@eonhelp EON - Boiler Policy Troubles

[Heckler]

Hi all, I hope that some one can give me some advice on an issue that has arisen with a policy we took out last Oct with EON to cover our boiler.

 

I had the boiler serviced by a local company at the beginning of Oct as it hadn't been done in 18 months due to money being tight. Everything was given a clean bill of health and I have the paperwork and receipt to show this. Then after discussing it we decided to take out some cover at the end of the month and EON were offering a deal of £9.99 a month for the first 12 months. This covers me for an annual service and parts and repairs upto about £500 I think (i'd have to check the small print, I think it actually covers a replacement boiler)

 

This was quite fortunate as a few weeks later in November the heating side stopped working, but we still had hot water. EON sent some one round (from whatever 3rd party contractor they were using) and he diagnosed that the wireless receiver on the boiler had failed and needed replacing.

 

This is a £50 part as I know for a fact, because I had the original mechanical one replaced with a wireless one in 2009. It took them the better part of a month to actually fix the problem, giving me loads of excuses about being able to find the part and so forth... In the end after I gave them an ultimatum (I could have ordered what I needed online myself in minutes and had it delivered within 48hrs) they finally sent some one round with a new receiver and transmitter unit... which is far inferior to the one I had... But I just wanted some heating to work, so put up with the silly new clunky boxy transmitter that came with it.

 

I watched the gas fitter the entire time he was here, all he did was drop the front panel down, remove the old one and fit the new one. He then unscrewed something on the exhaust pipe and tested the emissions. Gave me a bit of paper and left.

 

This was last December.

 

Cut to Sept this year and it's been nearly 12 months since the last service (start of Oct), and I want to book a service for the end of the month.

 

I call up EON, only to be told that it had a service in December 2013.... I can state for absolutely certain that this is not true. I watched what the guy servicing the boiler did, and he stripped it down completely, cleaned it all out and tested everything, emissions, sniff tests... the whole works. They guy repairing it never took any of it apart or did anything other than replace the receiver and check the emissions.

 

They're telling me that I have to wait until Dec for a service, which is actually 14 months since the last one... and more importantly.. 2 months into the next year and 2 months after they double the payments for the cover.

 

Now I shopped around for better buildings and contents insurance, and managed to find cover that included essential boiler servicing and emergency repairs... Eliminating the need for a separate policy. That cover started in August and the only reason we didn't cancel the other cover right away was because we knew they had to service the boiler before the price doubled... That's what we paid for.

 

But now they are trying to screw us out of the service we are due as part of that contract, saying that they fully serviced the boiler last December... Which is an outright lie.

 

The mindless drone in customer services is only capable of saying 'computer says no'

 

So I've been paying for 12 months for a service that they won't do and are lying about having done already.

 

I'm not looking for some long and protracted fight here... I either want them to service it as they are supposed to under the contract or a partial refund of the policy to cover the cost of getting it serviced locally... which is about £60.

 

So... what's my next step?

[Heckler]

Loads of views but no one seems to have any advice yet... Any admins about who know the right people to speak to about it?

[rebel11]

Hi Heckler

 

We have EON Reps (Helena/Malcolm) on this site who can look into this matter for you.

[Heckler]

Thanks rebel11, I've just fired of a complaint email to Eon too... Look forward to one of their reps commenting on this thread.

[E.ON company rep Amy]

Hi Heckler,

 

Sounds like you’re having a bit of a nightmare with this, I’m really sorry.

 

We actually sold that part of our business last year, it’s now called ‘Home Energy Services’ (HES). You should have had a letter from the last year explaining how the changes affect you. You might have seen some E.ON branding as you had your last service in the transfer period as they carried on using it for a bit while they changed it all over.

 

My advice would be to call them and get a complaint open on your account, then get it escalated. This is their complaints procedure http://www.homeenergyservices.co.uk/UserFiles/PDFs/Complaints%20Process.pdf

 

I’m so sorry that I can’t get this resolved for you, I do hope you get this sorted.

 

Amy

[rebel11]

Hi Heckler

 

Further info in the following thread:-

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?421417-EON-Gas-Bill-HIGH&highlight=eon+boiler

 

Thanks rebel11, I've just fired of a complaint email to Eon too... Look forward to one of their reps commenting on this thread.

[Heckler]

I had no idea that they had sold on that part as we signed up for it through EON last Oct... I had heard of HES but had assumed that they were something Eon outsourced for the actual work.

 

Will fire of a letter of complaint tomorrow to both their complaints dept and their head of energy services Chris McLain

 

Will update the thread if/when I know more.

[Heckler]

Complaint letters written to both their complaints team and Chris McLain, will be sent recorded delivery tomorrow.... any ideas how long it normally takes them to respond.

 

Could some one confirm that if I need to make a complaint to OFGEM, do they charge Eon/HES £500?

[rebel11]

Hi Heckler

 

OFGEM don't look at individual complaints.

 

Complaint letters written to both their complaints team and Chris McLain, will be sent recorded delivery tomorrow.... any ideas how long it normally takes them to respond.

 

Could some one confirm that if I need to make a complaint to OFGEM, do they charge Eon/HES £500?

[Heckler]

Had a letter from HES on Sat morning, was just a standard template one acknowledging receipt of the letter and saying they should respond within 14 days unless it takes longer to investigate.

[nottslad]

Good luck. I had a complaint last year and found them to be the most unreliable, awful company to deal with. I cant believe E.ON have let them use their branding

[Heckler]

I had a letter first thing this morning from them, dated yesterday... It basically says that their engineers visual inspection of the boiler (without stripping it down) and the basic safety checks (testing emissions and looking at the meter) satisfies their terms and conditions... and as far as they are concerned the matter is resolved.

 

The fact that the complaint letter was sent last Weds and we've had 2 letters since then... tells me they've not looked into it at all, simply read from the computer and parroted the CS response we got.

 

In fact they can't even get the details right of the original call out, stating that the hot water wasn't working and the cause was a faulty wireless receiver. The fact that this isn't even possible seems to have escaped their notice... and if that piece of info on their system is wrong, then it's logical to assume that other parts are also.

 

I am utterly disgusted with them, I really can't be arsed fighting them about it... But I can tell you this much.

 

They are losing my business immediately, a call has been placed with my bank to cancel the direct debit and previous ones disputed as far back as we can.

 

Eon are also losing a customer for both Gas & Electric which totals about £1400 a year, as we are switching suppliers immediately and signing up with some one who's offering a fixed price deal for several years.

 

So Eon/HES will be losing out on a total of £1640 over the next 12 months, all because they wanted to wriggle out of the contract and not properly service my boiler. New cover has already been arranged with my insurance provider... and as far as I'm concerned Eon can go F*** themselves.

 

I shall also at every opportunity advise people not to switch to Eon due to their bad faith practices... I hold them responsible because we signed up to this scheme through them before they decided to spin HES as a separate entity...and in spite of the fact that you can call Eon and they can access the HES accounts just fine. Whatever the 'tax dodging' purposes of the split are, they still operate as one customer facing entity based on this experience.

 

We are done with this shower of tw*ts