In March 2016 I took out a boiler from a shade greener on a conditional sale for 10 years was approximately £40 per month for 10 years
It sounded a bit expensive but they advised that all parts and labour would be covered over that 10 years. Also an annual safety check which sounded great as it took away the worries of the boiler breaking down and replacing with expensive parts.
Plus they said they would power flush it so I went ahead. And also they had a call out of a maximum of waiting 24 hours.
The whole installation and power flush took approx 4.5 hours.
I didn’t have any problems until 23 months later when the hot water was playing up and I was told when I rung that if it was debris in my boiler that the visit would be chargeable.
I advised none of this was mentioned when I took the agreement but they was insistent.
As it happened I was due a service within a couple of days so they did the visit and said it was debris and they cleaned the heat exchange plate as a gesture of goodwill.
Approx 6 months later started having intermittent problems with hot water so I called again and was told by an advisor over the phone that it was my heat exchange plate which was blocked due to debris and I would be charged.
I asked the advisor if he was a gas safety registered engineer and he said he wasn’t so I asked how he could be making such technical diagnosis’s over the telephone and I asked why the boiler would be blocked with debris when a power flush is supposed to last 5-6 years,
I also asked if they cleaned the filter on a boiler service which they said they didn’t and they didn’t have to.
I got my own gas engineer to check and it was a different fault and rang back and they sent someone out.
I made a complaint to Asg and i posted on social media about the disgraceful way I was spoken to on the phone and their service in general only to be sent a letter threatening libel on me and I had two days to sign a letter promising I wouldn’t post anymore on such platforms.
Hence i didn’t sign and the Facebook group was changed to private however within 24 hours staff members of Asg tried to infiltrate the group and when I raised this with Asg they banned me from using the 24 hour call out facility and would only allow me to communicate by recorded delivery as I’d been abusive and threatening to staff which they apparently had proof of to provide to the courts if necessary.
I did a sars request to asg to request said copper of emails and call recordings to which they couldn’t supply so I made a complaint to the information commissioners office who in turn raised this with asg who admitted they in fact did not have these (because it never happened).
Also it transpired that my boiler wasn’t fitted to gas safe regulations/building regs/manufacturers instructions to which asg denied (the flue was discharging into next doors garden).
Asg sent their head engineer round who got my tenant to sign documents (with my name in the boxes) to say their was no issue with the flue even though this had been raised several time’s.
I also found out there was a charge registered against my property which prevented me from remortgaging even onto a better rate that was never mentioned when I signed up.
I took these issues to the financial ombudsman who looked at the case and in the meantime I got gas safe to inspect the boiler who confirmed it wasn’t legally compliant after my solicitor checked the boundaries of the property so the ombudsman ruled in my favour that they should wind down the credit agreement, remove the boiler and pay me £400 compensation.
As asg had many opportunities to rectify the issues and chose not to, they also didn’t believe that the boiler flush was done to a correct standard as after researching it should take 2 days to fit a boiler and do a complete power flush.
I have never dealt with a company like a shade greener in my life and sincerely hope that telling my story that no one falls foul to these again.
