Complaint Re Warmsure
Reference Number 40705419
Boiler : Ideal Icos
We are with Barclays Home SOS, on Monday 21st March at 09.15, we rang the Barclays helpline, as we had a problem with our central heating boiler, the person on the other end informed us that someone would be in touch within two hours. At 1400 hours we rang again has no one had called and we wondered how long it was going to take. We rang again at 14.45 and 16.45 and eventually an engineer (so called) turned up at 18.00.
On looking at the boiler the engineer who introduced himself as Bill told us that the boiler needed a complete rebuild. Fan, PCB board and a new wiring harness, Bill told us that he had rebuilt hundreds in his time, so we were pretty confident that the problem would be sorted very soon. On asking Bill how long this would take his reply was 10 days, but if we had not heard anything within a few days to give the company a ring to measure any progress. We rang again on Thursday 24th March to be informed that the job had been authorized and the parts ordered.
Bill called again at the house on Monday 28th March at 18.00 to take some serial numbers from some parts and informed us that he would be calling either Wed or Thurs 30th 31st March to do the job. There was no visit on the Wednesday and the engineer turned up at 17.30 on Thurs 31st March. Bill was accompanied by his daughter who informed me that she intended to make plumbing her career when she starts college.
The engineer was at the house for four hours, we could tell that he was really struggling to rectify the problem, he changed the fan, board and wiring harness but did not take the casing off, now what we know has the heat exchanger. Bill kept on saying there was a serious wiring problem because the power kept tripping at the RCD unit. He eventually (or so we thought) sorted the problem and tried to ignite the boiler. After a further 90 minutes of trying he was now telling us that the electrodes had gone because he couldn’t get the ignition, and then what happened next left me in complete amazement, The engineer had realised he had not reconnected to the gas, after a few minutes of Bill trying to play down the situation, he reconnected and the boiler relit. We thought great hot water again and especially we thought we could have the heating back on. Alas this was short lived, after two minutes the power tripped and boiler shut off.
Bill was now bemoaning that there was a severe wiring problem and blaming all sorts as to why he could not mend the boiler, he went as far to say that the house had been wired up wrong. The engineer left the house at approx 21.30 and informed us that he would tell Warmsure we required an electrician.
My wife rang Warmsure again on Friday morning 1st April 2011 to ask what was happening. They had informed us that they had spoken to the engineer and he insisted that it was a wiring problem and Warmsure would have to approach Barclays once again for authorization to call in an electrician.
My wife had given Warmsure permission to speak to me, as on previous attempts they had informed me that because I was not the account holder (yet we have a joint account) that they could only speak to my wife.
My wife rang up again 16.30 and their reply was that the job was being priced up. My wife rang again on Monday 4th April 2011 and was told they were still waiting to hear from Barclays because of the extra cost. My wife rang them again that same day at 14.30 to be told that an electrician would be calling with all the details of what work that had already been done so that he knew what to do.
On Thurs 7th April another heating engineer (not an electrician) turned up at the house, again I was amazed when he asked me what the problem was. I asked If he had any knowledge of the work history behind the job, and he replied no. The second engineer fitted another PCB and left not even testing the boiler, His reason for this was that, I had informed him that the 3 port valve was not wired up in the airing cupboard, as I was having it replaced. He then informed me that once the 3-port valve was connected, the boiler would be fine.
I found this a bit odd, have I already had an independent report off a qualified engineer stating that this was not the case. On having the 3-port valve connected, we switched on the boiler expecting it to ignite only to receive an error warning on the front of the boiler; the warning was an alternating L 8. When looking at the fault section in the boilers manual it was telling me that there was a fan error and that the cause could possibly be one or number of things, I.e. the fan or the PCB.
We immediately called Warmsure again and were told that we would be called back. When the phone call came we were told that an engineer had been instead of an electrician, as Barclays had only authorized parts has they had been instructed that they did not know if they would actually be able to fix the problem. The same person also told us that the issue would now be passed onto a service manager.
We were told that because we had reach a stage where the issue was becoming serious we would be passed onto a lead engineer, and arrangements were made for a visit on Thurs 14th April 2011.
