disgraceful boiler cover .scottish power

nevans

First rule of life, do NOT get the Scottish Power Boiler Cover.

I am on my 9th night now without my boiler being fixed.

I am a single working (12 hour days) father with a 7 year old son. have been paying this a cover for 2 years and am a SP gas/electric customer, although I wont be next week as am switching based upon the way they treat us.

I had a engineer come out (sub contractor) the day after I logged the call., i thought this isn't so bad, maybe the negative reviews are just a minority... He said he knew the problem and ordered the part there and then, he showed me on his i-pad.

Whiel he was there he boasted about being on at least £500 per day as a subbie to scottish power, it is in their interest to string out jobs to take more of our money. No boiler/gas engineers are employed by Scottish power.

Nothing happened until Monday when I called them for an update (they promised they would call me but the failed), they told me the part was order that day, Monday, FOUR days after i was told it was ordered. On the Wednesday an engineer came out....with the wrong part! This is a week now since I originally called them. So Mr "I'm on £500 a day" ordered the wrong part ...... obviously.

I called them, because they will NOT call you, remember this, and was told they were 'very sorry' and said they had order the new part and hopefully will be sorted out tomorrow.

I called them yesterday (Thursday 22/02) and was told they ordered the NEW part that day, even though the engineer had ordered it the day before but they couldn't confirm it had actually been ordered, and it's not looking likely that it will be sorted this weekend and it's -5C currently.

I pay for this service upfront, they act like you are a hindrance and that they are doing us a favour, it's disgusting the way they treat the very people who pay their wages and without us there is no Scottish Power.

Yesterday while talking again to their emergency team I could hear the people in the call centre all shouting and laughing and having a great time in the background, while us paying MUGS get the worst service I have ever known.

They lie to us, whilst taking our hard earned money and treat us like s**t..

They should not be able to get away with this, OFGEM or some consumer group need to get involved ASAP and shut this shower of s**t down.

I will cancel anything I have with Scottish Power, and urge everyone I know, and everyone they know to switch to another provider.

Sevenacres

I too had SP Homecare Premium and was left without heating or hot water for 2 weeks, I eventually had to get someone else to repair it and have billed SP for the £116 and the cost of the care package £326 since it was started in June 2016 as I feel they have not provided a satisfactory service. they tell me I can only expect £60 with a goodwill gesture of £40 on top.
If I want to pursue it further I need to go through a small claims court which I do not particularly want to do. Any ideas gratefully received??
These big companies have us minnows over a barrel knowing there is little we can do.
I would not recommend SP to anyone as the service they provided was absolutely disgraceful.

gjd0496

Having read through a number (but not all!) of the posts going back to 2010/2011 I can see that I'm not alone and that Scottish Power seem to worse now than before, despite promises to sort their act out.

I signed up in late 2016 for their HomeComfort package and at the time was offered a 4 month free period. To cut a long story short, I complained to them after all the cancelled appointments, false promises and the boiler certficate and letters that never arrived. I had been told by the first agent that my cover was not valid until the engineer had been on his initial visit to check the boiler but, in a subsequent conversation, I was told this was not right. Hence I had assumed the cover hadn't started when in fact it had. This all made a complete nonsense of the free trial period.

They even managed to ignore, or forget about, my complaint and I had to prompt them again several months later. The excuse was that our line was always engaged which I know not to be true. Anyway if it had been then why not email or even write me a letter? In the end they did give me a small compensatory amount so I put that all behind me.

When it came to renewal time in October last year, I made the mistaken assumption that they may have improved and my initial experience was just a blip so I went ahead. What a mistake that was....

In what has turned out to be an almost farcical round of appointments, that have had to be cancelled, confusing texts and awful customer service, I have had to complain again. In then took nearly two weeks for them the respond to the complaint with an apology for the delay. 2 more weeks have passed since, still nothing.

I do understand that the same engineers who do the repairs also do the servicing and that sometimes they do have to move appoinments. But when you ring to arrange a new appoinment, the agent actually told me she cannot check for available dates, I had to suggest a date which she would then put into the system. Then I would get a text to either confirm or accept this date. In other words we have a play a kind of crazy cat and mouse game where I guess a date and I get a text to say whether I have won or not!

So I asked why can't you look at the current appoinments calendar but she didn't have access to that, I know not why.....

In the end I pushed her to give me a firm date and she went away and told me that if I chose a date in early April that should be fine. So I did.

Then a few weeks later, I recieved a text saying the dates I had chosen were not available despite being at least 6 weeks away.

I have serious doubts about this company and its ability to make, and keep, appointments and will certainly not be renewing the contract this year. What is worse is that throughout this my boiler has been working perfectly but if it breaks, will they be able to fix it or, for that matter, even be able to make an appoinment they can keep? It seems not.

