disgraceful boiler cover .scottish power

Brucella

I would like to add a brief update to my last posting on the subject of the inefficiency and ineptitude of Scottish Power 'Home Comfort'.

Again, I sincerely urge any of you considering signing up to this service because it is cheaper than British Gas, not to do so as it is a false economy.

Following my last post on this site, Ms Debbie O’Brien of the Scottish Power Social Media Team contacted me promising that she would escalate my complaint and someone would phone me back. I really felt hopeful that they had 'got the message'. No-one ever did call.

We are now three weeks without a working boiler which is only six years old and regularly inspected and maintained. We have had seven engineer's visits and various parts replaced.

However, this is not what I am complaining about! It is the appalling and infuriating level of customer service. I cannot fault the faux concern and politeness of their call centre staff, but these poor people are powerless to help.

All those with the ability to take action - the visit-schedulers, any manager, and even the complaints team do not take incoming calls and have repeatedly failed to call me back despite numerous promises that they would do so.

There have been several days when I have stayed home from work when an engineer has not turned up when promised.

I have spent several hours, literally, on the phone trying to resolve the 'no-shows' in particular, but no-one takes any responsibility whatsoever.

Dr A MacMillan

Doug4040

I too have boiler cover with Scottish power. I Called on Sunday evening and was told an engineer would be with me on Monday afternoon. Having taken a half day off work I returned home to a voice message saying my boiler parts were ready. Impressive as the engineer had not visited! When I called back I was told that the engineer was sick and could not come until Friday. I asked if I could ask someone else at a reasonable cost and send the bill to Scottish power but was advised this would breach my contract. My wife tweeted this being the Christmas week and I then received a call on Tuesday lunchtime saying I could try and find someone. Of course this proved impossible on Christmas Eve and I then called on Thursday to confirm the call for Friday which was then confirmed for Friday morning. A few minutes later my wife received a call saying this was not possible - we had been deleted on the assumption we could find someone. We were then promised a call for Monday but even that does not seen definite. So a week over Christmas with no heating or hot water has been wonderful. I have now looked at the boiler contract online and it is a con. Scottish power don't promise anything but if in a month the boiler is not repaired they will refund one months fee - wow! Oh and if they can't find a part for the boiler they will cancel the contact and not repair the boiler. It appears they do not know what they are doing and just make up stories to appease the customer. So I would suggest avoiding at all costs and not wasting a significant amount of money. I am sure there are companies out there who care for their customers. Doug, Charing, Kent

Redrock

I have just had the same experience with Scottish Power Home comfort cover. We have been without heating and hot water since 18th December. The service is a disgrace. In addition my boiler should have an annual check. This was due in October I have been told I will be lucky if it is done before March!

I have been told an engineer will be with me on Thursday.

Leli

Live abroad and have spent 1hr 15 minutes of expensive telephone time trying to speak to Home Comfort division of Scottish Power for my flat in Scotland - have still not been connected or been able to speak to them. Does anyone have another number where I might get through....!!!?????

Locheil

Oh how I wished I's viewed this MSE forum before now!
My OAP mother has had boiler cover with Scottish power & has on going problems since 21st Dec 2013! which seemed to be resolved before the new year.
But the latest problem was no hot water on monday 13th jan, which she reported that morning & surprisingly an engineer came out that afternoon to repair, he left telling her it was fixed, but when she went to run the hot water there was none!....
Called the breakdown number again, & was told engineer would return on Tuesday PM. this time no show & no courtesy call to say why?
At this point my OAP mother who is hard of hearing & wears 2 hearing aids asked me to intervene on her behalf.
I called the breakdown number & explained the situation, she confirmed there was an appointment for Tuesday 14th jan pm that had been missed & apologised, & emailed their "planners" to make appointment for Wednesday 15th AM.
I called Wednesday 15th, 09.30 to confirm that there was indeed another appointment for that morning & was assured that the engineer had been "scheduled" for my mothers boiler repair 8am >1pm.
By 16.15 no engineer had attended or called, so I once again called the breakdown number, to be told that I was mistaken no such appointment had been made & that an appointment was for 21st Jan!, I tried to explain that I was not mistaken & that the 21st appointment was a separate issue for an appointment for the annual service!
I asked to speak to a supervisor or manager & was put on hold for 15mins, then to be told there was no supervisors or managers.
I told him that as all their calls are recorded then their manager or supervisor can call me either on my home number or mobile & to have a transcript of the "fictitious " call I had with their handler "Linda" between 09.30 & 10am that morning handy, as it will clearly state that an appointment had been made!
By 18.00 needless to say no one called , so here I go around the same repeat performance,
I called them...
they say they see if an appointment can be made, .... but can't say when .... & can't say when I'll be notified of the appointment ..... so I have no date, no time & no one can tell when I'll have appointment to fix the problem.

