Scottish Power HomeComfort Premium is a disgrace. Help?!

Gorpie

I signed up for HomeComfort Premium from ScottishPower and the whole thing has been absolutely disgraceful.

They took about 2 months to come and do an initial visit. Not turning up twice, even though we were in at the time.

Then when the engineer did come he was extremely rude and aggressive to my wife.

He scared her by saying that there was a risk of carbon monoxide and that we needed to get a tester right away. He also said that there was potentially asbestos so he couldn't touch it (he did eventually) and then he failed the boiler saying that we needed a power flush before they would even cover us.

So we called some local engineers who did a service and said that the other engineers claims were rubbish (there is potentially some in the flue but as long as you're not leaking smoke or planning to move it any time soon it should be okay) and that the boiler was working really well.

I called ScottishPower to complain and all they've said they will do is that they will feed my comments back to the engineering team, which doesn't give me any satisfactory resolution.

Ideally I would like some kind of recompense but apparently that part of ScottishPower isn't covered by the Ombudsman, which apparently means they can just say spurious non-sense, incur me unnecessary costs (a power flush can cost £600-800), scare my wife and pretty much nothing to make it right.

Sorry, I'm kind of venting but also looking for advice. Is there anything I can do if they decline to look into the complaint further? Is there an impartial service to help resolve complaints like an Ombudsman? Has anyone else had a similar experience (hopefully with success stories)?

SammenForLivet2

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an Ombudsman here, with Scottish Power as the only two words brought up when searching complaint in the terms and conditions are from the paragraph below:

For the avoidance of any doubt, the contract
is a contract for the provision of services by
us to you and does not constitute a contract of
insurance between you and us. This means that
the contract is not regulated by the Financial
Conduct Authority and also means that if you
have any complaint relating to the Product that
you have purchased and/or the services that
we provide to you under this contract, you will
not have the right to refer the complaint to the
Financial Ombudsman Service

Whereas if you had HomeCare with Scottish or British Gas, you'll have full Ombudsman protection: https://www.britishgas.co.uk/help-and-advice/contactus-personal-details/complaints/homecare.html

Scottish_Power

Gorpie wrote: »

I signed up for HomeComfort Premium from ScottishPower and the whole thing has been absolutely disgraceful.

They took about 2 months to come and do an initial visit. Not turning up twice, even though we were in at the time.

Then when the engineer did come he was extremely rude and aggressive to my wife.

He scared her by saying that there was a risk of carbon monoxide and that we needed to get a tester right away. He also said that there was potentially asbestos so he couldn't touch it (he did eventually) and then he failed the boiler saying that we needed a power flush before they would even cover us.

So we called some local engineers who did a service and said that the other engineers claims were rubbish (there is potentially some in the flue but as long as you're not leaking smoke or planning to move it any time soon it should be okay) and that the boiler was working really well.

I called ScottishPower to complain and all they've said they will do is that they will feed my comments back to the engineering team, which doesn't give me any satisfactory resolution.

Ideally I would like some kind of recompense but apparently that part of ScottishPower isn't covered by the Ombudsman, which apparently means they can just say spurious non-sense, incur me unnecessary costs (a power flush can cost £600-800), scare my wife and pretty much nothing to make it right.

Sorry, I'm kind of venting but also looking for advice. Is there anything I can do if they decline to look into the complaint further? Is there an impartial service to help resolve complaints like an Ombudsman? Has anyone else had a similar experience (hopefully with success stories)?

Hi Gorpie,

I apologise for the issues you have encountered in regards to your Homecomfort service.

If you are possibly able to email me at [EMAIL="social@scottishpower.com"]social@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] providing your name, full address including postcode, and a contact telephone number, I will then escalate this matter to one of our Homecomfort complaints specialists so they can get this investigated for you.

Kind regards
Faye