Scottish Power Won't Repair Boiler

Happy-mummy

The saga continues...

Had an engineer round last week to give us a second opinion (SP advised this) The conversation went something like this-

Eng - Have you removed your warning label?
Me - No. He didn't put one on.
Eng - He didn't isolate the boiler either, it's still connected to the gas supply. That's incredibly dangerous. Have you got his Gas Safe ID number?
Me - yes. Eng then puts his number into the checker on Gas Safe's website.
Eng - Is this him?
Me - No. never seen him before, plus he worked for an entirely different firm than him on the website, and that's not his name.

My second opinion did confirm SP's diagnosis, and quoted £620 to repair it.

Later that afternoon, SP rang to say although they had reduced the cost of my repair to £690, they still feel it would be cheaper for me to replace my boiler. I said, please come round and replace my boiler for £690, I will pay. They said 'Oh replacement doesn't mean fitted'....

So presumably, anyone with the same level of cover had better hope their pump/fan/any part really never needs replacing, because SP will no doubt post the part out and expect you to fit it yourself. I'd love to see how they replace their lightbulbs without first removing the old one and then fitting a new one....

Oh, and to add insult to injury, got a letter in the post this morning telling me they will be calling to service my boiler in a couple of weeks. Good luck to that engineer then....

We've taken legal advice, and written to them. If we don't get a satisfactory outcome we'll be seeing them in court.

lemontart

keep us posted and good luck

deanos

OP do you have an immersion heater for the water ?

Happy-mummy

No, no immersion or electric shower. Literally no hot water except the kettle.

Canucklehead

OP: the defect should have been remedied at an annual service as Vaillant issued a service reminder in 2007 (assuming the boiler had annual servicing from Year 1). My OH attended a Glow-worm last November which hadn't been serviced annually and had the faulty seal.... in that case fortunately no internal damage had resulted.

More in Technical Bulletin 078 from GSR.

Good luck with your case.

Canucklehead

Terrylw1

So SP are using a contractor who is fraudulently using someone else's gas safe ID.

I think I would be reporting him via...

http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/help/report_an_illegal_gas_engineer.aspx

Could the number be a typo or is it on official documentation? If its the correct number but the wrong photo, its worth reporting because its very possible this guy is not qualified (the latest engineer has clearly pointed this out) and could end up causing some harm.

ihateyes

Happy-mummy wrote: »

T
Eng - Have you removed your warning label?
Me - No. He didn't put one on.
Eng - He didn't isolate the boiler either, it's still connected to the gas supply. That's incredibly dangerous

there seems to be a pattern here and a very dangerous pattern, where these Cowboys, advise customers their boiler is dangerous, but dont cap the boiler off...........


These people need dealt with.......

ollski

Are we just talking about a perished door seal leading to a melted flue collector?. I can't see the extent of the damage but might it be worth a call to vaillant fixed price repair and then passing that bill on to sp with a further demand for compensation?

Happy-mummy

Ollski - the combustion chamber has distorted due to the disintegrated seal, and everything plastic has melted inside the casing where the heat has been escaping. It also may or may not need a new heat exchanger, we won't know that until it comes apart. Amazing really it was still working!

ollski

It is amazing as I have never had one get to anything close to that extent without the overheat thermostat tripping. Vaillant should still cover under the fixed price repair though especially as they should have replaced the seal already.