Boiler cover renewal.

Rev

MarkBargain wrote: »

What reason did they use for not honouring their warranty?!

I have a Baxi which came with a 7 year warranty and haven't had to call on it yet.

Vaillnt apparently offer a 7 year warranty if the boiler is installed by them, but mine was installed by British Gas, so didn't qualify for the extended warranty.

They didn't give much of a reason, I've found their customer service to be the worst I've ever come across to be honest. He simply said before they'd send anyone out I needed to pay £90, I explained I didn't have £90 and asked why would I have to pay for an in warranty repair, he said that's how it works and if I didn't have the £90 there was nothing he could do.

That wasn't the worse of it, as I said about since then I've spent 4 months trying to get an answer as to why I needed to pay £90 for an in warranty repair and have been ignored at every turn, I've never come across such awful customer service.

MarkBargain

Rev wrote: »

Vaillnt apparently offer a 7 year warranty if the boiler is installed by them, but mine was installed by British Gas, so didn't qualify for the extended warranty.

They didn't give much of a reason, I've found their customer service to be the worst I've ever come across to be honest. He simply said before they'd send anyone out I needed to pay £90, I explained I didn't have £90 and asked why would I have to pay for an in warranty repair, he said that's how it works and if I didn't have the £90 there was nothing he could do.

That wasn't the worse of it, as I said about since then I've spent 4 months trying to get an answer as to why I needed to pay £90 for an in warranty repair and have been ignored at every turn, I've never come across such awful customer service.

That all sounds rather unsatisfactory, so I would submit a formal written complaint if I were you and threaten to escalate it. If a guarantee is in place it should be honoured. I have never heard of a company charging in advance of a warranty call out in case it is not valid! Again, surely that should be made clear at the time you purchase the product and on the phone when you try to claim.

British Gas quoted me £4.5K for a new boiler and I got a local Gas Safe Engineer to install for £2K. That is a Baxi with a 7 year warranty, valid so long as annual services are undertaken.

It sounds like going down the British Gas route has worked out very expensive for you unfortunately.

Rev

MarkBargain wrote: »

That all sounds rather unsatisfactory, so I would submit a formal written complaint if I were you and threaten to escalate it. If a guarantee is in place it should be honoured. I have never heard of a company charging in advance of a warranty call out in case it is not valid! Again, surely that should be made clear at the time you purchase the product and on the phone when you try to claim.

British Gas quoted me £4.5K for a new boiler and I got a local Gas Safe Engineer to install for £2K. That is a Baxi with a 7 year warranty, valid so long as annual services are undertaken.

It sounds like going down the British Gas route has worked out very expensive for you unfortunately.

Sorry, I should have said. I have sent a written complaint. And emailed several. All have been utterly ignored and to be honest I've spent four months getting absolutely nowhere. I won't be wasting any more time on them.


Indeed it has. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

MarkBargain

Have you complained to British Gas as the supplier of the boiler and the company that sold it to you?

daveyjp

OP. If you read your Vaillant warranty letter you will see who carries out any warranty work on behalf of Vaillant, its Homeserve.

Rev

MarkBargain wrote: »

Have you complained to British Gas as the supplier of the boiler and the company that sold it to you?

I haven't. I didn't think to to be honest. But as I said earlier I've wasted more than enough time with them and won't be wasting anymore.

Rev

daveyjp wrote: »

OP. If you read your Vaillant warranty letter you will see who carries out any warranty work on behalf of Vaillant, its Homeserve.

My warranty simply says warranty work will be carried out by a 'Vaillant certified engineer'.


I did call them when the warranty was up (or so I thought, Vaillant didn't correct me either!) and ask if they offered any type of extended warranty/boiler cover. The CS rep said they did but they don't anymore. She did say they used to be cover by Homeserve but that they weren't working with them anymore. This was twelve months ago. My warranty letter is 24 months old and makes no mention of Homeserve.


Not saying you're wrong just what I was told. Obviously I could be wrong, she could have just made it up or been misinformed. I don't know!

OWT_FOR_NOWT

sse currently have an offer for annual boiler cover with a service and initial check up. If you sign up before 31st March 2016 you get the first 6 months free. Then it's £12.40 a month for the remaining 6 months on the flexi plan.


If you do this via quidco then you get £40 cashback. Works out at £34.40 for the year.

macman

But you would have an emergency fund if you hadn't wasted £310 in 2 years covering a boiler that was already under 2 years (at least) warranty. The only difference is that the manufacturer's warranty obviously won't get you a 24 hour response.

gilbert_and_sullivan

My local boiler chap charges around £45 for an annual service, worse repair to the old boiler was a new heat exchanger so roughly £200 inclusive of the annual service done at the same time.

What we've saved on paying big companies money for their 'protection racket' alone over the years more than paid for our new boiler last year.

Develop a working relationship with your local small business and save ££, this applies to lots of purchases/services.