Hi,

I joined Southern Electric's Shield Gas central heating protection plan back in November - I received my confirmation letter on the 26th November 2007 and was aware of the 14 day cool off - no problem.

Jan 1st 2008 - my boiler springs a leak and i call Shield - the engineer came out within 2 hours - brilliant.

The engineer then tells us that the heat exchanger is cracked and unfixable and that we are probbaly looking at a new boiler as the parts are hard to come by.

I have checked the internet and i can source the parts myself for around £80 - so no problem i think.

My partner has made several calls to shield today -

1st call - because we haven't had our initial inspection we are not covered at all and besides the parts are hard to come by. I checked the T's and C's and the initial inspection should have been arranged by them within 28 days after the 14 day cooling off period - they have never contacted me.

2nd Call - the engineer is not on call so they can't do anything as they can't get his report and the parts are hard to source so we will probably have to talk to sales for a new boiler

3rd Call - the operative's pc had crashed so we would have to wait for a call back

4th call - (they did call us back) the fault has been ongoing for a while so we are not covered - when queried as the fault is 3 days old - not exactly a long time - we were informed that the leak "could" have been there before so it is our own fault and as the parts are hard to come by we will have to wait for sales to call us as we will have to have a new boiler. When asked when this call might happen we are told that the engineer is no longer on call so he wont be able to have given them his report so they don't know when the call will be.

As you can imagine i am beginning to wonder if this protection is really just a way to push the sale of new boilers on customers.

I have paid my direct debit, i was told i was covered immediatley and that "even if you call on Christmas day we will send someone to fix your boiler immediatley", all their paperwork goes on about how "SWALEC's shield protection ensures you're never left in the cold" well myself and my 4 children have been in the cold for 3 days now, i have no heating and no hot water and there is snow forecast for tonight and my yougest has a chest infection and is supposed to be kept warm.

I am not happy and don't know where to go now??

Can you help??

Hi --- As the heating protection is an insurance based product, I would tell them that you intend to make a complaint to the Insurance Ombudsman at the FOS below, they regulate insurance policies and can order whatever action they feel is appropriate in the above circumstances.

You could at least threaten Swalec with this first and if they do not take action to resolve your problems, then do write outlining your above post to. http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

Thank you for your advice

Tara

You're welcome..... Furthermore if Swalec do refuse to do anything then make notes of the date, time and persons name telling them you intend to call out your own private gas engineer in order to restore the heating & hot water as it is an emergency situation i.e. the health of your Children is at stake, of which you will be claiming back all the expenses and associated costs, at a later date through the Ombudsman..... then see what their response is. (keep all receipts if you have to do this and back it up in writing, sent recorded delivery)
??

Further developments -

I received a call from a sales rep from SWALEC at 12.10pm today trying to sell me a new boiler, when i pointed out that i was a sheild customer waiting to hear if and when they would be repairing my boiler, he said he didn't know anything about that, took all my details and assured me he would get the maintenace engineer manager to call me back asap.

3.15pm i called the helpline to chase my call back - the girl on the other end tried the engineer dept and when she couldn't get them on the phone she told me she had left them a message and they would call me back, but that they might have already left for the day

4.15pm - i called the helpline again, explained the situation and that i was concerned that it was heading towards close of business on a friday and i hadn't had a call - the girl on the other end refused to try the engineering dept for me and told me they would call as soon as they got the previous message

5.15pm - called them again - girl on the phone was great this time, she said her pc had crashed so she took my details and said she would go to the engineering dept to see if they had my call back request, when she came back on the phone she said she had tried calling them, they were not answering, but they had my call back request in their tray, when i expressed my concern that it was now 4 days since my boiler broke and that i had 4 children in the house with no heating or hot water, she said she was sympathetic, but there was nothing she could do. I asked for and got the direct number for the engineering dept and have tried to call them 8 times myself - all to no avail.

I am really concerned now - my youngest son has bronchitis and the cold in the house is not helping his breathing.

I mentioned the ombudsman several times all to no avail, now i fear i am looking at a whole weekend with no heating before i can even try to get some help next week.

Hi Tara

It's sad when huge corporations do hard sells like this and then things don't go according to plan when things break. (Had similar with RAC/AA which cost us £1000 *grrrr* ) ... anywhow, just interested to hear what the outcome was to your problem there.

