Please help me - I've had no hot water or heating for 6 weeks!

QueenKatie

Oh, and the GC number is GC4704426! Serial no VUW282E, Vaillant Turbomax combi boiler. I don't know what any of that means, mind!

gas4you

I have just checked as well. All parts are available for this boiler.

Just tell them to order the part from Vaillant, or parts center.

I can only refer you back to my post about writing to them.

£250 is the average going rate for a manufacturer repair out of warranty.

QueenKatie

gas4you wrote: »

I have just checked as well. All parts are available for this boiler.

Just tell them to order the part from Vaillant, or parts center.

I can only refer you back to my post about writing to them.

£250 is the average going rate for a manufacturer repair out of warranty.

Gas4you... thank you SO MUCH for confirming this. I have been wondering who to believe in the situation - Homeserve or Vaillant, as what they're telling me is utterly contradictory. Your checking makes all the difference to me - I now feel confident that they will be able to fix this.

Also - after being quite firm on the phone with Homeserve, they have agreed to pay the invoice if Vaillant do manage to fix it! So hopefully I won't have to pay anything out. I know that £250 probably doesn't seem like a lot of money, but to me right now, on top of all the expenses of separating from my ex, it's still a bit painful! So this is a real result.

Honestly, I would not have been able to get this far without help and support from you guys. Thank you so much.

Jue_xx

Can't really add to the advice already given above, but I just wanted to say that you have my sympathy - 6 weeks without heating and hot water with the freezing weather we have had since Christmas is terrible!

Good luck, I hope you get it resolved soon.

xx

jcorbygas

I am sorry you are all having these problems with Homeserve.
They use contracted engineers which to be quite honest would not be getting their work via Homeserve if they were good enough at their job to have enough of their own customers.
As a small business ourselves we offer an excellent service to our customers. They pay to have their boiler serviced on an annual basis (£55 for a standard boiler) and if anything goes wrong during the year we go out to them as soon as possible and fix the problem - within 36 hours at most - we can get 90% of parts delivered within 24 hours!
You are better off finding a good and reliable engineer (word of mouth is best) and putting the money aside that you would have paid for your 'boiler cover' into an account in case anything does go wrong. If it doesnt you have saved money towards a new boiler for the future.
The other alternative is if you get a new boiler take the manufacturers extended warranty as at least you know that the engineers ie from Vaillant/Glowworm are trained and know about your boiler.

Bikertov

If Homeserve are an insurance backed service, why not make a complaint about them to the Insurance Ombusman ?

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

khimg

I have a boiler contract with Homeserve.
My Glow-worm Enerygysaver 60 boiler started playing up so I contacted Homeserve.
They sent a engineer to take a look.
He found a leak and said he will order a part.
A week later I got a call from Homeserve saying that the parts will cost too much and they offered me £200 towards a new boiler and they would cancel the contract.
The parts they said it needed were: Main heat exchanger 2000800525 £446 , sec heat exchanger 2000800472 £465 , burner S203154P £165 , gas council number 4131994.

SO, BEWARE IF YOU HAVE A CONTRACT WITH HOMESERVE. THE MOST THEY WILL COVER IS £200!!

QueenKatie

I thought I should write an update to this thread, in case anyone (like me) is trawling the internet in despair about Homeserve, wondering what to do.

To recap: After 6 weeks of failing to come out and visit my property, Homeserve told me that my boiler was obsolete, and that they couldn't obtain the relevant part to fix it.

I rang Vaillant, the boiler manufacturer, to doublecheck this. They confirmed that the boiler was still being made, and that they had all parts in stock. They agreed to come out and fix it for a flat fee of £250. An appointment was made promptly, and they kept it to the minute. The boiler was repaired, and has worked ever since.

I am very angry as I feel that Homeserve put me through 6 weeks with no hot water or heating, during one of the coldest winters on record, for no reason whatsoever, apart from their own incompetence and unwillingness to render services I had already paid for.

I will be billing them for the cost of the repair (which they have agreed to pay), the cost of the contract, the cost of my wasted time when engineers did not visit, and something extra for distress. I will also be taking my complaint to the insurance ombudsman, because I believe that in this case Homeserve deliberately misled me about the condition of my boiler.

My advice to others in the same situation:

1. If you are thinking of taking out a boiler contract with Homeserve - DON'T. They are unable to organize the proverbial in a brewery. Their departments do not communicate with each other effectively, and links with the engineers are appalling. The engineers in my case had no idea what they were doing, were clearly not experts, and in my case made the problem worse rather than better. You are far, far better off using a reputable local tradesman, or the boiler manufacturer's service.

2. If you have a boiler contract with Homeserve and are looking to get them to give you the services you have paid for (and remember, they aren't doing you a favour here), ALWAYS doublecheck their story with the boiler manufacturer because Homeserve are either ill informed, or spreading deliberate misinformation about the obsolescence of boilers.

3. Don't be fobbed off. If Homeserve say your boiler can't be fixed, get them to agree to repair it if someone else does the work, and get a second opinion.

4. Insist on speaking to a manager at Homeserve at all times, and threaten to take legal action if you are struggling to get your complaint heard.

jackieb

Really shocking service. Glad you've got it fixed now.

TomsMom

I've been following this thread and am appalled at what you have had to go through. I'm so glad you at last managed to get it sorted but dismayed that this company is getting away with such shoddy service and causing people extra expense. Good for you for being assertive and sticking with it, you deserve every penny back and more for leaving you in such a shocking situation when it was so very cold.

Thank you for the update and alerting everyone to what this company is like. Hopefully people will avoid them.