CORGI offering maintenance plan? Anybody else use this?

gnatschuf

DO NOT USE CORGI HOMPLAN.
They will do anything they can to get out of repairing the boiler.
They came to mine and said it was actually a central heating problem and therefore not covered.

The knuckle scraper they sent didn't even take the cover off the boiler!!
On getting further advice from 2 other Co. they both told me it was the diverter valve that required replacing, I got 1 of them to replace it and never had the problem again, this was 14 months ago.

Also their customer service is second to none!
I'm a polite and curteous man at all times and have never, I mean never been spoken to like this in all my days, they where aggressive, rude and called me, a still paying customer (tied in for a year) a liar.

These are the cheapest for a reason, avoid like you would a gang of lads coming home from the pub after a 9 hour session.

Greenbox

my advice would be to steer clear of corgi home plan. CORGI itself has suffered greatly from losing its position as the gas regulator to Gas safe. [text removed by forum team]. Choose a company that either has been recommended by some one you trust or one of the big energy companies. Good luck

glitter123

I have a Corgi HomePlan - decided to take it out last year for peace of mind. Today I noticed our boiler was making a lot of noise so rang the Corgi helpline and was told they couldn't help me because it was still working.

Half an hour later it wasn't

Back on the phone and they say they willl get an engineer to call. An hour later and having explained the problem to him there was a sharp intake of breath "not good at the start of the bank holiday. When are you around?". I replied that i'd be here anytime to which he suggested next Wednesday or Thursday!

When I said that seemed a long time away he then said "What about tomorrow, but if it needs parts we don't carry any and nowhere is open".

When I resorted to putting my husband on the phone he was suddenly much more helpful - man to man

I'm not impressed so far.

Robert919

I might have been a first time poster last time round but i certainly dont work for Corgi.

Well my Ideal Isar boiler has packed up again. It was making some funny noise so i called Corgi. Phone answered in 15mins, details taken and told an engineer would call back.

I missed his call which was about 2hours later. Rang him back and said that he could get to me the next day. He did and found that the system needed repressurizing. when asked why the pressure was zero was told it was down to a leak. He checked outside and couldnt find the leak. He bled the radiators and then repressurized the system. The leak became very apprent when he did this. water was coming from the main heat exchanger. Dont know if i heard him right or not but i thought he said seal or it might have been a sil. However water was everywhere and the electrics tripped in the house.

He basically said that as he was only authorised for repairs under £300 he had to call corgi. Corgi stated that Ideal the manufacturer of the boiler would have to be called out. The engineer left having made my boiler safe but turned off. So no hot water with two kids (18 weeks and 2.5yrs)

Corgi said Ideal would call the same day which they did (1.5hrs later) The asked how bad the leak was so i said so bad the boiler isnt safe and had to be turned off. They told me that the engineer would be out the next day. No time but would get a call am with an ETA. Fingers crossed.

Don't know where i stand at the minute. The engineer who was sub contracted like all corgi engineers was going on about a new boiler that it might be too expensive to fix. However that call would be made by ideal. I spoke to Corgi about this and they said they would see what ideal say. However he checked and said that i am covered for a new boiler or some payment toward it.

I will update when i know more.

Maxx20

Well they sent round a guy to service my boiler when they said they would. Good local chap, talked a lot of sense. He suggested that he could service it every year as a private job and save me £150 into the bargain avoiding the monthly charge with Corgi. Sounded like sense to me.

As they're only sub-contracting in any case, I'm losing any sort of understanding I had about why I'm going through a third party just to get the same bloke turn up to be honest. I'd be interested to hear the outcome of the above story though, looks very interesting.

ihateyes

Robert919 wrote: »

He bled the radiators and then repressurized the system.

gub smacked!
as their t&c's state they dont repressurize systems or bleed radiators.

I dont know why their referred it to Ideal. As green installer have to pay Ideal to come out.

and their engineers probably cost more than what Green installer are paying subbies.

ihateyes

Maxx20 wrote: »

Well they sent round a guy to service my boiler when they said they would. Good local chap, talked a lot of sense. He suggested that he could service it every year as a private job and save me £150 into the bargain avoiding the monthly charge with Corgi. Sounded like sense to me.

As they're only sub-contracting in any case, I'm losing any sort of understanding I had about why I'm going through a third party just to get the same bloke turn up to be honest. I'd be interested to hear the outcome of the above story though, looks very interesting.

an you could save money max.

But what if your heat exchanger goes...... your 16.99pm should cover that, this local chap will be looking over £350 for it.

If you save money will only depend if it breaks down.

This chap works obo corgi to make extra money rather than sit scratch his nose when their is no work

Robert919

*Update*

Well Ideal turned up. The next day at 915am. Couldnt fault the service he called at 0800am and said he would be there between 900-930.

Pulled the boiler apart, first engineer i've had in 6 years who did that. Spotted the problem immediatley. Some valve at the back of the boiler was leaking, resulting in low presure and therefore the noise in the boiler because the system had no water or pressure in it. It had been leaking for a while and he was gob smacked that no other engineer from homserve who i was with first or corgi hadn't spotted it or tried to fix it. He did say that as an ideal engineer he knew what he was looking for and the scortch marks at the back of the boiler where the give away.

