JOB INTERVIEW QUESTION FOR BOILER COMPANY

[the.ideal.man]

Actually CM I used to like them - EVEN the Response had a little place in my heart - until that is, Ideal decided that they couldn't be bothered to support the installer that is, after all, selling their boilers for them.

I can forgive a dodgy production run... but poor customer service. They can phek off.

Why don't you get your MD to post on here if he has your ear? He can then explain what happened to your mob in the last few years. Baxi haven't been sniffing around have they?

i have to agree with you there mate, the company is too bothered about this god damn warmfront lark, we as a company have seriously neglected the installers. we have major contracts with persimmons, wimpeys, and barratts, all which i, and the sales team have neglected. and to the mug thats says i lick arse with the directors, stfu, we as engineers face a constant battle with the men at the top. a company that recruits engineers that have less than a YEARS experience on boilers aint a good move, and yes i agree customer service is poor. when you consider ravenheat, vokera, baxi, and ferrolli, our boilers are well priced and good value for money. ok we maybe a bit behind worcester or vailliant but look at the price difference. 14years of fixing boilers i have seen them all old and new, and i dont think the isar, icos is a bad machine. there is a new one out shortly thats called the esprit, which has brass hydroblock and grundfoss pump, telescopic flue. and the isar will shortly be avialable with telescopic flue and integral digital programmer package. working for a manufacturer i have many mates at other manufacturers, and all of them state that there boilers have faults, many of you dont know these as we tend to keep them in house. my initial post was aimed at the poor quality of engineer that the company warmsure is recruiting and how its damaging ideal.

 

[Dan Robinson]

AR7SE I just deleted a long post.

ce la vie.

t.i.m. you make some very salient points there; but you can not blame Barrats et al for Ideal's demise. As I mentioned in an earlier thread I am too busy for my liking as it means I can not help regular customers that have helped build my business since before I owned it. If a company the size of Ideal does that then they deserve everything they get. I am actually thankful that I got two boiler installs cancelled today as I have a back log of small jobs that are for regualrs. Well perhaps I am a bit miffed at one of them - it was a plumb job...

I know nothing about Warmfront (I actively avoid such things) but the way I was treated by customer services the other month has helped ensure that it will be a long long time; or some earth shattering technical advance before I fit another Ideal boiler. It will take more than a telescopic flue (Potterton have done that for years) and an integral timer (even Sauny's had that 10 years ago).

Jigs and templates are not an incentive for me to buy a boiler. IMHO if you need a template to hang a boiler then you shouldn't be fitting boilers.


I am very glad you have joined the forum, and please don't take criticism of Ideal personally - remember we are the small installers at the sharp end; not house bashers. It costs us more than time to go back to a warranty call!

 

[Agile]

I went to see a boiler fitted by a Warmfront installer quoting their CORGi number, except it was a "private job".

The standard was very poor with the flue hole not sealed at all. The fault on the boiler was severe flue gas recirculation because the installer had not fitted the seal to the flue elbow.

The owner was not keen to report him to CORGi and I spoke to the boss at Iguana but he was not really interested in knowing who he was but confirmed they dont encourage their employees to do private jobs and particularly not using their vans!

Tony

 

[the.ideal.man]

Dan you are absolutely spot on there mate, we have as a company neglected you smaller installers, many of you fit other makes of boilers now, ok other manufacturers have clocks etc, but saunia duvall come on mate, they really are sh1te, potterton puma leaked even if you looked at it the wrong way, i dont take your comments personal at all, i know the call centre is poor, hell even i cant stand calling the twits sometimes. but anything you need to know about our boilers, what ever model give me a shout, or leave a post.

my old boss fitted nothing but ideal, even he is sick of waitin 3days for a call out, not good enough in my opinion. the isar is a great boiler, just a little tight to work on, im lucky i have small hands

 

[Dan Robinson]

My Potterton/Sauny reference was a dig - insult by comparison...