Cheers... T

We also took an SSE home contract out at the end of 2007. In October this year we called them out to repair a boiler. We were told the Heat Exchanger was damaged by scale and we would have to pay £400 to replace as it wasn't covered. There were no such exclusions in our contract so we ended up making numerous calls to SSE to try and get them to pay for the repair. We eventually had the boiler repaired by Worcester for just under £250 and have tried to recover the cost from SSE.

SSE told me at various times that they wouldn't cover the call because 1. They couldn't powerflush the system. This wasn't true as Worcester confirmed it could be. 2. That the boiler had a design flaw that they discovered last year and that they didn't cover design flaws. Again Worcester confirmed no design flaw had been identified. 3. That they do not cover scale damage in the South of England. All this took part over a number of calls for a couple of months.

Eventuall the reason SSE gave us for refusing to pay is that they changed their contract in June 2008 to exclude scale damaged components. Needless to say they did not write and tell us this. Neither did they provide us with an updated set of contract terms at the renewal date. So from their perspective it is perfectly acceptable to change a contract and then not tell you that they have introduced new exclusions until such a time as you need to make a claim. They have literally just provided me with a copy of these new terms that carry the exclusion.

The financial ombudsmen will not consider the complaint as a service contract is not an insurance product. They have confirmed this to me in writing.

Can you imagine if this had been your car insurance policy. I think Slough has just been announced as the most dangerous place for car accidents. What if all the car insurance companies decided to exclude cover for cars driving in Slough and by the way not tell any of their policyholders, even at renewal.

During one phonecall to SSE I voiced my theory that maybe their attitude was that if they decide a repair is too expensive they refuse to pay out under an exclusion clause, the rep I was speaking to just went quiet and gave no response.

I would strongly advise that if you have an SSE contract that at your next renewal you consider the risk of SSE using one of their exclusion clauses or introducing a new one without telling you. Only if you believe that is an acceptable risk should you renew.

Hi TAR469

I have a similar problem. I took out an Instant Cover policy with an additional Central Heating Breakdown Policy with Warmsure( part of Ideal Boilers) but managed by Homeserve. We have had 4 visits in 4 weeks so far.

It gets fixed and works for about 4-5 days before another breakdown.

Now we have had no water or heating for 6 days (even though their response time is 1-48 hours).

They were supposed to come yesterday (23rd March) between 2-4pm but no one turned up and no one rang to inform us!!!.

We also have 3 kids , one only 3 months old!!!!"

We are at the end of our tether with the engineers but they just keep coming out with all sort of excuses like it's up to IDEAL......no it's up to Homeserve............there is sludge...........................no there isn't sludge etc etc.

We want to complain to an outside body and was told by Homeserve to try the Financial Odbusman. Is this true???

can you advise how I should take this forward seeing that you had a similar problem.

Thanks

david

I would find this unbelievable, except that I have had a very similar experience with SSE and the Shield protection contract.

In December 2007, I applied for Shield protection. It took several reminders before SSE responded, but eventually they accepted the application, subject to an initial inspection. In January 2006, an engineer inspected my Potterton Netaheat boiler, commented that it was in excellent condition for its age, and issued a certificate confirming that the boiler met the necessary conditions and that it and the central heating system were now covered "by the Shield maintenance contract".

After I had paid the premiums of £15.50 (later increased to £16.50) a month for a year, another engineer attended to carry out the annual service. He took one look at the boiler, said that that model contained asbestos, and that under SSE's current policy he was not allowed to carry out any work on it. SSE would be in touch to cancel the contract.

Two days later, I received what was described as a "courtesy call" from SSE confirming that the contract had been cancelled with immediate effect (though the contract requires 14 days written notice of cancellation, which I have never received). I pointed out that the original contract was for breakdown cover and an annual service, and that if through no fault of my own SSE were unwilling to provide either or both, they should refund the money I had paid for what now turned out to be a non-existent service. I was told casually that that "was not going to happen"; SSE had introduced a zero tolerance asbestos policy and that was that as far as they were concerned. They could not say when that had happened, or why my boiler had passed its initial inspection with flying colours, but they were perfectly entitled under clause 52 of the contract to change the conditions of service without notice, and without informing the customers affected.