Next call I'll be quoting section 7.2 of their terms & conditions,
quote:
"Where we have agreed an appointment window with you, we will make every effort to arrive on time. Where we are delayed for reasons outside our control, we will contact you as soon as possible to advise you of the delay and to arrange an alternative time and/or date suitable for you."

grantboy1uk

I've had nothing but trouble since using SP Home comfort. I've had a leak on my PRV which they have attended too and resolved twice, the issue came back last week adn the engineer arived on friday night.

He said the prv is not covered as it joins onto a unvented cylinder, I explained that you guys have already tried to fix this twice before so why now are you saying its not covered?

I called SP on saturday morning only for the person on the phone to agree. I then called SP customer complaints this mornign and said my contract states that 'all pipe work is covered' and that there is no menction in the TCs saying that a unvested cylinder is not covered. the lady said your right, and that the engineer wasnt qualifed to fix unvested cylinders (so thats why he said its not covered, he also called his office and they confirmed its not convered), be careful using this service, they do tell lies and to be honest, even if they fix the prv im sure it wont last long as this will be the third time! I'm in process of arranging british gas cover, I cannot wait to get rid of SP.

I've had bad services before but serisously this is the worse possible and the sheer amount of complaints you can find online proves this. If you are considering SP, think twice and choose another provider, they all appear to be a lot better then SP.

Brucella

I am disappointed to update my last post and report that we remain without a working boiler after nearly two months of the coldest part of the year. After about nine engineer visits plus four days taken off work when the engineer failed to arrive, I have nearly given up expecting Scottish Power to resolve my breakdown. Indeed, I think that they have given up too now as the most recent promises of 'specialist' engineer visits have come to nothing.
However, it is not so much their failure to fix the boiler as their appalling customer service. It would take too long to go into detail, but it can be summarised thus:
1) Whilst the call takers are sympathetic, they seem completely powerless to influence those that can take action or deal with customer concerns
2) Those that schedule visits, the engineering department and the complaints department will not take incoming calls and hide behind a firewall
3) Scottish Power uses another company called City Technical who employ the engineers. The coordination between the two is extremely poor and has been at the root of the four no-shows that I have suffered
4) It is impossible to escalate issues to a supervisor. Wose still, promises of call backs are consistently broken. About eight times in my case.
5) Worst of all, when I complained, my complaint was dismissed as 'we have kept to our terms and conditions' - the classic get-out of a company that cares less about customer service.
Dr A MacMillan

DaveTheMus

Brucella wrote: »

I am disappointed to update my last post and report that we remain without a working boiler after nearly two months of the coldest part of the year. After about nine engineer visits plus four days taken off work when the engineer failed to arrive, I have nearly given up expecting Scottish Power to resolve my breakdown. Indeed, I think that they have given up too now as the most recent promises of 'specialist' engineer visits have come to nothing.
However, it is not so much their failure to fix the boiler as their appalling customer service. It would take too long to go into detail, but it can be summarised thus:
1) Whilst the call takers are sympathetic, they seem completely powerless to influence those that can take action or deal with customer concerns
2) Those that schedule visits, the engineering department and the complaints department will not take incoming calls and hide behind a firewall
3) Scottish Power uses another company called City Technical who employ the engineers. The coordination between the two is extremely poor and has been at the root of the four no-shows that I have suffered
4) It is impossible to escalate issues to a supervisor. Wose still, promises of call backs are consistently broken. About eight times in my case.
5) Worst of all, when I complained, my complaint was dismissed as 'we have kept to our terms and conditions' - the classic get-out of a company that cares less about customer service.
Dr A MacMillan

Call BG and get there 'First Fix'
they'll probably have someone out tomorrow if you call before 9am and you'll have it fixed by the end of the week at the latest.......

with Scottish Power no-one is directly employed by SP, the customer service staff are agency staff and the engineers are contractors....

edit:
when you compare BG to SP you must also consider this....SP's agreement is a maintenance contract, which means there is no ombudsman to go to....with BG they are regulated by the FCA

Azaelia

I too wish I had seen this site before I took up the homecomfort cover with Scottish Power. It says on their letter "Every year your boiler and controls also benefits from an annual service and safety check. You don't need to worry about when to arrange this, we'll get in touch before it's due to book an appointment with you".

I dont know why it says this becuase they dont get in touch with you to book it and I have missed out on the annual service for my boiler for the year that I have had on their cover. They agreed to carry out the service today and I had the day off work for this but they have cancelled at lunchtime saying that they are too busy with fixing boilers today. They have put my service back another 2 months which is after the year is up and would therefore be counted as the service for the 2nd year! I will have to use another days holiday up for that too.