As promised we received a call on the 14th that the engineer was on his way, I made my way home from work to let the engineer in, and was feeling quite optimistic of it being resolved. A knock on the door, I let the engineer in and suddenly thought what the hell, The lead engineer has I thought was aged around the mid twenties and it was quite clear there was something wrong, He was making hand gestures, shouting and sudden body movements. He then went onto explain he suffered from torretts, Now that was not a big problem for me, although I didn’t know what to make of it, but it could have been quite unnerving for a lone female. He then informed me that a second person was on their way and in the meantime started to strip down the boiler.
The second engineer arrived who turned out to be the lead engineer, The lead engineer than asked for the history behind this issue, I again explained and they went their way on trying to fix the problem. This time a laptop was used which contained diagnostic software, so by this time I was getting really optimistic. The fan and PCB were replaced again, and then they attempted to ignite the boiler, As soon as they switched it on it tripped the power at the RCD, The two engineers then decided to strip the boiler down again and this time took the casing off (remember the heat exchanger) to find out that heat exchanger casing had melted and was the cause of all the problems.
This was shown to me, and I immediately asked why the two previous engineers had not found this fault, as it was quite serious. The lead engineer tried to make out, that he was not aware of two previous engineers visiting.
He then explained that the job to replace the heat exchanger, which in my opinion, should have been identified on the first visit by an engineer who clamed that he had rebuilt hundreds of boilers of this kind would have to be authorized by Barclays.
Warmsure have now rang on the 14th April and explained that the job has now exceeded the insured limit of £1,000 and now stands at £1,449.18. They have asked If we will meet the overspend to which we have declined to pay. The reason for this is because we believe that that the fault had been misdiagnosed from the beginning. And that a qualified engineer should have picked this up.
In Summary
· This issue has been going on now for nearly five weeks
· Three PCB Boards
· Two fans
· New Wiring
· Four Engineers
· And it is still not working!
Taking all the above points into consideration, The work has not been completed and does not look like ever being resolved.
Reference Number 40705419
Boiler : Ideal Icos
We are with Barclays Home SOS, on Monday 21st March at 09.15, we rang the Barclays helpline, as we had a problem with our central heating boiler, the person on the other end informed us that someone would be in touch within two hours. At 1400 hours we rang again has no one had called and we wondered how long it was going to take. We rang again at 14.45 and 16.45 and eventually an engineer (so called) turned up at 18.00.
On looking at the boiler the engineer who introduced himself as Bill told us that the boiler needed a complete rebuild. Fan, PCB board and a new wiring harness, Bill told us that he had rebuilt hundreds in his time, so we were pretty confident that the problem would be sorted very soon. On asking Bill how long this would take his reply was 10 days, but if we had not heard anything within a few days to give the company a ring to measure any progress. We rang again on Thursday 24th March to be informed that the job had been authorized and the parts ordered.
Bill called again at the house on Monday 28th March at 18.00 to take some serial numbers from some parts and informed us that he would be calling either Wed or Thurs 30th 31st March to do the job. There was no visit on the Wednesday and the engineer turned up at 17.30 on Thurs 31st March. Bill was accompanied by his daughter who informed me that she intended to make plumbing her career when she starts college.
The engineer was at the house for four hours, we could tell that he was really struggling to rectify the problem, he changed the fan, board and wiring harness but did not take the casing off, now what we know has the heat exchanger. Bill kept on saying there was a serious wiring problem because the power kept tripping at the RCD unit. He eventually (or so we thought) sorted the problem and tried to ignite the boiler. After a further 90 minutes of trying he was now telling us that the electrodes had gone because he couldn’t get the ignition, and then what happened next left me in complete amazement, The engineer had realised he had not reconnected to the gas, after a few minutes of Bill trying to play down the situation, he reconnected and the boiler relit. We thought great hot water again and especially we thought we could have the heating back on. Alas this was short lived, after two minutes the power tripped and boiler shut off.
