3 missed boiler service appointments

maz403

Covered by Scottish Power Home Comfort for boiler. Started trying to arrange annual service in October. Should have been May but they 'forgot' to send reminder and I hadn't realised.
Difficult to make appointments - teacher , can't have time off. Arranged appointment Mon Nov 18th. Daughter came over and waited all afternoon. Found out after 6pm that engineer had phoned in sick and appointment was never going to be kept. Complained and received apology saying it was a 'training issue' .
Rearranged for 9th December. Daughter available again ( can only do Mondays). Had received 3 assurances that engineer would call half an hour before- no problem she is local. No phone call made just card and message to say he had come to the property but there had been no one home.
Complained again. No real explanation just a sorry and it's in our small print you can't claim compensation.
Rearranged for yesterday morning. Didn't dare go out. Phoned toward end of morning when no one came to be told they had cancelled that appointment on December 17th and I should have been told.
Can't do their next available date since it's a Wednesday in mid January. Further been told that services are now available only on Wed , Thur and Frid - means it will be at least 2 months before I can make an appointment.
Suggested they put me down for last job of day and I can be home by just after 3. No go - you must agree to be there 1-6. Asked repeatedly to speak to someone who could do something to resolve things. Told my only recourse was to write to head office - no email or phone number available. I will do but unlikely to have any result /reply until into the New Year.
In addition I want to change suppliers when contract runs out next month. Wanted my boiler serviced before I did so.
Absolutely furious and banging my head against a brick wall.
Any advice? Thanks

hollydays

Get the service done by a reliable local tradesman instead of the contract next time.
Ask to speak to a supervisor , reiterate your complaint.

ValHaller

Complaint in writing. List the failures as bullet points with reasons Give them one further opportunity to arrange and attend and warn them that if this fails, they will be sacked.

And if they fail, sack them in writing and cancel the Direct Debit.

ThumbRemote

ValHaller wrote: »

Complaint in writing. List the failures as bullet points with reasons Give them one further opportunity to arrange and attend and warn them that if this fails, they will be sacked.

And if they fail, sack them in writing and cancel the Direct Debit.

That's not really what the OP wants, as the fee they have been paying includes the cost of the service, so ending the contract means they'd be out of pocket by one service.

custardy

maz403 wrote: »

Covered by Scottish Power Home Comfort for boiler. Started trying to arrange annual service in October. Should have been May but they 'forgot' to send reminder and I hadn't realised.
Difficult to make appointments - teacher , can't have time off. Arranged appointment Mon Nov 18th. Daughter came over and waited all afternoon. Found out after 6pm that engineer had phoned in sick and appointment was never going to be kept. Complained and received apology saying it was a 'training issue' .
Rearranged for 9th December. Daughter available again ( can only do Mondays). Had received 3 assurances that engineer would call half an hour before- no problem she is local. No phone call made just card and message to say he had come to the property but there had been no one home.
Complained again. No real explanation just a sorry and it's in our small print you can't claim compensation.
Rearranged for yesterday morning. Didn't dare go out. Phoned toward end of morning when no one came to be told they had cancelled that appointment on December 17th and I should have been told.
Can't do their next available date since it's a Wednesday in mid January. Further been told that services are now available only on Wed , Thur and Frid - means it will be at least 2 months before I can make an appointment.
Suggested they put me down for last job of day and I can be home by just after 3. No go - you must agree to be there 1-6. Asked repeatedly to speak to someone who could do something to resolve things. Told my only recourse was to write to head office - no email or phone number available. I will do but unlikely to have any result /reply until into the New Year.
In addition I want to change suppliers when contract runs out next month. Wanted my boiler serviced before I did so.
Absolutely furious and banging my head against a brick wall.
Any advice? Thanks

not to be too nasty
however as a teacher you have set holidays every year?
So how would you have done it in May?
surely you know its got to be done in X holiday period so you would be looking to set it then

ValHaller

ThumbRemote wrote: »

That's not really what the OP wants, as the fee they have been paying includes the cost of the service, so ending the contract means they'd be out of pocket by one service.

True enough. OK. warn them that they will be sacked and the cost of a service will be recovered unless they attend.

shaun_from_Africa

not to be too nasty
however as a teacher you have set holidays every
year? So how would you have done it in May

If (and I'm only guessing here), the boiler was originally fitted in May or this was the month when the service contract was taken out then the annual service would come due the following May.

They could have it done earlier if needed, but as the OP gets their daughter to "house sit" whilst waiting for the service engineer to arrive, they might not have had a problem getting the job carried out whilst they were stuck at work.

maz403

I would have had it done in May half term or in summer if I had realised. My daughter is also a teacher but does not work Mondays. The boiler was fitted in 2006 hence the frustration at not being able to get them to attend - will not be renewing with Scottish Power in January.

ihateyes

This is so typical of companies that solely rely on sub contractors.

Scottish Power will not be aware that subbie isnt working, until customers start calling. remember the subbie, doesnt work for SP therefore isnt isnt 'clocked in' as such.

Im not saying companies that use their own engineers dont so this, but at least they can sometimes, pass it onto another engineer.

Scottish Power simply take the money... the people in the call centres dont work for SP, and the engineers are scottish power employees either

Zandoni

Not sure if it's still the case but ofgem always made the gas companies pay out £30.00 when they missed an appointment.