th January: receive a call from Whirlpool (not even who we were expecting), to arrange a visit. Told they can come Thursday onwards, any time between 9-4pm. They don't work weekends and can't specify a time. I tell them we are teachers who start back Thursday and cannot be there at those times. They tell me it's tough that's all they will offer and to phone back my insurers.

5th January: Phone back insurers, they promise to phone engineers then call me back in half an hour. That was almost 2 hours ago...

This visit is only to identify whether they will write off the cooker for a replacement or attempt another repair (despite us being advised against repair).

Oh my goodness I'm so stressed over this, we couldn't cook Christmas dinner, keep being fobbed off and passed from pillar to post. Do they not consider a cooker to be a home emergency? We have a microwave and that's it. I'm so stressed i've cried after each phone call this week, and that's really not like me. We just want an end to this but we're not getting anywhere and no one cares!!

dogbot

Sorry, i don't understand what you are claiming for? Your household insurance does not cover mechanical breakdown or failure due to wear and tear of household appliances. In fact such a loss is specificaly excluded. And no, of course a broken down cooker is not a home emergency. Sorry, it just is not. A home emergency is a pipe bursts and water poors into every room in the house, the gas pipe leaks, etc.

cam101

We are claiming for the repair or replacement of the cooker, which after the first phone call they said they would cover. I haven't specified the situation in which it packed up to you, but it is one which they cover, it's not just due to wear and tear.

I perhaps misuse the word emergency but after all we cannot cook at all- surely someone out there on the end of the phone has enough compassion to realise this can be a huge problem? Our children are fed up with sandwiches, and let's face it it's flipping cold out!

Has anyone been through something similar? What do we have to do to get results? It would be so much easier to just go out and order a new one, send them a receipt afterwards. But they clearly don't trust the local repairers we used.

dogbot

O.K., sorry, your talk of parts and own repair sounded like a breakdown. It is also why I asked what you were claiming for. If you could explain then purhaps this might explain why they are sending someone out.

I am also sorry, I didn't mean to be uncompassionate, I understand it is a difficulty for you and stressful. I meant that no it is not a home emergency as usualy talked about in the world of home insurance.

All of the problems you are having with suppliers etc are indeed down to the insurer. I would contact them now and ask for an operations manger/ team manager because you want to make a formal complaint about the delays in the service suppliers they have instructed.

Remain calm and composed with them and stick to the facts. List the course of events as you have done showing the dates and delays. Sum up by reminding them that you have children, this has been over the christmas period and you are now absolutly fuming. Be clear about what you want - that you want them personaly to call their inspection services supplier and arrange to get someone out immediatly. I would also suggest that given the length of time, the stress it has caused, the period of the year etc that you will be looking for them to provide some additional compensation to cover the cost of some hot food takeaways or similar. I would suggest a figure of £100 and see how you get on, but you might like to ask for more given you are a family. No guarantees but certainly worth it.

Be prepared to put all this in writing too to make sure you get what you want and the message hits home.

If they try to get you to call the engineers etc tell them that you will not - the insurer appointed them so they are the insurer's responsibility.

Good luck, let us know how you get on today.

cam101

Thanks so much that's all really helpful, i'm on hold right now so i'll post back later with hopefully some results.

Oscar_The_Grouch

One of my favourite comments to a company when they have mucked up as badly as this is "Do you think that the service you have provided me with is acceptable and if not, what are you going to do about it?"

Every time they offer to give you a call back, tell them that you'd prefer to stay on hold, as they've already failed to call you back on several occasions.

If you get to the point where the solution they are offering is not acceptable to you, politely inform the person you are speaking to that if they have reached the limit of their authority, you'd like to speak to someone more senior who can take the matter further.

Finally, Shiellas' Wheels is a trading name for Esure. On the FSA Website, the contact point for complaints is Gaynor Leeves. Contact details as follows:

Tel 01737 235 590
Fax 01737 235 144
E-mail [EMAIL="gaynor.leeves@esure.com"]gaynor.leeves@esure.com[/EMAIL]

Take the name of the person you are speaking to and make sure they are aware that you will be providing their name to Gaynor when you speak to her.

dogbot

Excellent advice for a phone complaint there i must say!

I like this in particular:

If you get to the point where the solution they are offering is not acceptable to you, politely inform the person you are speaking to that if they have reached the limit of their authority, you'd like to speak to someone more senior who can take the matter further.

cam101

Okay after really really pushing it on the phone (politely of course), I managed to get the engineer's phone number direct (had been refused it last time). So I phoned him directly and managed to arrange a visit for tomorrow! He was helpful over the phone, specified a rough time slot and got more information from me so he knew what he was coming to see.

Fingers crossed there is some sort of end in sight, I think I am going to sit down and write out everything that has happened for a complaint. It's just unbelievable that this sort of thing can happen- what sort of 'systems' do these places operate?!

Thanks for all the advice, i'll return to post on here what happens next.