Good news was the boiler was fixable, bad news the boiler would have to come off the wall to be fixed. A major job requiring two engineers. He set about looking at parts of the boiler and said that in all about 10 parts would need replacing as my system had been running with low pressure for too long and some damage inside the boiler might have been done. His thinking was that he should fix it first time and not have to come back in 2 months to do another patch up job. Have to say that i liked his way of thinking, problem was my kitchen cabinets would have to come out to get the boiler out and parts would need ordering.

He gave me the good news that Corgi had informed him that i was fully covered as it was a faulty valve which had caused the problems; (air valve i think, but might be wrong. It was at the very back of the boiler if that helps the more technical boffins on here.) and to get the job done bad news was that due to the blame culture in our country i had to remove the cabinets and plaster boarding around some of the pipes. Turned out this was easy to do than I first thought.

He ordered the parts using his handheld device and left stating that Ideal or Corgi would call me. Ideal called back about 2hours later to say that all the parts had been ordered but some where showing as out of stock.

As this was wednesday the reality set in that we were going to be without hot water until next week. My surprise when ideal called the next day and said everything was in and two engineers could call on friday to do the job. Again the engineers would call am with a time slot.

They did; first engineer called at 0800 saying he would be there at 0930. The second engineer called at 0815 and said the same time. Both arrived early. Spent 4 hours fixing the boiler. when asked what they had done, they stated that the only part of my old boiler that was left was the casing.

So in all boiler is fixed and working again, for now.


I was happy with the service from the first call to it being fixed. Again i might get bashed for being some employee of corgi, which i am not.

For those with Ideal boilers they might find this useful when considering these homecare plans.

Ideal come under the umberalla of homeserve. However to call their engineers out without having cover would cost £250. Its a flat rate, so any work needing to be done is covered in the cost, thats parts and labour. He said for another £100 you can cover direct with them. He did seem abit unsure about the last £100 it might be more or less. He did advise to call their office for a quote.

Weather Homeserve would have done the same i simpy dont know. As Ideal are with them i am guessing one of their engineers would have come out first time and spotted the problem. Then ordering the parts and fixing the boiler a couple of days earlier than Corgi have.

I have had no call back from Corgi or any other call to see how things were going. However ideal kept me up to date. So i have no complaints regarding this.

Hope this helps.

srowan

Its totally obvious that Paul Varjak has something to gain by this and then suddenly a bunch of newbies arrive to back him up! It is almost comical! I was considering taking this insurance but by this behaviour you are doing more damage - as you have completely lost my trust!

LouisConlon

I signed up for the Corgi HomePlan Plus in December 2012.

In February 2013 I had a problem where the hot water failed and I had to switch the boiler off. This is the response I received:

Wednesday - I called Corgi HomePlan Plus.
Over 24 hours later I had not received any contact from them.
I then chased them and a few hours later a plumber rang to arrange a visit the following day - Friday.
On Friday it snowed. The plumber rang after the time that he was due to have arrived and cancelled. Even though I managed to get to work and back which is a 25 mile round trip and Sainsbury's delivered our shopping. He advised that he should be able to make it Monday or Tuesday.
I rang Corgi HomePlan and complained. They cited bad weather and apologised but couldn't do anything about it.
I rang a plumber and managed to get the heating fixed on Saturday but no hot water.
On Sunday, without warning and during tea at 5 p.m., the plumber arrived. He advised that we needed some parts and after an hour left.
Monday. Nothing from Corgi or the plumber.
Tuesday. Rang Corgi back to ask what was happening. They replied parts were on order and it would cost me £177 because the total cost of repair was over £300 (being within the first 3 months it was not free). I called my plumber and he quoted £170 to fix it the following day - the mathmeticians out there will recognise this as considerably less than £477. I then cancelled the Corgi policy and had to pay £55.80 for half the callout and breach of contract fees.
Wednesday. The boiler was fixed.
A few days later the bill was sent to me with a copy of the terms and conditions confirming the breach of contract specified in rule 5.2. It states you 'may' be charged £30 as a cancellation fee.

I have stated the facts accurately and have not included details of the long complaint conversations on the phone during which Corgi absolved themselves of any blame.
My advice is this. Before you sign up with them consider the follwing facts:
1) They do not employ plumbers, they subcontract. This means that at busy times you will not get a guaranteed response.
2) They 'will' charge you a cancellation fee for breach of contract even though they have not fulfilled their desired response claims - I received the first visit 5 days after the call was logged.
3) The claimed cost of repair was questionable.
4) The terms and conditions they sent me with the cancellation letter were different from the terms and conditions I had kept when signing the original agreement.
Section 5.2 to which I was referred for the breach of contract fee originally stated: '5.2. Same Day Service. If you call us before 9am to report total loss of heating or hot water, you will normally have a qualified technician with you on the same day.'
How ironic.