Hmmm. I'm not having much luck with Ombudsmen. I didn't wait 8 weeks because Southern Electric's own complaints procedure said to only wait 5 days if no satisfactory response received from the head of customer services (I didn't get any response at all until the well after the 3rd one which suggested they'd lost the others).

Basically neither Ombudsman seems to consider a service contract within their remit.

The best advice I've had so far outside of this website was from Consumer Standards who gave me the format for the letter citing 'The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982'. You could do worse than contact them.

The time I gave them to respond to the letter is up tomorrow. I'm not really sure what my next step will be. I think I'll probably contact Consumer Standards again and see what they suggest. I have a feeling it will probably be small claims, I think you can do this online for a relatively small fee so it might be worth a try.

Something needs to be done about this. It seems they can get away with a complete lack of reasonable care knowing full well the customers they affect are going to have a very hard time making a meaningful complaint about it to any body that could help.

megxox:
I think our next stop will be the ....... Ombudsman.

Well, yes and no. Before any Ombudsman will accept a case it is necessary either to exhaust the organisations complaints procedure or for 8 weeks to have elapsed since first raising the complaint, whichever occurs first.So get cracking on that.Also its a good idea if you haven't done it already to print off the Terms & Conditions and go through them with a fine tooth comb, testing all the service responses against the agreement.

Thanks for that info :-)

Will indeed check the preceding thread!

megxox:
I think our next stop will be the Energy Ombudsman.

Have a look at the preceding Southern Electric Shield thread. I think because these are insurance products they fall within the Financial Ombudsman Service remit, not the Energy Omdudsman.

Hi

I am new here but wanted to relate our cautionary tale of dealing with Scottish Hydro Electric over boiler cover.

We've had boiler cover with them for a few years and their service hasn't been great. The boiler always seemed to break down after they serviced it. However, this year they have excelled themselves!

Our boiler broke down at the beginning of December. Various engineers came to look at it, no one seemed to know what to do - however, in the end parts were ordered. Parts failed to arrive - so after 3 weeks without heating and hot water, we sourced and paid for the part ourselves. Getting an engineer to come and fit that part was like pulling teeth. They said they would turn up, they didn't etc etc and so it went on. In the end, after 3 weeks, there was a temporary fix - but we still needed another part, which they put on order, to fix it properly.

As compensation for our aggravation, we were offered a discount on our utility bill and reimbursement of the part we paid for. That was never confirmed in writing so we are still out of pocket.

Today, the boiler broke down again. They had never come back to fit the part - and it's 3 months later!!!!

We are really unhappy with their service and attitude. Plus we wrote to their Chairman at the end of January (7 weeks ago) and haven't even received an acknowledgment letter!

I think our next stop will be the Energy Ombudsman.

Obviously, I have posted a shortened version here. The aggravation has been incredible; their customer service appalling - they really gave us the runaround and it's not over yet.

Obviously, not everyone will have the same experience but if you are thinking of taking a boiler cover contract out with them, I would beware.