Npower Boiler replacement cashback offer

poolhustler

Hi

I am about to start gathering quotes for a replacement combi boiler. I came across the NPower website which quotes the following offer:

A new boiler could cost less than you think
For a limited time, we’re offering £349 cash back towards your winter gas bill when you install a new A-rated energy efficient gas boiler with npower hometeam. Once your boiler is installed by us we’ll give you a cheque for £349 which you can put directly towards your gas bill. This means you might not need to pay a penny extra for your winter gas usage.
Sale now on – you could save up to £709 with a new gas boiler
Look what you could save with a new gas boiler Winter gas npower cash back £349 2 year central heating care membership £360 Total savings of up to £709

I am quite a sceptic when it comes to things like this I always think there is a catch or they add the alleged cash back into the value of the installation. So I wondered if anyone out there had experience of this offer and whether it was a genuine value for money? I am not an Npower customer I don't know if this makes a difference?

Gerrard_8_lfc

I wouldn't let Npower change a bulb in my house nevermind fit me a new boiler.

MillicentBystander

ALL the Big 6 will rip you off for a boiler installation. It's not even open to debate. And, in many cases, the 'Big 6' plumber who comes to fit it will most likely be a Gas Safe registered plumber from down the road. Get onto the Gas Safe website, input your post code and be amazed just how many self employed plumbers there are living near you. There are far too many plumbers, basically, and that's where the opportunity to get a very decent price comes in....

lucysettle

We've just gone with a similar scheme from npower - £1300 rebate for an eco boiler... but read below about our experience!

Me and my boyfriend bought out first house just before christmas and we needed a new central heating system fitted. When you're spending that much money, you want to go for 'the best', so we went with npower. In total, they've caused about £6500 worth of damage to our home, never mind the time off work, stress etc.

The work was very poor to say the least - including using the wrong sized gas pipe being installed, so even if it got that far the boiler probably wouldn't have worked anyway. Pipes were installed at funny angles on the wall, so that they couldn't be boxed in or pressed so close together they were rubbing and creaking. Joints weren't holding so we had gas leaks during the install that the engineers struggled to source and water leaks through the ceiling. Pipes weren't sleeved through exterior and interior walls - against GasSafe regulations. And on top of that a huge amount of damage was caused (burnt carpets, burnt wall paper, stained walls, stained carpets, snapped floorboards etc) and eventually nPower stopped the work in the middle of the install.

Despite us asking, no dust sheets were used to protect our belongings or carpets, there were no guards used on the blow torches, so skirting boards, carpets and wallpaper were burnt. And my brand new washing machine and dryer that I'd be given as a house warming gift only a couple of weeks previously, they used as a saw bench which scratched the top and they got covered in brick dust in the back vents. They used my brand new vacuum cleaner too to hoover up brick debris. They had no wet/dry hoover so they couldn't suck out the gunk from the old pipes, so they either let it drip down the walls or onto the walls or on a couple of occasions I grabbed a couple of my bath towels to mop it up.

We employed npower, because of the glossy brochure and the fact that we thought we were getting top notch npower engineers. We didn't know that they used subcontractors. In fact we suspect the two young lads, who came 300 miles away!, were subcontractors to the subcontractors.

You think you're paying for the best when going with such a big company as npower, but if they're going to subcontract out, then what's the point? We may as well have gone with a local firm. And although the two young lads who came initially to install it are completely to blame for the damage and mess, they were left with no support and barely any instruction from npower and we feel the damage caused was down to inexperience on their part and them panicing when things started to go wrong like the gas and water leaks. Despite a very lengthy planning meeting between us and the sales person from npower, all these two lads were given on the first day was a lined a4 piece of paper with a top down drawing of our house drawn in biro... is that the extent of npower's resources??

We're waiting to hear back from npower about our compensation claim...

We've literally just started a blog about it, but because I'm a newbie I can't post links. Really shocking photos though.

Lucy

Pincher

I hope "Legal Assistance" on the Home Insurance means something here. Maybe you can get the whole house redecorated courtesy of NPower.

lucysettle

I'm able to post up links now, so here's a link to our blog. I think the pictures illustrate exactly how much mess I'm talking about.

It took a weekend of phone calls and answer phone messages and some tears from me to get a manager from npower to take me seriously. I think initially they thought I was some neurotic housewife complaining about a dirty finger print on a radiator... er no!

http://npower-gas-install-photos.posterous.com/