[Deleted User]

Is this the same as the SSE boiler cover,


my tenant called to say the boiler had a small ' drip' so I called my usual plumber who couldn't get there quickly so I rang SSE and signed up for their boiler cover. I was told an engineer would call and be at site within 2 hours. Perfect I thought only for the tenant to say yes he had called within 2 hours but wouldn't visit until the next evening. He did ring back 4hours later to say a job had cancelled and he could come along.


Ok, the upshot is he said he's done a repair which would last a month and then the boiler would need replacing ? . The boiler is 10 yrs old so not ancient and has a safety certificate and service once a year.


No more information. No explanation as to what was wrong or if it was a leaky valve etc.


Anyway my usual plumber is going in to see whats what and I wish I'd never bothered with this supposed cover.,

gjd0496

No I don't think they are the same but they sound as bad! SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) and Scottish Power are separate companies, so I understand but maybe they do pool resources for boiler care.

Ron_Bowden

'Well I should have known better'

A couple of years ago I posted on this forum about the totally inept service provided by Scottish Power. At that time I stated I would be leaving their scheme but, human nature being what it is, I never got around to it and it has come back to bite me big time so here is my advice to anyone who has or are considering taking out their boiler cover.

To anybody out there who has their boiler and heater cover provided by Scottish Power and currently have a working system then change to another provider FAST. I guarantee that if you are one of their customers and suffer a breakdown you WILL live to regret it.

I won't bore you all with all the details but I have now been without heating and hot water for 14 days with no end to it in sight. An engineer was supposed to visit me last Thursday and when he didn't arrive I was informed that somebody their end rescheduled for the following day and had not bothered to inform me.

Mine is not an isolated case. A search of social media shows that there are literally hundreds of complaints - some far more serious than my own. Have a look at Scottish Power Name and Shame and their own FB page for comments to their own, unrelated, posts

mickeypops

Just posting to confirm the advice to AVOID SCOTTISH POWER BOILER CARE like the plague.

After paying my monthly premium for several years, and when I actually needed them after my boiler broke down last Friday, I've had to give up and call out an independent boiler technician at my own cost.

I could write an essay about spending hours and hours on the phone, unanswered, over the last five days; about finally getting through but "the system is down," about "the scheduling team will be in touch regarding an appointment" - yea, right, about there being no escalation process, no supervisor or manager to speak to.

Honestly guys, they are just hopeless. If you have SP boiler care agreement, cancel it and go elsewhere.

NomskiB

God i wish had viewed this forum discussion months ago when i took out SP Boiler Care Premium cover. I have just sent a lengthy complaint to their complaints team over the diabolical "service" by their so-called engineers to fix a fault with my central heating.....a minor fault, but one which took 3 engineers, and even then the last engineer blamed it on an issue outwith the cover they provide! Now i had to hire a proper central heating plumber to sort the issue!
Judging by all these posts from different people all suffering from the same plight....entrusting SP with their boiler care cover!
Disgraceful company....
NEVER AGAIN

NomskiB

Mireille_Haviland wrote: »

I’m after some advice. I called out Scottish power as I am on the care plan and have been without hot water for 6 days now. The engineer said I needed a new valve and he’d order the part . Came back 5 minutes later and handed me a letter stating they won’t going to repair my boiler as it was beyond economic repair and the letter says I need to replace the boiler myself within 28 days. He couldnt answer any of my questions. I put in a complaint and wAs told an operations manager would ring me back. They didn’t. I put in a complaint and phoned several time s that day . Everyone gave me a different story and said they could t see the details . I was eventually told it was a divertor valve head and body and would take a day to fit and 2 people! Can’t get any answers and have paid into this plan for 1 year. I have been very distressed and they have been rude and unhelpful and I keep being told I’ll get phone with a decision. They won’t send me a copy of their complaints procedure and say I am not allowed to contact any external body!!! What kind of customer care is this! I’ve never experienced anything like it . But reading in line a lot of people are having this experience .

Typical scottish power......surely if your boiler was beyond economic repair, they should have advised of this during your initial inspection and service.....oh btw your boiler is on the older side....could be an issue down the line. Their engineers have an obligation to inform you of these factors, which might nullify your cover, when you need a repair. Just disgraceful!

ukbpen1

Called customer service - 45 min to get through to report a leaking valve - engineer came on Thursday - he said he would order a new valve - I tried to call on Sunday to get an estimated time of when the engineer would be back - I waited for 60 minutes and then the system cut me off (I was a little peed off to say the least).. !!!

I chased the job up again yesterday (Tuesday 27/3/18 9.51) and apparently no part has even been ordered yet - when asked why its a none urgent call. I told them the leak is filling up a container with water within 2 days and I'm away for Easter - they advised they will make it a priority and someone will call me back. Its now Wed at 13:00 and I've not received a call back, and I am now on the phone again on their automated call system for over 50 min waiting for someone to answer.


I GIVE UP !!!!! DO NOT USE - PUT YOUR MONEY INTO AN ACCOUNT AND PAY A HEATING ENGINEER YOURSELF - THIS COMPANY ARE A JOKE !!!!