I do not believe that SSE's position is sustainable in law, and I immediately wrote a long letter to Ian Marchant, the Chief Executive of SSE, setting out the reasons why I believed SSE to be in breach of their contract, and suggesting that the company should have given the customers concerned the options of terminating the contract, with a refund of premiums, from the date on which the new asbestos policy came into effect; keeping the cover, but paying SSE for the safe removal of the offending asbestos, as envisaged by clause 37 of the contract; or replacing the boiler in accordance with clauses 30 and 31 of the contract.

A month passed with neither a substantive reply nor an acknowledgment of this letter. I sent a reminder, and in return received another telephone call from one of SSE's comically named customer service representatives, claiming that the letter had never been received. I immediately wrote again to Ian Marchant, this time by recorded delivery, enclosing a copy of the original letter. A further month has passed with no response whatever. I telephoned SSE's Head Office this morning, and was promised that the person responsible would ring me back. Not entirely to my surprise this has not happened.

Given a constructive response from the Chief Executive, it should have been possible to reach a reasonable compromise solution. I am not, however, prepared to let SSE get away with their cavalier and discourteous policy of simply ignoring all correspondence, presumably in the hope that their apparent belief that they can do what they like under the terms of their contract is unchallengeable, and that the aggrieved customer will eventually give up. Unless they have a change of heart within the next two weeks, therefore, I shall begin a County Court action against them under the small claims procedure for the recovery, with costs, of the year's premiums I have paid for a service they knew they could not or would not supply. I certainly do not relish the prospect of the work and expense involved, but, as Edmund Burke remarked in the eighteenth century, for evil to triumph it is necessary only for good men to do nothing.

Watch this space!

Hi

Just wanted to let you know I'm with you all the way. Why should these big company get away with this disgusting service. Kepp me posted how the small claims go,

I've been in touch with ConsumerDirect and they've have advised me to write one last letter to Ideal to get our boiler fixed( now not been working for 2 weeks) within the next 14 days and if not to get it repaired privately and claim back the cost at small claims.

Good luck to you!!!!!!!!!!

Greensrow:

I would find this unbelievable, except that I have had a very similar experience with SSE and the Shield protection contract.

Something that might be of interest. If you Google for CORGI Technical Bulletin 140 you might find something of relevence. The point is the document is dated 2004 so how come the SSE engineer cleared your boiler? You are absolutely right that the date that SSE introduced their no-asbestos policy is relevent but so is the failure to address TB140 when they accepted your boiler on contract which might have put you at risk due to their incompetence.

I'm very grateful to you and Dave for your support and encouragement. I'll certainly look up the CORGI Bulletin you mention - it looks as though SSE have been negligent as well as arrogant. I'm on holiday in France from this evening until Good Friday, but I shall send a final demand to SSE before I go, and if there is no response waiting for me on my return I shall go for the small claims route. Meanwhile, it's good to have friends; thank you both very much

why not try BG then. the asbestos in a NETAHEAT IS A SEAL never had to touch or remove it when servicing the netaheat boilers. reember GAS SAFE NOW TOO NOT CORGI CHECK THE BADGE.

that is my opinion mind, and if i was you, try bg or local company

Hi, this has just happened to me 2 weeks ago by Hydro Electric! The engineer came for my annual service and informed me that a G.C. number on my boiler matched a number on his booklet of boilers containing asbestos! He said it was a national alert list only announced 2 weeks previously. I was suspicious, he left telling me i was not getting my service and i would be immediately removed from the plan. I have done many checks and it is NOT a national alert and Hydro Electric made the list themselves back in April 2009. I have contacted the gas safety register, british gas, the Health & safety executive and my manufacturer. All companies were accused of compiling the said list and giving it to the Hydro, all which is down right lies. My boiler is on the list but it does NOT contain asbestos. My boiler is old and i suspect Hydro have made a decision to remove as many old boilers as possible from their plans by any means possible, also i am sure they would have contacted me advising of a new boiler but i never gave them a chance as i instantly investigated what i had been told. If any of you want to help me stamp out this practice please go on to Watchdog website tell them all about asbestos in your boiler as they are investigating this for me. Also i am sure they will be interested in any complaints regarding heating cover. Keep me posted

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