001 ReactFast Solutions
Jubilee Centre
130 Pershore Street
Birmingham, B5 6ND
United Kingdom
26 February 2010
Dear Sirs,
I am extremely disappointed in the level of service I have received from you this week and will be taking legal recourse to recover from you the cost and inconvenience of having to wait for you to install the new boiler at my parents’ property as above. Please bear in mind that my father is 95 and in frail health and my mother is 86, and easily confused. Both are naturally susceptible to cold.
On Sunday night 21st February their boiler broke down and on Monday (22nd February) your engineer Shane visited their house to inspect their faulty boiler and agreed to make an unguaranteed temporary repair pending a decision to get a new boiler installed for which he quoted £1,850 plus VAT.
On Wednesday morning, just as the boiler died completely, I phoned you to make arrangements for the new boiler to be fitted, and after having to spend all morning chasing your staff and being passed from person to person, from department to department, at least four times each on five separate telephone calls, I finally got through to someone called Kevin from what appeared to be a sub-contractor company whose name I did not note, to look into it. The end result of this was that he promised me that as it was after 1pm, it was too late to order a boiler for delivery in time to be fitted the next day (yesterday, Thursday) but that it would arrive in time to be fitted as the first job this morning, Friday. I was instructed to pay a deposit of £900 by debit card right there which I did, and he confirmed that the boiler was on order.
I made arrangements to remain with my parents this morning to oversee the work and waited. At approximately mid-day I phoned to get an update, as I had heard nothing. Apparently the fitter was indisposed, and I was told I’d be called back immediately.
Having heard nothing by 2pm I called back and spoke to [name deleted] who was very understanding but unable to help immediately. She made an internal call and told me that the boiler had not in fact been delivered, and would not become available until Monday morning.
I have the following specific questions to which I would like an answer:
Why did I need to chase people all around your company (and, it seems, in other companies) to arrange for you to make a sale?
Why did nobody tell me on Wednesday that the boiler would not be delivered on time?
Why did nobody phone me today that the fitter would not be visiting?
Why did I have to chase around your company today to find ANYTHING out?
Why does your staff appear not to have the faintest idea what is going on with the jobs you have agreed to carry out, despite all the modern equipment they have available?
If I had been informed on Wednesday that the boiler would not arrive in time, I could have made arrangements to get someone else to do it, or to make another temporary repair. I do not need to tell you that I am not going to meet with any success in buying and having a new boiler fitted before the weekend in the short time available on a late Friday afternoon. I simply cannot fathom that Kevin or his colleague Ahmed did not think it important to call me back as soon as they found out the boiler would not be delivered.
I therefore hold you and your irresponsible lack of communications entirely responsible for the fact that my parents will be uncomfortable over the weekend, and the extra cost of having to use inefficient electric heaters to get ANY kind of warmth, and the inconvenience of lack of hot running water. Not to mention my day wasted in pointlessly waiting for your fitters to arrive.
I place a monetary value on this of £800 and if I do not hear back from you by return of post I will be instituting an action in the Small Claims Court.
Just as importantly, I also hold you morally and legally responsible for any possible deterioration in my father’s condition due to the cold and confusion of having to spend the entire weekend with no heating (especially as the weather forecast is for icy conditions). At the VERY least I expect a full and complete apology for this mess. Please note that in his condition, the cold could prove terminal for my father.
I also want an assurance that the new boiler WILL be fitted before mid-day on Monday 1st March.
I look forward to your proposals of how to deal with this by return of post.
Yours faithfully
The Plumster
