Fun with Barclays

luckygirl20

Hi I wondered if anyone could give us some advice?

Our oven went down in a shower of sparks 8 days before Christmas; we're insured with Barclays and to date still haven't got a new oven installed.

On the first call I made sure to let them know the household has two pensioners and two diabetics living in it so the oven / hob is essential given medical dietary requirements. As I say this was 17.12.10 and we still don't have a working oven.

The inspector from "Ival" came out within a week from the first call; condemned the oven; pronouncing electrical fire; and disconnecting the gas and electric supply.

Since then its been a constant battle to get anything done; the oven has been sent to the wrong address; sent to the right address but the wrong oven; the right one then turns up but it needs a 30 amp supply not the 13 which we have fitted.

We finally get the new 30 amp supply fitted; the nice lads from Comet come out to do the final installation; then refuse to do so as we have an oak panelling in the kitchen and they can't connect where there is anything combustible present despite the panelling probably being 20 or 30 years old.

At this point its worth letting you know that we have all been getting rotten headaches; but it had been put down to stress from having to deal daily with the morons at Ival and poor diet where we're having to live on microwaved foods.

Turns out we were wrong about that; the gas had not been disconnected properly so we've had a leak for the past two months thanks to Ival - the Comet chap evacuated us from the house immediately such was his concern and then performed a complete isolation and capping off of the supply.

The past couple of months have been a true nightmare; they've not taken our medical or home situation seriously; we've had customer service agents mock; deride; lie and abuse us; the gas leak has just topped of the whole fun experience with Ival and Barclays.

Is there anything legal wise we can do to try and give them the sound thrashing they deserve ?

I've never truly hated anything until now and I want to make them pay.

Any advice is greatly appreciated,

Naomi

Dangermac

luckygirl20 wrote: »

Hi I wondered if anyone could give us some advice?

Our oven went down in a shower of sparks 8 days before Christmas; we're insured with Barclays and to date still haven't got a new oven installed.

On the first call I made sure to let them know the household has two pensioners and two diabetics living in it so the oven / hob is essential given medical dietary requirements. As I say this was 17.12.10 and we still don't have a working oven.

The inspector from "Ival" came out within a week from the first call; condemned the oven; pronouncing electrical fire; and disconnecting the gas and electric supply.

Since then its been a constant battle to get anything done; the oven has been sent to the wrong address; sent to the right address but the wrong oven; the right one then turns up but it needs a 30 amp supply not the 13 which we have fitted.

We finally get the new 30 amp supply fitted; the nice lads from Comet come out to do the final installation; then refuse to do so as we have an oak panelling in the kitchen and they can't connect where there is anything combustible present despite the panelling probably being 20 or 30 years old.

At this point its worth letting you know that we have all been getting rotten headaches; but it had been put down to stress from having to deal daily with the morons at Ival and poor diet where we're having to live on microwaved foods.

Turns out we were wrong about that; the gas had not been disconnected properly so we've had a leak for the past two months thanks to Ival - the Comet chap evacuated us from the house immediately such was his concern and then performed a complete isolation and capping off of the supply.

The past couple of months have been a true nightmare; they've not taken our medical or home situation seriously; we've had customer service agents mock; deride; lie and abuse us; the gas leak has just topped of the whole fun experience with Ival and Barclays.

Is there anything legal wise we can do to try and give them the sound thrashing they deserve ?

I've never truly hated anything until now and I want to make them pay.

Any advice is greatly appreciated,

Naomi

Sorry to hear about that bad time that you have had.

Is the event (electrical problem in oven) definately insured under the Barclays policy? Household Insurance policies dont normally cover breakdown/maintenance/wear & tear type issues.

I would be asking Barclays to confirm if you have a valid claim.

Then you will know where you go from here.

Whatever way you cut it, you seem to have received poor customer service, and you should make your feelings known to their management.

As to whether you have a valid insurance claim, that may well be another matter entirely

Hope this helps

DM

luckygirl20

Its a valid claim; all being processed - just very very badly. I've complained to Barclays; but then Ival respond on their behalf. the whole situation is beyond tolerable and there just doesn't seem to be anyone who actually gives a damn !

Dangermac

luckygirl20 wrote: »

Its a valid claim; all being processed - just very very badly. I've complained to Barclays; but then Ival respond on their behalf. the whole situation is beyond tolerable and there just doesn't seem to be anyone who actually gives a damn !

I would speak to a manager and badger him/her until they take control of the situation.

Sounds like they have been dreadful

Hope you get it sorted

DM

Clive_Woody

A shocking story.

I would suggest a quick email to the editor of This Is Money (The Daily Mail financial website) - I am sure he/she would be thrilled to have a story like this and consequently would fight your case and make it clear to Barclays how unacceptable it is to treat customers this way.

[EMAIL="editor@thisismoney.co.uk"] editor@thisismoney.co.uk[/EMAIL]


http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/contact-us

hanvyj

I am battling with IVAL too, they are really really terrible at handeling claims. We got burgled 2 months ago - they literally took everything we own, so getting our things back within a certain ammount of time is a priority (I need a laptop to work for example) but IVAL just don't do anything!

Our claim took weeks to be given the ok, fine. Now though, they are just incompetent! Not once have they rung us back, even though every time i speak to them they say they will ring the next day - a few days later I have to ring them.

I will say "you have missed x y and z off the claim" and they spend a week farsing arround and finally think they managed to solve the problem, i ring them up again and all they did was add x, forgetting y and z. This goes on for months and months. They have also "lost" recepts and not sent documents to the right places (music department took 3 days to get stuff sorted, once we rang them up and organised them to get the right information, this is after 2 months of begging for the direct music department phone number so I can do their jobs for them)

Once one of the people on the phone actually admitted to this, saying "oh, who you spoke to last time was supposed to pass that information to department x, but appears not to have" what the hell was she doing then? Why do I have to wait a week for you do have done NOTHING!

I was ready to give up and just accept the claim, but I wouldnt let them take the deposit of me twice (once out of cash, once by card) and then I couldn't even do that, because i made a complaint a few weeks ago to Barclays it was now under the "complaints department" and I had to wait for a call - suprisingly it was going to be the next day (got it a week later)

They make me very very very mad.

luckygirl20

We've now had it confirmed that since 12.02.11; when the engineer capped off the gas leak; the leak has continued at a rate of 8mbar drop in a two minute test - apparently a major leak.

Ival have been taken off the case and we are now dealing with the chief executives office but there is still no rush !