Storm heating
Despicable Customer Service

On 20th March this year, our boiler which provides both hot water and heating, failed completely, thereby cutting off our heating and hot water supply as we have no immersion heater. We felt somewhat re-assured that the problem would quickly be solved as we had a Home Assistance insurance cover in the event of an ‘emergency’ such as this, through our home contents insurance with AXA.

I therefore telephoned the Homeserve helpline and was put in touch with a company called Storm Heating, who I was told was their largest sub-contractor in my area. Again, I felt fairly re-assured when they called me shortly to confirm an appointment for the next day. Sure enough one of their engineers arrived between the specified hours and identified the problem, but was unable to fix it as two parts were required which would have to be ordered. I was later contacted by Storm who said that the parts would be ordered and should hopefully be with them by Wednesday 23rdh. I stressed to them that we really were rather desperate as we had no back-up for the hot water and our only source of this was 1 kettle between 2 adults and 2 children and three electric heaters to heat a four bedroomed house!

Wednesday 23rd came and no news from Storm. I contacted them again and was then told on Thursday that the parts had arrived and someone would call me on Friday between 8.00 am and 10.00 am to confirm a time for the repair. As I had already taken Monday off work, my husband took time out of his annual leave to house sit on Friday.

The booking was confirmed as they had said and was scheduled for the 8.00 am – 12.00 pm slot. At 12.20 pm they had still not arrived or called. My husband was beginning to feel a little anxious and contacted me at work. I advised him to call them and their reply was that when the engineer arrived to pick up the parts, the wrong ones had been delivered. It seems that no one had thought of contacting the customer to inform them of this. We were now beginning to get somewhat worried as to the type of company we were dealing with and Monday – Friday was quite a long time to wait for a so-called ‘emergency’ service. I made my feelings of displeasure known and was again re-assured that the problem would be solved quickly. I asked if a courier could be organised to get the parts, but was told that this was not possible. I asked to speak to a manager and was told that they were all in meetings, but that someone would definitely get back to me before 9.30 pm. Suffice it to say no one did.

By this time we were all having stand-up washes in 2” of water in the bathroom basin, as our two flasks and one kettle could only sustain this volume. My husband was going into work early to have a shower and I and my children parcelled ourselves amongst our neighbours and begged for a shower every other day to retain some demeanour of cleanliness. My daughter (teenager) washed her hair in cold water to maintain her credibility as a ‘cool teen’!

On Monday I was again telephoned by Storm who promised an engineer by the next day. Oh joy, some hope arrives, surely this could not last for ever.By this time my broker had also come to my assistance to push them for a final outcome. Again, my husband took a second day from his annual leave and waited patiently and longingly for that call on Tuesday.

Again, before 8.00 am Storm confirmed that someone would arrive between 12.00 pm and 5.00pm armed with the correct parts. Twenty minutes later they called again to tell us the news that the wrong parts had been supplied yet again! Who were their suppliers? Who was their parts manager? Why had they not been sacked by now?

I am not an unreasonable person, but this was day 10 so far, was this really an emergency service? My husband, who had now taken off 2 days from work, contacted AXA who were pleasant enough, but directed him back to Homeserve. He was put through to Jonathan from the claims department who said that someone would call us back. After 3 hours my husband called again and was told Matthew was dealing with it. He was advised to call Storm again. Storm refused to let him talk to a manager. At about 7.00 pm, Dan of Storm rang (10 hours after his initial call). He said that someone would call us on Thursday morning to confirm a visit.

On Thursday, my broker contacted me to check if everything was OK. It was not!!! We were going around in circles and were still no nearer to having the boiler repaired. My broker advised me to call Homeserve again as Axa were still unable to help. Again I spoke to Jonathan who said it had been passed to Angela, who was unable to take my call and I was told that Ryan, one of their managers was now dealing with it. I told my broker this latest bit of news. He was also pretty angry by now and said he would deal with this. Homeserve told him that the claim had been closed???!!! He demanded that it was re-openend immediately as it was nowhere near concluded. Who had authorised its closure? My broker then came back to me with some names – Andrew... of Homeserve and Dan from Storm who were going to sort out this problem. Both called me back!!! Apologies and promises were made for Saturday. Perhaps this was finally it.

Regretably, on Saturday again, I received a call at 7.45 am to say that they were coming in the morning and by 10.00 am the story changed to one of the parts being out of stock.By that time I had had enough and made that quite clear to them. I then contacted Andrew of Homeserve and said that we had exercised enough patience and that I would get my own engineer in to finish the job and send the bill to Homeserve as they had failed to provide an emergency service and had left us without heating and hot water for 14 days! This he agreed with.

In case you are wondering about whether the parts were particularly difficult to obtain, Worcester Bosch confirmed that they were readily obtainable and one of their largest suppliers to the trade – Gas World confirmed to me that they were actually in stock when I called them on Saturday. My engineer arrived on the Monday 4th April, at 2.00 pm with the correct parts and completed the job in just over an hour, which is what I would expect from any emergency service! He also told me that he couldn’t see anything wrong with the original parts and the problem was probably due to the deposits in the boiler which the first engineer had already cleared.

Company: Storm heating
Country: United Kingdom
Region: United Kingdom

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