coverheat - full central heating cover

belgianbaker

Good evening all. After googling I find myself here. I hope someone can help.

I took out boiler cover with Coverheat in October 2007.

In January 2008 the boiler broke down. After several phonecalls to Coverheat, direct liaison with the sub contractor, a few days and 2 visits the boiler was fixed. Importantly the subcontractor was not able to carry out repairs until Coverheat confirmed the boiler fault was covered.

In April I received an invoice from Coverheat stating that no boiler service records had been received thus the work was chargeable. I ignored this demand as my contract only stated they carry out a service within a month of the cover start date (which they failed to do) and there was no requirement for myself to supply a service history.

I have now received a final demand from a debt recovery company for this invoice. Unless it is paid within 7 days they state they will begin CCj proceedings. Coincidentally their address is in the same business centre as Coverheat.

Can someone please advise as to what the proper legal response is and where this could lead.

BaboonBoy

Another victim! We have just received similar belgianbaker. Same address but threatening court action from a debt recovery agency. We followed the advice of a previous contributor and sent a letter and cheque detailng the "without prejudice" because we would just like this monkey off our back now. The charge in question was for a callout when the engineer couldn't find a fault (see previous). We called in a reliable CORGI engineer who couldn't fathom out why the fault wasn't traced as its a common problem with our particular boiler, although he did have to take the front housing off to find it, something that their engineers didn't even bother to do. I would have liked to have ridden this out but we're sick of it and really can't afford to go to court and risk losing (although I don't think we would but you can never be sure). CORGI were helpful but could do nothing!!!! and Trading Standards gave us some advice but said it was up to us whether we wanted to risk going to court. Interestingly they said that we would not be liable for costs even if we lost but, again, do you take that chance. Being a bit short of cash we didn't want to. I believe this is what they're banking on. I'm appalled that they are allowed to carry trading having read the saga of this thread but no-one seems prepared to take action against them. I'll be interested to find out how you get on and Good Luck! Someone has got to bring this into the wider domain. What happened to Watchdog?

BaboonBoy

PS Sorry. The advice about "without prejudice" isn't on this forum. Its on another one, interestingly, complaining about Coverheat. Surprise, surprise!

Yorkie203

Hi everybody. I have joined this thread and signed up to this forum just to let people know of my concerns regarding Coverheat. I like many people found this company via Uswitch and thought that they offered value for money at £150 for full central heating cover & service. Initially everything was ok until there was a leak found on our boiler in between signing up and the first service. We informed the engineer who arrived to do service, but they could not find any trace and left signing the boiler off as all OK.

Two days later the non existent drip became more prominent and I called Coverheat for assistance. I explained all the had gone before and the 1st operator said "no problems" and they would get an engineer to come back and look at the boiler. Approx 1 hour later I received a call from Coverheats customer services, with a different attitude to my problem. The operator was more direct and advised me that because this problem was within the first 21 days of the agreement it was not covered. They would only come out to deal if I paid them £85 + parts up front by CC or I could sort out myself.

I declined their offer and organised a local corgi registered engineer to do the work. The work was completed and the boiler signed off all OK and I sent the invoice and confirmation of this from my engineer to Coverheat as requested by them. They received this info on 7th August and I still have not had any confirmation from Coverheat that my boiler is on full cover or there are restrictions because of the split diaphragm(the part cost £12 and less than one hour to repair). Although I have called 6/7 times, sent 2 e-mails, 1 message on their web site and a formal complaint letter sent by recorded delivery I have had no reply. It's a simple question, but for some reason they cannot or do not want to answer!

Sinced then I have looked on companies house and more informatively googled coverheat to find a couple of forums showing nothing but negative responses about Coverheat. I just wish I had done that before signing up - lesson learned!

Hope this is useful to somebody. Thanks for reading.

mortgageslayer

Another tale of woe...

A couple of months ago I called Coverheat with a loss of pressure and was told that an engineer would be scheduled to assist me. A week later the engineer arrived and located a small leak. He called to order the part and advised me that he would return either the following day or the day after to make the necessary repairs.

The following day I received a call from a representative to advise that she had ‘some bad news’ that I would no longer be insured, and the repair would not be completed. The reason given for this was that the make and model of boiler is not covered by Coverheat any more.
I checked on the website and was able to obtain a quote for my boiler cover with the same make of boiler. I called the sales office and spoke to a member of staff who confirmed that the make and model of boiler was on her list of what can be insured. I then spoke to her manager who again confirmed that the Powermax 155x can be insured as long as it is under 20 years old, which mine is.

How many more people are taking out invalid insurance, or is this specific to my policy only? Has every policy holder with this boiler been informed and refunded, or is it only when a repair is to be made that the policy is terminated?

As far as I understand it, my boiler was undergoing repairs that now have not been completed.

I asked that someone from the ‘works’ team to call me to explain why this problem has arisen, but no one did.

After writing an email (no reply) and a letter (no reply) I chased them up and finally received a call beck saying that the boiler is not insured. They are still taking the money from my account for some reason? A few days later they sent me a letter refering me to their t+c's, and offering to provide a quote for a new boiler!?

Coverheat appear to be useless. Does anyone have an ideas where to go from here? Any contact details for the relevent authorities? HELP!

karatepaul

hi there, good news

Helen Wale, West Sussex trading standards is looking into the trading practices of Coverheat, and I for one will be giving her any help I can to stop these people.

[EMAIL="helen.wale@westsussex.gov.uk"]helen.wale@westsussex.gov.uk[/EMAIL]

01903839791

Come on you lot lets sort this out and get them shut down.Those of us who have tried to deal with them know this is the only way.:T

Cardew

karatepaul wrote: »

hi there, good news

Helen Wale, West Sussex trading standards is looking into the trading practices of Coverheat, and I for one will be giving her any help I can to stop these people.

[EMAIL="helen.wale@westsussex.gov.uk"]helen.wale@westsussex.gov.uk[/EMAIL]

01903839791

Come on you lot lets sort this out and get them shut down.Those of us who have tried to deal with them know this is the only way.:T

Thanks for the info!

The trouble with this type of firm is that they can close down(or be closed down) and start off again with the same premises, same people and importantly same business ethics.

So watch out for Coverheat Mk2!!!!

mortgageslayer

Has anyone had a joy getting resolutions from 'Cover'heat?

Curlygirl

Like everyone else I'm having trouble with Coverheat. I got the initial boiler service but that's been it. I'm now into my 4th week of trying to get them to come out to fix a leaking radiator. I'm so frustrated by the run around you get from the customer service people who basically can't do anything to update their system or find out what's happening. The appalling attitude of some of the staff is beyond belief. All they've claimed to do is pass my query onto the scheduling team, who never get back to me and there seems to be no record on their system of my many calls and complaints to get some action. I'm now going to contact Trading Standards because I've had enough. I've got problems with Talk Talk aswell so I'm at boiling point with incompetent customer services!

mortgageslayer

Its well worth emailing [EMAIL="helen.wale@westsussex.gov.uk"]helen.wale@westsussex.gov.uk[/EMAIL] . You will receive a questionaire, and for me it was great to put down my greivances on paper. Hopefully something good will come of this. Coverheat are the worst company that I have ever dealt with. Horrendous customer service, and non-existant cover!