More appalling Vaillant customer service

Joined
27 Jan 2016
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United Kingdom
Just sent this to their customer service dept:

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I've just had the unfortunate experience of becoming one of your service plan customers, and it's been all bad so far. Zero points for customer service.

What happened?
The inlet pipe on the heat exchanger of my Vaillant ecoTEC plus 624 boiler cracked, and squirted water everywhere, so the boiler was out of action. I was advised by my plumber to join a Vaillant support plan as this would be the most cost-effective way of getting it fixed, because the plastic element of the heat exchanger is not available as a separate part. The whole expensive unit has to be replaced, apparently.

So I joined the support plan and an engineer called on Monday 25 January 2016, inspected the boiler and said he did not have the part (despite them carrying 95% of all parts, says the website) but would order it for Wednesday 27 January. I called Wednesday morning to find out when I could expect the engineer, and was told he would call after 1300 that day to fix the boiler.

He called about 1500, struggled to read the address on (I presume) his satnav but eventually found the house. Parked outside on a double yellow line, he said he couldn't find anywhere to park. I suggested:
1. He park outside temporarily and offload tools etc and then look for a parking space.
2. He use a resident's parking permit (which I offered) which would allow him to park in a resident's parking bay that he said he had found
3. He park in the local theatre car park 50 metres down the road, since he wasn't going to be very long. He said he didn't want to get a ticket, but didn't hear my response which was that it doesn't issue tickets.

He informed me that mine was not the last job, he had another one in Crawley to do before he got home. He then said he would go around again to look for a parking space. He didn't say he would just go, nor did he say whether or not he would report back. So I waited on the doorstep in the cold for 10 minutes, fully expecting him to come around again to say whether he had found a parking space.

He didn't turn up, and I subsequently found out (after calling your company) that he had just driven off (presumably to Crawley and then to his warm home). He did not look again in many of the parking bays in my street because he would have had to re-pass my house, and he didn't.

Conclusion
This is appalling customer service which I am paying for but not receiving. We have been without heat now for a week. It's mid-winter. If I treated my customers this way I wouldn't have much work in a very short space of time.

Call to action
I would expect from you one or more of the following:
1. An apology from the engineer for his dismal failure at customer relations
2. A refund on the support plan to help defray my costs, which amount to:
a) an extra day's heating using electricity (which costs 5x more than gas)
b) my lost two hours spent sorting this out when I should have been working
c) aggravation and stress
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Are you allowed to join the support plan with a pre existing fault? Just wondering?

For the cost you are paying, for what is, to us, a very expensive part, sounds like good value, even if they mess you about. Wouldn't shout too loudly.
 
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Are you allowed to join the support plan with a pre existing fault? Just wondering?

For the cost you are paying, for what is, to us, a very expensive part, sounds like good value, even if they mess you about. Wouldn't shout too loudly.
Fair point on the financial side - but it remains poor customer service, no matter how little or how much you're paying. The website bangs on about quality service being as important as the product quality (or somesuch) but it's clearly BS.

Sorry to bang on about it, but I just feel these companies are so willing to rip us off - especially by selling boilers fairly cheaply and soaking the buyer on parts which don't last or aren't fit for purpose. I just don't feel inclined to cut them much slack.
 
Are you allowed to join the support plan with a pre existing fault? Just wondering?

For the cost you are paying, for what is, to us, a very expensive part, sounds like good value, even if they mess you about. Wouldn't shout too loudly.
+1.

I too am surprised they let you sign up and immediately ask for a call out. Normally there is a fairly long wait before you are allowed to make a claim.(to stop people abusing the service). @mdubash if I were you I would have kept quiet mate! If you are lucky you will still get the problem fixed for less than the cost price of an independent engineer.
 
I smell a rat as all engineers have to call customers between 8-9am on day of visit.u would also received a text to inform you. If you say it's a group service engineer I think you may have got your facts wrong, it may have been an agent.but vaillant are very hot on making us ring and it is strongly monitored. Main hit exch cracking? Erm without being disturbed? Did your engineer change the rubber hoses recently maybe? Or it could just be a blown hose? Keep us posted
 
I smell a rat, or rat $hit. havent got very good signal on my phone at the minute, therefore O2 must be a terrible company in every respect. I want a free phone, because Im filled with anguish.

Not that I dont believe you (Well actually I dont) You appear to have signed up to an online DIY help forum like this, exclusively to moan about the fact you have poor parking facilities.

Get a life.
 
I'm far from a Vaillant apologist, but I have learned the hard way never to accept the customer's protestations that parking sites are not monitored/ticketed.

My lady doth protest too much?
 
i feel sorry for the valliant guy, he has to put up with you. I'm self employed and choose which jobs i attend and who i work for.
you have a major fault on your boiler and are advised by your plumber to join a repair scheme (did you pay him to attend?) and make a 'claim; almost immediately, they attend and then you complain him being unable to find a parking space (in crawley?) and not having the part on the van. (a heat exchanger? yeah i carry them all the time!)

1.feel lucky vaillant agreed to send someone.
2. move house so people can park outside while working at your house, or agree to pay any parking fines incurred.
3. extra day heating at 5x the cost? brrr yeah its chuffin freezing at the moment
4.lost two hours sorting it out? your boilers broke! we all love working after 5 oclock and would be glad to fit round your working hours. we dont have families or social lives or hobbies etc. (we also eat and go to the toilet too if thats allowable?)
5. aggravation and stress? stress is being shot at, and or dealing with drunks in city centres.

Im glad you're not my customer. (you wouldnt be one for long anyway)
 
I am also surprised that Vaillant apparently allowed you to sign up with a major fault!

You also seem to take the view that his parking to attend to you is nothing at all to do with you.

As an independent I take the view that it is essential for me to have parking to repair a boiler and therefore that's for the client to arrange and/or pay for.

The alternatives can be for the client to collect me in his car, or a taxi from somewhere that I can park.

If the client does not have any parking facility or is unwilling to pay for them then I don't accept the job.

Tony
 
Are you allowed to join the support plan with a pre existing fault? Just wondering?

For the cost you are paying, for what is, to us, a very expensive part, sounds like good value, even if they mess you about. Wouldn't shout too loudly.
+1.

I too am surprised they let you sign up and immediately ask for a call out. Normally there is a fairly long wait before you are allowed to make a claim.(to stop people abusing the service). @mdubash if I were you I would have kept quiet mate! If you are lucky you will still get the problem fixed for less than the cost price of an independent engineer.
There's been no subterfuge: I told them the work needed doing, they offered two options, either pay for it upfront, or join the plan for a year, which costs about the same but spreads the payments over 12 months.
 
I am also surprised that Vaillant apparently allowed you to sign up with a major fault!

You also seem to take the view that his parking to attend to you is nothing at all to do with you.

As an independent I take the view that it is essential for me to have parking to repair a boiler and therefore that's for the client to arrange and/or pay for.

The alternatives can be for the client to collect me in his car, or a taxi from somewhere that I can park.

If the client does not have any parking facility or is unwilling to pay for them then I don't accept the job.

Tony
I take your point, except that no-one else - plumbers, electricians, chippies - in the 15 years I've lived here has had a problem finding somewhere to park. Neither have I. Sometime you have to keep looking for five or ten minutes.

But to decide to just disappear because it's the end of the day, leaving the customer high and dry is just - well, it's rude for a start!
 

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