On complaining about this I was told by customer rep, who said his name is Serge, that you do not PAY for the annual service,
it is free (!) so you cant get any compensation for not having had it and they wont carry it forward to the next year. I am disgusted. He assured me, on my asking, that I can cancel the contract and my DD through my bank after I have had the service without incurring any additional charge for the 2nd year. (Which of course would be the case if they are saying that the service is free of charge).

I only found this site on looking for reviews of their service following this experience but having looked at the experiences of others who seem to have had major problems with trying to get their boilers repaired thorugh SP's boiler cover I can only thank God that at least mine didn't break down whilst I have had the cover (so far anyway, since if I want the annual service I was entitled to for last year I am now tied into another 2 months of this next year and I dont know, now, after reading all these complaints about the repair service, if it is worth taking the risk just to get the annual boiler service).

It seems that the gamble, is not just whether to have boiler cover or not, but whether to have it with Scottish Power.

ronniea

4th feb 2014 I called in to Scottish Power to report an uncontainable leak on the boiler as an emergency.

5th Feb 2014 Nobody arrived; called again that evening to follow up and scheduled another appointment.

6th Feb 2014 Raymond (the engineer job number: 2868125) arrived. He called me on the phone saying a power flush was required and he could not identify the area of the leak. In doubt and need for clarification as to why would an engineer recommend a power flush without locating the problem;That same evening I called Scottish Power to confirm and asked is there anything else I need done? The answer was ‘no’. Assuming the diagnostic of Scotitish Power was accurate I booked an power flush.

10th Feb 2014 Power flush complete by independent company. Reported to Scottish power.

11th Feb 2014 Raymond comes back at the property ………late!! He Calls me on the phone to say the boiler is not covered by Scottish Power as I have not registered this boiler; even though I am paying my direct debit to Scottish Power for two years. When questioned where he got this information ……….“call Scottish Power”; Scottish Power could not confirm his blatant accusations. After a heated discussion; his attitude completely changes ;he then follows on to say the boiler was not flushed? After numerous calls to your company that evening . One of your employees Peter lied to me by saying customer services was closed and luckily at the same time my wife was speaking to Edward on another line who was in customer services and said 'we don’t close for another hour and a half’. Joseph has sent a message for the operations supervisor to call the client ….still awaiting to hear!!! This is all on emergency basis!!!
After speaking to Christina on numerous occasion I was then informed that boiler needs to be flushed as well and the rings and seals need to be changed. With the information I rang my engineer . My engineer was perplexed as he could clearly see the problem ………..it was in the pump which was leaking. Why could the Scotish Power engineer not see the area of leak or replicate the situation to physically see the area of the leak ? To change the seals he would have to remove the pump and fit back a non functional pump.( while a new pump replacement comes with all seals as a package) My engineer comments even after changing the seals to power flush the boiler with a leaking pump would not be practically possible; hence he offered the next best solution to flush all the lines. The property is a new build about 7 years old with the obvious brand new Valiant boiler fitted. How can sludge be introduced in such a new build? On speaking to the independent engineer he could not see any problem with sludge during his flushing process.This was relayed back to Christina who informed the engineering department. The supervisor of the engineering department is to call me …….don’t ask me when????
12th Feb 2014 Richard called me late in the evening. We had a very long discussion. One of the many strange comments he made was why did you carry on with the power flush if you noticed after an hour there was no residue!!! Yet that was the instruction of Scottish power!! Am I to question the diagnostic of a professional company under whose umbrella I need the boiler protection??? After a lot of disagreement on both sides Richard mentioned I call the complaints line on 08450303024 and complain. When I did try to do as he mentioned I was informed that Richard had closed the case and I could not log my complaint. When I asked Lesley Ann what the complaint procedure I could follow; I was informed that Richard had closed the case so it could not be logged or entertained and yet he was the person who gave me the number to complaint dept??? All this looks very cagey and dodgy.

The main issue with the inaccurate service provided by Scottish power is that the engineer had requested us to complete a power flush, YET HE admits that he does not know what the problem is and where the source of the leak was coming from! !! How can the engineer state that we need to carry out a power flush and he is unable to identify the leak and still has a lengthy report on the next steps for the client to be completed. I am contesting that fact that he cannot give us an accurate diagnostic of the area of the leak. He has to identify the leak! He has not been able to identify the problem. He has not been able to clearly state the primary area of the leak!!!
Hence any recommendations are not accurate.

I am very disappointed with the way Scottish Power has looked into this minor repair. The engineer could not identify the problem; but still requested a power flush???? Being an engineer I am sure he was aware of the fact that you cannot power flush a system with a leak in it (the phenomena of power flush with a leak in the system was explained to me by my engineer!! It makes complete sense to lay man who no engineering degrees)The bottom line is in the peak of winter over seven days for Scottish Power but they cannot fix a tiny boiler. As all calls are recorded by Scottish Power all accusations can easily be cross checked.