Misold Boiler Contract

sheepish666

A salesman from Boilerking UK came to see me at my home address in March 2014. As part of his sale pitch he stated that I would be saving at least £30 per month as well as the cost of boiler cover as they provided a 24 hr service if anything went wrong. He stated that this was even the case on Christmas Day and that they had local engineers so would not be reliant on them coming from St Helens if I needed them.
I am now aware that this is not the case at all as I found following the installation.
A surveyor attended the following day and he made notes for the installers regarding a number of issues.
These included the boiler being in a cupboard above a bath, no working stopcock tap inside the house, the only one was in kitchen cupboards but is jammed shut, and also that the flue that needed replacing was above the kitchen sloping roof. I was advised by him that installation would take 3-4 hours.
I made arrangements for the boiler to be installed on Thursday 2nd April 2014, I was told that the system would be flushed and then the boiler installed.
On the 2nd April I rang boilerking to ascertain when the engineer would be arriving as I had been led to believe this would be first thing. It was then I was advised that the flush would take place on Thursday and installation on Friday. I then had to make arrangements to take more time off work as this had not been made clear to me.
The men arrived at 10.50am and completed the flush by 12.30pm but I was told that they had been sent to two jobs prior to mine.
The following morning, two men were sent to install the boiler. They were not happy with the job from the minute they arrived. They had not bought the correct ladders for the roof work, had not been told that access to the boiler was from the bath and were not happy that they had been laid off for 2 weeks prior to my job and had been bought back on a Friday. They arrived at 8.40 and finally left at 13.50.
During this time I received a further call from boilerking wanting to book the electrician. I had not been told that the boiler would not be completely installed. I made an appointment for the following Wednesday and arranged to take more time off work.
The installers explained the boiler controls to me, and when they left I went to set my timer for the boiler. I found that the fuse had been taken out and left on top of it.
I contacted boilerking to find out why and was told this was because the electrician had not been. I explained that I had to be up for work at 5.30am and would like the heating on then, I was told to turn the heating on when I got up. I have a 3 storey house with stone floors which wouldn’t have heated before I left for work so had to have the heating on through the night.
Later that evening I noticed that two of the three radiators that had been fitted with new valves were leaking. I tried all evening to contact boilerking both on the number given on my paperwork for any problems after installation and on the main number on their website. No one answered. I tried again all day on Saturday and Sunday but it was not until 8.30am on Monday that I managed to get hold of anyone.
I explained the situation and was told that they did not have a 24 hour helpline, and that no one did. I explained that I had been told this was the case by the salesman and was told that no boiler company had that. (British Gas & Npower definitely have 24 hour numbers to contact someone). I was also told that this was an issue with installing on a Friday.
It was agreed that someone would attend that afternoon to check the leaks which they did. They fixed one by tightening in but realised that the pipework for the other had been nicked.
I also ensured that the electrician and the installer were reatteding on Tuesday to finish the job properly.
They arrived on Tuesday morning and finished around 2. They did not fit the wireless thermostat that I had ordered as the electrician deemed it too complicated for me and unecessary as I already had a wired one. He did replace this with a newer looking one.
I have found brass screws and rings around the house, luckily neither me nor my dog have stood on these but this could easily have been the case.

I was clearly misold the boiler when I was told that I have 24 hours cover when it is clear that I don’t.
I was also been charged for a wireless thermostat which was deemed too complicated for me.
What I was led to believe was 1 day job turned into me taking 4 days leave from my work for the installers & electricians.
The guys that turned up for the flush were great and apologetic that I was unaware they weren’t fitting the boiler.
The two that turned up to install were obviously not happy with the work that needed doing and that they were having to work on a Friday.

I wrote a letter of complaint to Boilerking straight away and was contacted by the manager who agreed that I had received a dreadful service and that he would ensure that the 24 cover would be discussed at the managers next meeting and he was hopeful that this was something they could provide in the future. He agreed to refund for the wireless thermostat.

I am fuming, if I had known that the cost of the boiler installation etc, a whopping £2500 did not include 24 cover I would not have accepted their contract.

I posted my complaint on another forum and have since heard from another complainant who contacted GasSafe who shut her boiler down as there were so many problems with installation.
This check is only free in first 6 months of fitting and I'm just out of that.
I did get a call a couple of months after i posted this asking if I would consider deleting this post as they were concerned it made them look bad and they had tried to deal with my issues
In fact all they have done is refund me for the thermostat which they did not fit.
They did mention that they would be providing a 24 hour cover but could not give me a start time for this and having tried to contact them at a weekend, it is definitely not in place.

Luckily I have not needed any assistance from them but am not covered by anyone if I do. I cannot afford the monthly payment to them and another to a company to cover a boiler I believed was already covered.

System

Take your case to your local Trading Standards. They are usually happy to advise on whether you have any comeback. Notwithstanding the issues that you have had, I assume that you are happy with the boiler? If you suspect that there might be a safety issue then my advice would be to get the boiler checked by an independent Gas Safe-registered engineer.