Problems with an NPower boiler engineer

PaulJM

Hi all,

I have N Power boiler cover at the moment - I have a combi boiler which seems to go wrong every year, and because of the urgency of when it goes wrong, I chose to have boiler cover - I don't really believe in extended warranties, but I make my money back on this one, and there's a guaranteed engineer on the end of the phone line (usually)
Anyway.
I'm currently with N Power (BG decided to double the monthly payment at the end of each year with them, so, even though they are, in my opinion, the best of a bad lot, I go with someone else for a year until BG return to their normal price)
Had a couple of engineers out, and neither found a fault with my boiler, which was intermittently off. The second guy reset it (Something I do, but it worked after a day or two), and it worked - he ordered a part which wasn't related to the issue I'd logged, but part of another small fault he'd found.
An engineer came to install this part on Saturday (after letting me down for 2 days running). Bearing in mind that the boiler had been working fine for two weeks. As he was working, the electricity fuse tripped, so I went to check if he was ok - he said he'd got a 'belt' off the boiler, and I could switch the fuse back on.
10 minutes later, he came and told me that the boiler was completely broke - he'd found a fan fault and a seal failure (I'd told both previous engineers it had been leaking slowly)
So, I'm without hot water and heating (it's pretty cold at the moment) - what makes me cross is that it was working until he attended to it.
N Power are waiting for these parts, and I'm waiting to see when they'll be installed - suffice it to say I've complained to them about this strongly.
I'm really cross though - surely it's dangerous to mess with these things with the boiler switched on at the mains (there is a perfectly accessible power switch for the boiler outside the bathroom?
Also annoyed that he's obviously broken the boiler and I have to suffer without any hot water or central heating.
I know mistakes happen, and I also know things go wrong, but this has made me really mad - he left the boiler with the panel off, still switched on at the mains, and dripping underneath.. (I've switched it off)
I'm prepared to give them a week to get it sorted, but I want them to take responsibility for this - it seems dangerous, and that engineer is going about sorting other people's boilers - how can I do that?
I don't really have any actual losses out of this, save being cold and smelly....my pregnant wife and children too!
PS - N Power used a third party called 'Heat the Home' - that is who came to my house. They have hardly covered themselved in glory.

Mr_Ted

:eek:Doesnt sound to good:(

A boiler should only be left live for testing purposes, and then with care and correct training, and he should not have needed to do that if he was just changing parts.

I would say though that any electrical appliance SHOULD have a local electrical isolator, I think, within 1.5 M of the appliance so that it can be reached in an emergency to switch of, AND for safe working on the appliance.
It could be that he was just to lazy to walk those great distances to switch on and off?

You need to check his GAS SAFE registration to see if he is actually qualified to work on boilers also, but unfortunately you are in their hands to complete a repair, althhough under the circumstances they should make it a priority and investigate what happened.
Ask them for a priority visit AND ask for a SUPERVISOR to attend, FROM WHO YOUR COVER IS WITH!

PaulJM

They've come with their supervisor and the parts today, so it'll be interesting to see what happens now.
The CEO complaints team called me back yesterday too, so give them some credit for that, even though they haven't done anything yet, lets give them some time....

Mr_Ted

Let us know plz:)

dacouch

Surprised they did not ask for cash to avoid the tax.

PaulJM

They've been, installed the parts and its working, engineers here for 3 hours..
Hopefully it'll stay that way.
Not sure i can ask for more, except for an explanation of why they have been so poor!

P.s - seems to be well worth emailing the CEOs, I got a call back the next day from their complaints team...

PaulJM

Resurrecting this, as it got slightly annoying!

Engineer came out last week, and fitted the part, after a lot of messing about - it's been working since, so that's good news.

However, I'd put my complaint in, and received a letter back from NPOWER. I'd like to take this further, but I'm not sure what I'd actually be wanting from them - just some acknowledgement that it wasn't a great fudge, I guess.

So,
- Engineer blew a fuse in the consumer unit, and said he got a 'belt' from the boiler.
NPower have spoke with the third party company, and he said that this didn't happen. I can't prove he said he got a 'belt' (though he did) but my family were all in the house when the power tripped.
- Engineer never turned the power off on the boiler (thus it tripped the house) and left it on and dripping.
Engineer has said he did make it safe, did turn the power off, and didn't trip the electricity - this is simply not true.

My two issues with this are;

He was incompetent, and left a boiler in a house with children in unsafe.
The boiler was working, albeit off sometimes, until he came and went, then it was completely broken. I reckon he broke the fan when he shorted it, and his denial is trying to get out of that situation.

So, I can't really take them to court, as I've no real losses over this, apart from a few days cold and without hot water, but NPower have now closed their case, so as far as they're it's all over.
I'm just not happy with that.

southcoastrgi

what boiler is it make & model ?

PaulJM

southcoastrgi wrote: »

what boiler is it make & model ?

SIME format 30HE (about 6 yrs)

Yes, I know it's a load of snot - it was in the house when we bought it, and it's cheaper to keep it on a service contract than replace.

nPower

PaulJM wrote: »

Resurrecting this, as it got slightly annoying!

Engineer came out last week, and fitted the part, after a lot of messing about - it's been working since, so that's good news.

However, I'd put my complaint in, and received a letter back from NPOWER. I'd like to take this further, but I'm not sure what I'd actually be wanting from them - just some acknowledgement that it wasn't a great fudge, I guess.

So,
- Engineer blew a fuse in the consumer unit, and said he got a 'belt' from the boiler.
NPower have spoke with the third party company, and he said that this didn't happen. I can't prove he said he got a 'belt' (though he did) but my family were all in the house when the power tripped.
- Engineer never turned the power off on the boiler (thus it tripped the house) and left it on and dripping.
Engineer has said he did make it safe, did turn the power off, and didn't trip the electricity - this is simply not true.

My two issues with this are;

He was incompetent, and left a boiler in a house with children in unsafe.
The boiler was working, albeit off sometimes, until he came and went, then it was completely broken. I reckon he broke the fan when he shorted it, and his denial is trying to get out of that situation.

So, I can't really take them to court, as I've no real losses over this, apart from a few days cold and without hot water, but NPower have now closed their case, so as far as they're it's all over.
I'm just not happy with that.

Hi PaulJM,

Sorry to read that you're still not happy and want to take your complaint further. Did you agree with the team for the complaint to be closed, or did you raise these concerns to them?

I'd be happy to speak to the team about your points if you want to pop me an email with the details on to [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL]

Kind regards,

Adam

PaulJM

It wasn't as if I got given a choice. I was told by the complaint guy, Mohammed ( I'm pretty sure it was Mohammed Ali, but I might have dreamt that) that they considered it to be closed, which the letter states too.
I'd take it to court, I think the above shows that it was a mess and a cover up, but I have no real incurred losses.