Scottish Power Won't Repair Boiler

Happy-mummy

Hi all
I hope this is in the right place, it is my first post

In November 2010 we took out Scottish Powers Platinum energy product, which includes Home Comfort boiler care.

We were due a first inspection, but after a couple of phone calls they said they didn't have time, and we were covered anyway. We were also due an annual service, but again, never got one despite phone calls.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a slight drip from the boiler, so an engineer attended, and said the boiler was dangerous, a seal had leaked causing flames to leak out of the boiler and it could have caught fire at any time. He has turned it off, so we have no heating or hot water.

The next day SP rang me to say the boiler is beyond economical repair, so they won't be fixing it. Their contractors have quoted £978. My terms and conditions say they will repair the boiler unless it would be cheaper to have a new one fitted.

I have since found out that our boiler has a known fault so had SP serviced it as part of their T&C, surely this would have been picked up, and we would not be in the position we are now in? We have been escalated to 'higher management' as I am not prepared to accept that they will not repair it, any ideas where we stand with this please?

Sorry for the long post...

Many thanks

Scottish_Power

Hi Happy-mummy

If you would like to send me your details at [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] I can speak to the relevant department for you

Thanks
Lee-Anne @ scottishpower

ollski

What is the boiler?, 978 sounds like a joke price but apart from bg this seems the normal get out for almost all the maintenance service providers.

Happy-mummy

It's a Vaillant Ecomax, needs a new combustion chamber and new seals, and 3 hours labour to do the job. Basically everything plastic has melted due to the flames coming out inside the casing.:(

lithopsian

Play hardball. SP didn't do their job and put your life and your property at risk.

jalexa

lithopsian wrote: »

Play hardball. SP didn't do their job and put your life and your property at risk.

This may not be good news but it's a necessary warning for others.

The (current) terms and conditions includes a clause (6.2) which says this...

"It is your responsibility to contact us within 90 days of the start date... to organise an initial inspection of your central heating system. The initial inspection will allow us to confirm whether we can provide the HomeComfort product to you under this contract"

I think that is a perfectly reasonable requirement so the main issue is specifically their response to any call you made (if any) to arrange the initial inspection within the first 90 days.

Given that the contract started in November 2010 something would seem to have gone seriously wrong with the conduct of the agreement. By which party I am not sure.

As a matter of interest, OP, how old is the boiler? How was it maintained prior to November 2010?

StevieJ

jalexa wrote: »

This may not be good news but it's a necessary warning for others.

The (current) terms and conditions includes a clause (6.2) which says this...

"It is your responsibility to contact us within 90 days of the start date... to organise an initial inspection of your central heating system. The initial inspection will allow us to confirm whether we can provide the HomeComfort product to you under this contract"

Surely the agreement and charging should not commence until the inspection has been completed?

jalexa

StevieJ wrote: »

Surely the agreement and charging should not commence until the inspection has been completed?

There are other clauses which explain what happens if an inspection fails. Normal practice (in breakdown cover contracts) is to refund any payments, though the Scottish Power Platinum deal might be "free" so no idea how that would work.

Happy-mummy

The boiler is about 10 years old, it was installed by the previous owners of our house. It was (apparently) serviced before we moved in in 2009, then we took out the cover in 2010. The T&C's I have are slightly different to the current ones, and did not require us to contact them to make an appointment for the first inspection. However, about 2 months after hearing nothing from them I DID call them, to be told they weren't currently carrying out the inspections, and our cover would resume without. They wrote to me last summer asking me to call and make an appointment for the annual service, which I did, only to be told they were too busy and to ring back in the New Year, which again I did. They were supposed to pass my details on to their contractors, but didn't despite me chasing the appointment.

The reason they are giving me now for not repairing the boiler is that it is 'beyond economical repair'. My boiler apparently is now worth £240, so it is not worth repairing. But my T&C's make no mention of not repairing a boiler BER, only that they will not repair it if I can have a new one installed cheaper. Which I can't. The cheapest quote I've had is £1100.

2 weeks today with no heat or hot water, and no further on really. Just fed up and cold

jalexa

Happy-mummy wrote: »

But my T&C's make no mention of not repairing a boiler BER, only that they will not repair it if I can have a new one installed cheaper. Which I can't. The cheapest quote I've had is £1100.

What you are experiencing is quite typical of problems with boiler breakdown cover.

You are right to drive this hard on the terms and conditions. But be ready for them saying they changed (and we told you).

You need to find out the formal complaints procedure and in particular how to escalate the complaint. ISTM you took all the right steps in trying to arrange an inspection and/or service. I would say on "failure to service" (a 10yo boiler which subsequently sufferred serious failure) Scottish Power are very vulnerable. Proving contact is harder if Scottish Power deny it but one technique is to search your phone records for calls made to their number. If you find the calls do not tell Scottish Power until you have it in writing that they deny being called.

Apart from the hot water situation, lucky that the heating season is almost over. You can play a long game if you like or it may be worth taking legal advice that you intend to install a boiler and seek to recover the costs.

BTW be aware it is in your interest to follow up the offer of help from the Scottish Power forum representative.

And please feedback your experience of that.

Happy-mummy

Well we are definitely in this for the long haul, we have no choice. I did indeed respond to the SP rep who replied on here, she has emailed me to say the complaints team should be in touch within 5 days.
Heating we can live without, the children don't seem to notice, it's the lack of hot water that is getting me down. It's certainly a challenge to wash 2 adults and 3 children from the kettle and a few saucepans.