D&G Boiler Claim

ReasonableCustomer

D&G accepted BER boiler claim and £750 contribution but now refusing because I arranged urgent replacement.

Hi all,

Looking for some advice.

• D&G/Baxi maintenance plan on a Baxi EcoBlue 28.
• Boiler repair attempted but failed.
• Required gas valve was later confirmed obsolete.
• Baxi declared the boiler Beyond Repair (BER).
• Household had no hot water from 14 August onwards.
• Baxi notified D&G of the BER.
• D&G accepted the BER and confirmed in writing that a £750 replacement contribution was available.
• D&G's route required a survey, quote and installation through Baxi.
• I asked Baxi for timescales and have written confirmation that survey and installation could not be completed before my independently arranged installation date.
• After more than a week without hot water, and with family health/vulnerability considerations, I arranged an urgent replacement.

D&G have now stated that the £750 contribution is only payable if the replacement is completed through their approved replacement network and not if I use my own installer.

Has anyone successfully challenged a similar decision through:

• D&G's complaints process?
• The Consumer Ombudsman?

My main argument is that no alternative replacement date was offered before my installation date, despite BER having already been accepted.

Aylesbury_Duck

Unfortunately, I suspect you were given the terms and conditions of the contribution. Were you? If so, did you read them before committing to your own installation?

By all means complain if it wasn't laid out properly, and while I don't think there's a "consumer ombudsman", it's likely that D&G as an insurer are part of an ombudsman scheme.

However, before worrying about all of that, how much did you pay for your own purchase and installation?

Have you researched how much it would have been to purchase and install through Baxi, even with the £750?

It's possible you've actually saved money here.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6680819/d-g-boiler-claim

What do the terms state? Assuming it says its only applicable if you use their preferred supplier then your not likely to get it over turned.

Normally the service plan provider gets substantial discounts from their approved installers because they give them vast amounts of jobs so yes you get a quote for £4,000 reduced to £3,250 for the contribution but its likely a small fraction or nothing at all actually comes from the service plan provider and instead its just their volume discount being passed on.

Not sure what you mean by the Consumer Ombudsman? There is no such thing. Only some of D&G policies are insurance that can go to the Financial Ombudsman, most are service plans that arent legally insurance so dont fall into the jurisdiction of the FOS. Maybe you were thinking of the Retail Ombudsman? But they were forced to rename to the RetailADR after it was shown they fell short of the requirements to be called an ombudsman… they are still going under the new name but only work with their clients and D&G isnt one.

ReasonableCustomer

Thanks Aylesbury

That's part of my concern. D&G initially confirmed in writing that my boiler had been accepted as BER and that they would contribute £750 towards a replacement boiler. It was only later that they explicitly stated the contribution would only be paid through their approved replacement network.

I repeatedly asked both D&G and Baxi for replacement timescales because my household had already been without hot water for over a week. Baxi have since confirmed in writing that it would not have been possible to complete both a survey and installation before my independently arranged installation date.

No survey was carried out and no quotation was ever provided through the Baxi route, so I was never able to compare a Baxi replacement proposal against the independently arranged installation.

My concern isn't really about preferring one boiler over another; it's whether it was reasonable to proceed when no alternative installation date was available.

I've actually got a competitive deal in truth, but that not my point, I should not lose the replacement benefit simply because I restored essential services when the approved route could not provide a replacement within a reasonable timeframe

ReasonableCustomer

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82113174#Comment_82113174

Thanks.

That's actually one of the reasons I'm asking the question.

D&G's latest position is that the £750 contribution is only payable through their approved replacement network. However, the policy wording I've reviewed refers to D&G arranging a replacement up to a value of £750, or alternatively providing manufacturer credit/vouchers if a replacement cannot reasonably be arranged.

My main concern is less about the money and more about the practical situation I was left in. By the time the boiler was declared BER I had already been without hot water for over a week. I repeatedly asked both D&G and Baxi for replacement timescales, and Baxi have now confirmed in writing that it would not have been possible to complete both survey and installation before my independently arranged installation date.

So the question I'm trying to understand is whether it is reasonable for D&G to withhold the replacement benefit where their approved route could not provide a replacement within a timeframe that would restore essential hot water services.

Aylesbury_Duck

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82113187#Comment_82113187

My comments will come across as harsh, but I make them to challenge and to help you rehearse your argument:

If the policy wording was available to you at the time of the boiler failure, why did you not ask them about the manufacturer/credit vouchers when it was apparent that them organising a replacement was going to take ages?

