Boiler PCP

Elham

Hi everyone, 

I had my boiler serviced on Tuesday through a free boiler service offer that I received from OVO energy when I signed up at the end of last year. 

The engineer came in and checked and reported that everything was normal and the boiler had no faults. A couple of hours later the heater didn’t come on at the usual time we set and the hot water stopped working shortly after so we contacted them again and he returned yesterday and advised that the pcp had gone and it needs replacing. 

They sent me an invoice for the pcp of £350 and said that they won’t cover the cost of the repair as the boiler service couldn’t have caused the issue as the service doesn’t involve doing anything electrical or anything that would affect the pcp. 

I have had a long conversation with ovo and raised a complaint and I will see what will happen but they said there is nothing that they can do and the only thing they offered is that I can get a private gas engineer to check and fix it and if they find anything which indicates that the first engineer had caused this then they will investigate it further. 

I don’t know what I should do now as they are adamant that they are not liable and I am waiting for the result of the complaint but I don’t have a lot of hope that it will have a positive outcome. 

I would be grateful if I can get some advice. 

Thank you 

Ayr_Rage

It's a PCB, printed circuit board.

Was the boiler seen working after the engineer had finished the service?

Most PCB failures occur when power is switched off and on again, such as during a power cut or service..

It is not an item that is touched during a routine service but can be damaged by an accidental release of water or physical damage.

If either of those can be proven you may be in luck, so you'll have to get an second opinion.

Elham

Yes, PCB thanks for the correction 

There was no one in the house for a couple of hours after he left around 2pm. The heating comes on at 4pm usually so when we returned home after 4pm the heaters were still off. When we checked the water it worked for a few minutes at first then went off. 

I am trying to get a private engineer to come round but no one seems to be free at short notice. 

ThisIsWeird

As Ayr says, it's hard to think of an external situation that would cause the PCB to fail - other than someone messing with the external control wiring and getting it wrong, which is definitely not part of a routine service.
So, on balance, it's very unlikely that the Ovo engineer caused this issue - it's just coincidental bad luck.
Although expensive items, most PCBs fail through a known component that typically costs around one £ound. Hence, reconditioned units, with these wee parts replaced, are available for a fraction of the new price, and should last just as long. You just need a GSsafe to swap it for you, which should be easy.

Elham

Thanks for the reply guys, I contacted someone and I asked regarding reconditioned ones as well and I am waiting for a reply. Hopefully I will get it sorted soon

ThisIsWeird

Please update us - it's a useful example.