Bill was now bemoaning that there was a severe wiring problem and blaming all sorts as to why he could not mend the boiler, he went as far to say that the house had been wired up wrong. The engineer left the house at approx 21.30 and informed us that he would tell Warmsure we required an electrician.
My wife rang Warmsure again on Friday morning 1st April 2011 to ask what was happening. They had informed us that they had spoken to the engineer and he insisted that it was a wiring problem and Warmsure would have to approach Barclays once again for authorization to call in an electrician.
My wife had given Warmsure permission to speak to me, as on previous attempts they had informed me that because I was not the account holder (yet we have a joint account) that they could only speak to my wife.
My wife rang up again 16.30 and their reply was that the job was being priced up. My wife rang again on Monday 4th April 2011 and was told they were still waiting to hear from Barclays because of the extra cost. My wife rang them again that same day at 14.30 to be told that an electrician would be calling with all the details of what work that had already been done so that he knew what to do.
On Thurs 7th April another heating engineer (not an electrician) turned up at the house, again I was amazed when he asked me what the problem was. I asked If he had any knowledge of the work history behind the job, and he replied no. The second engineer fitted another PCB and left not even testing the boiler, His reason for this was that, I had informed him that the 3 port valve was not wired up in the airing cupboard, as I was having it replaced. He then informed me that once the 3-port valve was connected, the boiler would be fine.
I found this a bit odd, have I already had an independent report off a qualified engineer stating that this was not the case. On having the 3-port valve connected, we switched on the boiler expecting it to ignite only to receive an error warning on the front of the boiler; the warning was an alternating L 8. When looking at the fault section in the boilers manual it was telling me that there was a fan error and that the cause could possibly be one or number of things, I.e. the fan or the PCB.
We immediately called Warmsure again and were told that we would be called back. When the phone call came we were told that an engineer had been instead of an electrician, as Barclays had only authorized parts has they had been instructed that they did not know if they would actually be able to fix the problem. The same person also told us that the issue would now be passed onto a service manager.
We were told that because we had reach a stage where the issue was becoming serious we would be passed onto a lead engineer, and arrangements were made for a visit on Thurs 14th April 2011.
As promised we received a call on the 14th that the engineer was on his way, I made my way home from work to let the engineer in, and was feeling quite optimistic of it being resolved. A knock on the door, I let the engineer in and suddenly thought what the hell, The lead engineer has I thought was aged around the mid twenties and it was quite clear there was something wrong, He was making hand gestures, shouting and sudden body movements. He then went onto explain he suffered from torretts, Now that was not a big problem for me, although I didn’t know what to make of it, but it could have been quite unnerving for a lone female. He then informed me that a second person was on their way and in the meantime started to strip down the boiler.
The second engineer arrived who turned out to be the lead engineer, The lead engineer than asked for the history behind this issue, I again explained and they went their way on trying to fix the problem. This time a laptop was used which contained diagnostic software, so by this time I was getting really optimistic. The fan and PCB were replaced again, and then they attempted to ignite the boiler, As soon as they switched it on it tripped the power at the RCD, The two engineers then decided to strip the boiler down again and this time took the casing off (remember the heat exchanger) to find out that heat exchanger casing had melted and was the cause of all the problems.
This was shown to me, and I immediately asked why the two previous engineers had not found this fault, as it was quite serious. The lead engineer tried to make out, that he was not aware of two previous engineers visiting.
He then explained that the job to replace the heat exchanger, which in my opinion, should have been identified on the first visit by an engineer who clamed that he had rebuilt hundreds of boilers of this kind would have to be authorized by Barclays.
Warmsure have now rang on the 14th April and explained that the job has now exceeded the insured limit of £1,000 and now stands at £1,449.18. They have asked If we will meet the overspend to which we have declined to pay. The reason for this is because we believe that that the fault had been misdiagnosed from the beginning. And that a qualified engineer should have picked this up.
In Summary
· This issue has been going on now for nearly five weeks
· Three PCB Boards
· Two fans
· New Wiring
· Four Engineers
· And it is still not working!
Taking all the above points into consideration, The work has not been completed and does not look like ever being resolved.