You went ahead at your own risk and on the assumption that they'd just give you £750, but how are they to verify that you purchased and installed a suitable boiler in accordance with the regs? You could have given your mate a few hundred quid to install one he got off the back of a lorry. I think it would have been sensible to contact them before, and notify them who was doing the work, what was being installed and whether the installation would qualify for the contribution.

I think you'll struggle with this one, because it appears that you were in possession of the terms and conditions of the contribution, and went ahead anyway. You might get a goodwill gesture. I appreciate why you did as you did - I would have got it sorted first and asked questions later - but if you have a family health vulnerability that makes constant access to hot water essential, relying on a policy that only makes a contribution to a new boiler that's installed through a limited network and only after a survey, was not the right sort of cover for your household.

ReasonableCustomer

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82113208#Comment_82113208

Thanks for taking the time to respond, I genuinely appreciate the challenge and alternative perspective.

The one point I'd clarify is that I didn't simply rely on the policy wording and then book a replacement. In truth, I never anticipated it would take so long to receive a substantive response from D&G.

I actually contacted D&G before the official BER declaration, and continued doing so by telephone, email and webform throughout the process. My concern was always restoring hot water as quickly as possible while understanding how the replacement benefit would be administered.

The first meaningful response I received from D&G wasn't until Saturday 22 August, by which point I'd already had to provisionally secure a replacement installation after being without hot water for over a week.

I completely accept I may ultimately lose the argument, but my concern is whether it was reasonable to expect me to continue waiting when no survey date, installation date or restoration timescale had been provided and Baxi subsequently confirmed their process could not complete before my replacement date.

Really appreciate the feedback though. This seems like an excellent forum for testing and calibrating one's thinking before pursuing a complaint.

Aylesbury_Duck

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82113222#Comment_82113222

I actually contacted D&G before the official BER declaration, and continued doing so by telephone, email and webform throughout the process. My concern was always restoring hot water as quickly as possible while understanding how the replacement benefit would be administered.

I think this should be the crux of your complaint. It's reasonable to expect hot water restoration quickly, and while their policy might not specify a maximum timeframe, reasonableness comes into it, and it seems that despite you chasing, they didn't get off the starting blocks.

I would follow D&G's complaints process and if it gets you nowhere, an ombudsman if they are registered with one. I'd also threaten discontinuation of cover if you haven't cancelled already (and not before any contract period) because with a new boiler, they should make a healthy profit from your premiums in the coming years. Then once this is resolved, cancel anyway! These policies are rarely worth it. It's usually better to self-insure - put a sum of money aside each month towards using a trusted/recommended local gas-safe technician when you need to, and pay him/her to do a proper annual service, not the "stick a probe into the exhaust" effort that masquerades as a "service" for many of these big name outfits.

MyRealNameToo

D&G sell both insurance and what are legally classified as maintenance plans. For insurance your route is to the Financial Ombudsman as insurers dont have a choice they must be within its scheme and scope. There is legislation behind the FOS and most would consider them to have reasonable teeth and in the rare case that the insurer doesnt pay up you can get a court order based purely on the ombudsman's decision rather than having to go through the full court order.

Looking at the Baxi D&G service plan its not insurance, and they have signed up with an ADR service - they do call it the Consumer Ombudsman in their policy but the landing page then sends you off to other firms depending on the source of the complaint, for D&G service plans it takes you on to https://www.flexibleresolutionservices.co.uk/ as the source of ADR for complaints.


Assuming your terms are the same as the terms on the Baxi website, they state that they will arrange for a replacement boiler and if they cannot reasonably do this then they will send you vouchers to the value of a like for like boiler up to £750.

The voucher will only be usable via certain routes and D&G wont have paid close to £750 for it. The policy gives no cash equalent option

The timeline is unclear… you say it stopped working on 14th and that you were out of water for a week by the time you had the replacement sorted. It would be more important to know exactly when it was decided the boiler was beyond economical repair as thats when the clock starts. It sounds like it was only a couple of working days which probably isnt going to be considered reasonable.

"Reasonable" isnt a legally defined value, personally would have said within 2 weeks of the BER decision probably would be considered reasonable

ReasonableCustomer

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82113272#Comment_82113272

Thanks, much appreciated advice