Anyone took 'Help Link' boiler deal?

aberis

Had a boiler installed by this company in the summer; and still regretting it.

What the salesman told us we would receive: A replacement boiler which would save us money, because it will be more efficient. We would have better water pressure throughout the house, (the water pressure upstairs was a little weak with the gravity fed system we had), we would be able to run both showers at the same time and any pipes that needed to be replaced would be.

What we received: A comb-boiler which costs us money because of the amount of water being wasted before the hot water comes through) and hot water which is at a fraction of the pressure of the cold. We are unable to run both showers at the same time, more to the point of a hot tap there is no hot water anywhere further up the line. It takes 10 mins for hot water to reach the tap in the kitchen which is about 10ft from the boiler (I can get cold water from another room and boil a full kettle faster than the hot water comes through); and the 1800mm bath which used to take 15mins to run, now takes 40.

When I spoke with helplink I was told that the water pressure would be due to the pre-existing pipes (which is not there problem) and I would have to pay to get this resolved. Now I may not be a plumber; but my knowledge of physics and logic tells me that if it is the existing pipes and this is a better boiler then I should have, at the very least, the same water pressure as with the previous hot water system.

I far as I can tell we have has a system fitted that is 1. not it for purpose and 2. not what we were told we would receive. I appreciate that the second point is predominantly verbal from the salesman, but lets face it, if the salesman was to tell me that the new systems would cost me more in water usage, give me lower water pressure and that we could only use one hot tap at a time; he'd have out the door before he could finish his sentence ;-)

Is there anyone here who could advise me who else, other that help-link, I should contact with regards to this, i.e. government watchdog/ombudsman?

Any advice will be much appreciated.

shrlangley

Hi, has anyone had a quote from help-link for remodeling a bathroom.
I am disabled and cannot use a bath and my shower is useless for my needs, so we thought we would see what the cost would be.
I called in Help-Link, the agent came he was very nice and spent some time explaining everything I needed to know.
Now my bathroom is very small 12ft by 6ft so we where not expecting it to be a high quote. We decided on putting a large walk in shower where are corner bath sits and moving the sink about a foot further along the wall. We chose the tiles we wanted for the walls and floor.
Then we waited while the agent worked out how much the cost would be, to say we where shocked when he told us the price would be an understatement.
He told us the cost would be £11,487.89, I thought he was playing a joke, he was shocked that I thought he was joking about the cost.
His excuse for the high price was that you pay more for quality products.
Needless to say we said no, has anyone else had a similar experience with Help-Link.

5thelement

Most plumbers in my experience leave a lot to desired for. The plumber I had, damaged the carpets, my lovely wooden ceiling he burnt, not knowing how to use a SDS drill, blew the faces of 4 bricks of, reused the condensate parts, scratched the kitchen cabinet, damaged the Lino in my kitchen, wrongly drilled my worktop, and I worked out he charged £122 per hour. For a days labour he took £1200, I had to call him back the next day as I had leaks and and spent three days cleaning up. Thank you L G Heating Leicester.

Ray_Alexander

I didn't know about this :-( it's a shame. I guess there's gov't / trading standards / citizens advice that you could contact. Glad I got my new boiler not from help link - I had no probs at all really.

Annette_Fitzjohn

We cannot fault the service of the trades people who came to visit. However, the administration is apparently very poorly trained.
When we attempted to finalise our bill, we ended up paying 4 times! My bank account called to say our bank accounts had been hacked and we must destroy the cards we had used to pay the bill.
We were without a debit card and a credit card and the repayment took a full 10 days.
The customer service attendant Elizabeth Hezeltine, indicated that any outstanding fees would be paid, but never apologised. When I suggested some compensation for the inconvenience, she parroted back that any outstanding fees would be paid, but she would get back to me.
Needless to say, that call was never received.
We have now waited 14 working days for our gas safety and environmental certificates to be issued, despite being told we'd have to wait 10 days.
Sadly, the good service from the tradesmen has been completely overshadowed by the unsympathetic, and verging on criminal response of the customer service and accounts teams.
I cannot recommend this company.

BLUESTEVE_2

Well i don't have any complaints. In fact because of the salesman they lost money on my job. He made several mistakes on the quote but the fitter said he had to do the work for the price quoted. The fitter was very good and he worked direct for Helplink. We had a pump pack in a few months after fitting and it was replaced within 2 days.

Glynis29

I was misled over their finance deal and am now tied into a ten year agreement paying an exorbitant amount of interest. Plus the salesman pressed me to buy a boiler where you cannot regulate the water temperature as it is factory set to 55 degrees. In my opinion, highly dangerous for young children washing their hands and only recent my sister badly scalded herself. I have raised these concerns but frankly Help Link are not interested and that their bad practices are being hidden behind the amiable Johnny Ball. Do your research before you commit is my advice.

ken2000_2

[FONT=&quot]After doing some research what new boiler fit through which led me Worcester website I got link to help link from there they called me and we agreed for a salesman to call around on 29/07/15. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The salesman was very pleasant and we when through the cost involved and agreed that I would pay £1000 up front and rest on finance and then he told me about a nest control that could control from a mobile phone so I agreed to pay additional £279 up front and they could have someone to fit the boiler on 31/07/15 so we agreed to have fitted on that day but a electrician could not finish the job until Sunday 02/08/15. The installer arrived as planned and fitted the boiler and left us with a working boiler but not a working nest control. The electrician phoned Saturday to see if he come around but after about two hours he could nest link to work with my system he phoned people in which told me that my working diverter valve and control panel would need to be changed and the company would come back to me on costs three days later phoned the company t find out what was happening to be told that it would cost another £400 I thought about it but could not justify the additional expense for a gadget told the comp the same day. On 07/08/15 a supervisor called around but could find a workaround with additional expense so we agreed that he could take back and I was told it would take about a week to get a refund back two weeks went by herd nothing back so over next week I called company three times to be told come back to me and no one called then I Phoned the supervisor that took the nest control back on two occasions the following week and asked to come back to on it again NOTHING. [/FONT]

On Friday 04/09/15 BUT was not going to be fobed this time I asked to speak to a manager and to go through all of the above he left me on hold for awhile come back and told the cheque was with accounts waiting for a director to sign again I asked to speak to a manager to be told they going into a meeting I then asked for him get accounts to phone me for the first time I do get a call and that the cheque for £279 pounds was waiting for a director to sign I then told if this is not resolved in seven working days I would take legal action against this company that was up today gain NOTHING IF this company think its going to get a service contract out ME you better think again.

mjaggard

Help link are one of the worst companies I've had to deal with.

They do the big sell then if anything goes wrong they leave you in the lurch.

Worcester had to come out to our boiler and replace 2 heat exchangers . The engineer asked me how long had the boiler been in? I said 3 years

The engineer said with the amount of sludge in the system help link hadn't flushed the system properly.

It turned out that they had only carried out a chemical flush. I have received a lot of advice that tells me with our system they should have power flushed. After a call to Worcester I asked for a copy of the engineers report. Turned out they were too scared to say anything bad about help link because of custom.

Its me left in the lurch now because I have to pull 350 quid out of my back side which I don't have with a kid.

THINK a lot before using this company help link

liver123_2

Just had a phone all from them, looking on here I think I'll be cancelling my appointment, the feedback doesn't look good