Scottish Power Home Comfort Hell

astralbee

I’ve had an absolutely shocking experience with Scottish Power’s “HomeComfort” boiler care this month. In short I have had the engineer they sent make my boiler worse than it was already, been lied to by their helpline, fobbed off, lied to again, and have so far been waiting over 5 days for someone to come and fix the problem that they failed to fix on the first or second visits and has left me without hot water.

I want to make a complaint to the highest authority possible not simply because their service has been unacceptably poor, but because they have acted unethically. The manager I spoke to last night (Lucy) had to admit to me that two of her staff had outright lied to me.

Can someone help me understand where to direct a complaint? See, I asked the helpline if their organisation was regulated by the FSA and the operator replied “Scottish Power is not regulated by the FSA”. Now, thanks to MSE I have become pretty savvy about picking up on ‘clever wording’. He was specifically telling me that Scottish Power were not regulated by the FSA, but I know that Scottish Power farm out their boiler cover to other companies and I was probably not speaking with Scottish Power at all. I persisted – and he admitted that they were in fact an FSA regulated organisation as they sell insurance, but he insisted that my agreement was with Scottish Power and as a service contract (not an insurance policy).

Is that correct? Do I have no course to complain to the FSA about a company they regulate because my contract is with a different organisation and they are simply carrying out the work? Or would trading standards have any kind of clout against a company making false promises as they have?

macman

Your contract (and therefore your redress) is with SP. You have no contract with their subcontractors-that's for them to deal with.
The point of a complaint is to get some redress, and you won't get that from the service company, only from SP.

ihateyes

astralbee wrote: »

I’ve had an absolutely shocking experience with Scottish Power’s “HomeComfort” boiler care this month. In short I have had the engineer they sent make my boiler worse than it was already, been lied to by their helpline, fobbed off, lied to again, and have so far been waiting over 5 days for someone to come and fix the problem that they failed to fix on the first or second visits and has left me without hot water.

I want to make a complaint to the highest authority possible not simply because their service has been unacceptably poor, but because they have acted unethically. The manager I spoke to last night (Lucy) had to admit to me that two of her staff had outright lied to me.

Can someone help me understand where to direct a complaint? See, I asked the helpline if their organisation was regulated by the FSA and the operator replied “Scottish Power is not regulated by the FSA”. Now, thanks to MSE I have become pretty savvy about picking up on ‘clever wording’. He was specifically telling me that Scottish Power were not regulated by the FSA, but I know that Scottish Power farm out their boiler cover to other companies and I was probably not speaking with Scottish Power at all. I persisted – and he admitted that they were in fact an FSA regulated organisation as they sell insurance, but he insisted that my agreement was with Scottish Power and as a service contract (not an insurance policy).

Is that correct? Do I have no course to complain to the FSA about a company they regulate because my contract is with a different organisation and they are simply carrying out the work? Or would trading standards have any kind of clout against a company making false promises as they have?

SP does not run their cover as Insurance, and is not FSA regulated.

British Gas runs homecare as an insurance product and IS FSA regulated.

Scottish_Power

astralbee please e-mail us at [EMAIL="social@scottishpower.com"]social@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] and we will escalate this for you. I'm very sorry it has not been sorted so far. David

undaunted

Scottish power is regulated by Ofgem but they do not deal with consumer complaints, the Energy Ombudsman does.

Check with them whether they will deal with complaints of this nature. Alternatively, as you've suggested you could try Trading Standards.

That said, it isn't clear from your post what you say they've lied about or whether they have in any way failed to meet a service standard they pledged to meet - I doubt they guaranteed to fix first visit, within x days as some things - eg parts supply - could be outside of their control

Scottish_Power

I can confirm that energy services such as home comfort are not in the terms of reference for the Energy Ombudsman to investigate but I'm sure they will confirm that independently for you. However we are happy to help to reach a resolution.

Thanks David

CRISPIANNE3

SP Excellent for my gas and electricity but thats it. I have been with BG
for 5 years with their Homecare 400 and receive brilliant service.

emmyjenny

We had a terrible experience with Scottish Power and are still trying to sort out the problem. We had to go through six visits from SP before they eventually brought the right part for the boiler even though the first engineer had identified this problem on the first visit. The engineer came to fix the boiler and left, within seconds the boiler was pouring water all over the wooden floor and over electric wire that the engineer had left exposed!!!! We rang SP who told us an engineer woould be out soon this was 6pm we rang back at 8pm no engineer available. We had to switch off heating and water in the middle of January with a child in the house. The next day SP rang to say they couldnt come but changed their minds when told of my daughters heart condition:mad:

We complained to SP ont he 24th Jan and waited eventually a very lovely lady contacted us trying to help, however, no joy we received a letter basically telly us we lied and that the boiler was not leaking water or was electirc cables exposed!!!!!!!!!! they even tried to change the dates to help themselves however virgin media do keep a log of phone calls so we can prove along with our photographic evidence that it did indeed happen. We are still waiting nine weeks later as apparently they now need additional 14 days to investigate.

Appalling service and how dare a company 'fix' dates and call customers liars for only expecting a service we pay for :mad::mad::mad::mad:

Celiaj

I too am having a really bad experience with SP. I have had no hot water since the 24th Mar. I have a combi boiler, so apart from a kettle I have no other way to heat the water, and despite 5 visits from different engineers and fitting parts that were not needed, cancelled appointments etc. I am worse off than before. I now have no hot water or heating. I spoke to them again yesterday and they assured me it was being treated as urgent and someone would ring me by the end of the day to keep me updated( obviously they didn't) we are both over 60 and I have arthritis and really suffer in the cold. I really am at my wits end and I would be grateful for any advice.

rbsn

Have you tried emailing SP n the email below, they have offered to try and help other people, see above posts. Hope you get something sorted out soon.




[EMAIL="social@scottishpower.com"]social@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL]

macman

After waiting 3 weeks, I'd cancel your cover and get in an independent local RGI who will probably have you up and running within a day or two.