I have fitted plenty of Isars and only had a few problems.

The straw that broke the camel's back was a vibrating diverter valve(terrible noises).

It was one of the CP ones. The system was spotless but the customer called me 15 months after installation. I thought it was a 2 years warranty (in fact I am sure there is a law that says any electrical good must have a 2 year warranty). I phoned Ideal. Arogant cow on the other end of the line said no it was 12 months.

Oh dear methinks; I explained that the problem started just inside the warranty but the customer didn't worry about it until it had escalated - which was true.


Still no joy I then offered to fit the part myself for free if they sent it to the customer.

-No,

Can I speak to a mananger?

-No.

Please?

-No.

Cue short, polite explanation of boiler life expectancy and percentage thus far...

-I don't really know about that. I am going to finish this call.

But what am I going to say to my cutomers?

-That is not my concern. I am going to end this call.

Bu...

Line goes dead.

Luckily the customer heard all of the conversation and has paid my bill which I was too embarrased to make out for the normal amount - trade price for parts and 50% labour discount. Because I WAS too ashamed that a boiler we had recommended had gone so fundamentally t1ts up so early.

Obviously there was a major rethink as you can not even get the replacement cartridge forthe CP valve - you have to change the whole sodding manifold to suit the superior Honeywell. Which luckily, as we installed proper servicing valves (wouldn't trust the boiler's) didn't take as long as I feared when looking at this plastic monstrosity.

 

[corgiman]

I must say that has not been my experiance with Ideal

I have had the creaky div valve called Ideal and said I would fit it if the sent it

a day later I had two

we fitted an icos and got a call about a leak and found that the heat exchanger had gone

called Ideal said if they sent one I would fit it

they said "sorry it will be about two weeks before we can get you one"

I was about to rant and rave when they said "whats your local plumber center and I will call them and you can pick up a new boiler if thats alright?"

I have worked on lots of isars, icos' responses (mind you these are easy "best get a new boiler love" ) so dont often need to call the tech line but when I do I seem to get through very easy and seem to always talk to an ex engineer (better than some spotty herbert in a call center reading the exact same Manual that I have, about as much use as tits on a nun) and if I am really lucky I get to speak to david, I love that mans northern brogue and he always knows exactly what the problems is

I have said before that I fell out of love with ideal because of the response AND m3080 but I am getting to like em now

Mind you fitting a flue on a Classic HE or Optia as Plumb center like to call em is a swine, I hate that seal does it grow or what?

 

[Dan Robinson]

The boilers I can live with - although I did rejoice when I was told by an Ideal engineer that it was "impossible" to change a gas valve on a Response that one of my guys had fitted under a work top.

I managed it in under an hour (about 40 mins if memeory serves me).

"Lazy ****" was the phrase that sprang to mind at the time. But I appreciate the constraints of middle management and all that.

 

[nippermanc]

To be honest I have always found the guys at ideal of a pretty good standard compared to british gas engineers and the helpdesk seem a lot more helpful than worcester bosch, any one interested in the details of the agency recruiting for ideal send me a PM and I will email you the address.

 

[namsag]

Always makes me laugh when somebody boasts up a manufacturers engineer against be it BG or independent. They should be bloo#y excellent they are only working on one make of boiler day in day out 365. With insider knowledge that doen`t get pased on out of house. Not hundreds of different types with there own little quirks and individual faults

 

[nickso]

and not only that a BG engineer doesnt have as many opportunities to pass on boilers they dont like.

 

[nippermanc]

Having had first hand knowledge of Ideal, Worcester, BG, baxi, glowworm and vaillant engineers, I would have to say in my opinion that Ideal engineers in general seem to be better qualified and experienced. I do appreciate that all engineers working for manufactures should have own product knowledge second to none, if they can't fix there own kit who can?

As you are aware Ideal have close ties with Warmsure meaning they deal with various makes of heating systems installed on the Eaga scheme not just Ideal kit.