Scottish Power Home Comfort Cover

MarkyW

Hi, just wanted to share my experience with Scottish Power Home Comfort Platinum Cover. I took the cover out alongside a three year fixed rate deal with Scottish Power and the cover began in June 2011. Everything went well until October last year (2013) when I experienced a breakdown, while the engineers were great once they were here, getting them here in the first place was a major issue. Long story short the boiler was finally repaired at the begining of January this year (2014). The Home Comfort cover basically covers all breakdowns to the Boiler (except "water carrying components" - but thats another story) it also gives you an initial inspection and service and then an annual service after that fact. The contract is due to end at the end of January and having all the repairs now completed I phoned to book in my service that I was due. This is where the fun starts...... the conversation goes something like this.... "Hello, I would like to book my annual service please. I will not be renewing my contract so want this sorted before it ends" "No problem sir let me look at your contract.... I'm sorry sir, as your contract ends at the end of January and we cannot get an engineer to you during January then I am afraid we won't be able to carry that service out". I said "I understand if you can't get an engineer to me in January as it is a very busy period, but I am happy for the service to be carried out at your first available date" she replies "sorry sir you don't understand, as we can't get an engineer to you in January and your contract ends at the end of January, we won't be carrying out the service at all"......... Needless to say this wasn't the news I was hoping for! I pointed out that I have been paying for this cover and it entitles me to an annual service that I have not received, so the option is either do the service (I am flexible on the time) or refund the cost of the service. "Oh the service is Free sir, so we can't compensate for this"

This has now gone on for two days and has been escalated to a line manager who told me, "It's your responsibility to book the service as stated in the conditions" however as I had the foresight to read the conditions I asked him to point out where it says that and why isn't an automated reminder sent out on the anniversary of the first service which is defintiely feasible. After not finding any requirement for me to book the service he pointed out that it says "we aim to carry out the service on the anniversary" I pointed out that to aim to do something you have to try to do it in the first place. When I raised the question of compensation of the cost of a service that I would have carried out elsewhere he said "we are not a compensation based company" I raised the point that they aren't a "Service" based company using that train of thought. And so it went on for about 40mins.

Finally, the guy has agreed to try the booking dept again to try and get a service booked and if that doesn't happen he will help me escalate it to the complaints dept.

Moral of the story, never trust a warranty, never trust a power company, never use Scottish Power.

Sorry for the rant but I felt the need to vent....... now breathe.

Mark

villy

I am in a similar situation. I phoned in September 2013 initially to arrange a service, to be told it was very busy and they would not be able to arrange a service for a month. I foolishly believed that Scottish Power would follow up with arranging an appointment.
In November after many frustrating calls, I managed to get an appointment arranged and received a letter to confirm how important it was to service my boiler.
Needless to say the engineer failed to appear. I then had 3 more missed appointments, to make 4 wasted days waiting after deliberate lies from the Home Comfort team.
I have now been told that annual service means 12-14 months and as I managed to get an engineer to come out in January 2013 I will not get another visit. This despite pointing out that the guy who came in January 2013 did not service the boiler. His idea of a service was a quick visual inspection, no tools required!
I have emailed Scottish Power to inform that I will send them the bill for my service engineer, and I look forward to taking them to the small claims court to get settlement. I have also pointed out that they are in breach of contract.

I am now trying to decide which supplier to switch to, any advice of good service would be welcome.

David.

grantboy1uk

I've had nothing but trouble since using SP Home comfort. I've had a leak on my PRV which they have attended too and resolved twice, the issue came back last week adn the engineer arived on friday night.

He said the prv is not covered as it joins onto a unvented cylinder, I explained that you guys have already tried to fix this twice before so why now are you saying its not covered?

I called SP on saturday morning only for the person on the phone to agree. I then called SP customer complaints this mornign and said my contract states that 'all pipe work is covered' and that there is no menction in the TCs saying that a unvested cylinder is not covered. the lady said your right, and that the engineer wasnt qualifed to fix unvested cylinders (so thats why he said its not covered, he also called his office and they confirmed its not convered), be careful using this service, they do tell lies and to be honest, even if they fix the prv im sure it wont last long as this will be the third time! I'm in process of arranging british gas cover, I cannot wait to get rid of SP.

I've had bad services before but serisously this is the worse possible and the sheer amount of complaints you can find online proves this. If you are considering SP, think twice and choose another provider, they all appear to be a lot better then SP.

Islarose

I have a success story to report....

Same problems as above but I sent a letter and email to the managing director and was today offered a £55 refund to cover a boiler service.

Don't give up

good_advice

I have lost faith in these boiler covers. Ours was with BG. A cover that rose in cost every year. I have now canceled and will use a local company from the paper.

Linny61

Hi

I don't have much time to reply but I can tell you that I have had a HC agreement with SP for about two years and the service has been a disgrace. They have come out about 20 times in the past year and have continually left without solving the problem. We let the property just over 6 months ago and the tenant left unable to put up with all the hassle. On one occasion an engineer left a valve open for 4 days and boiling water poured out constantly. On another occasion SP left a message saying they would arrive AM, they turned at 11.30pm!! My poor tenant had to sit in the house for over 15 hrs waiting for the engineer. About 3 months ago the boiler cut out (again) and I was told that no one could come out for 3 days despite there being a child of 3 in the property and it being bitterly cold. They told me on one occasion that there was nothing wrong with the boiler so I extended the cover to the pipes. A couple of weeks after they came out and told me that the boiler needed various new parts! They have never even looked at my pipes since I extended the cover. Since my tenant left 6 weeks ago I've had 3 visits. Each time they needed to order more parts which apparently take days to arrive (despite my local plumber being able to source parts same day). I waited over 6 hours for the first two visits and 5 hours for the third.
The incompetence of the engineers is breath taking. They have repeatedly botched up the jobs and every engineer has to admit to the mistakes of the previous one. When I got an independant plumber in last week he told me they had left the boiler in an unsafe condition. I've complained repeatedly but heard nothing. The tenant is disputing her last bill but SP are denying any responsibility.

My advice - avoid them like the plague!