What a joke. I'd come across these cowboys before back in the days when they owned Anglia. I had palpatations when my insurance company told me who the contractor was that they were sending out to investigate my Central Heating system failure.

Visit 1 - No CH or Hot water, temperature outside was -8'c. Engineer booked, no time given so had to sit around all day. By 5pm had received no contact, called their Helpless desk where some minion could not tell me if the engineer would call, other than that they were booked. Asked them to call them directly to ascertain that they would still attend, "sorry sir, we can't do that". Eventually, getting on for 7pm man in van arrives.

I explain the problem, he starts to fiddle around, "Ooh I'm not familiar with this type/model of boiler, do you have the instruction manual?", great start, filled me with lots of confidence. After messing about for circa 1 hr, he diagnosed a fault with 1 part - its your diverter valve he said, need to get you another one. Might have to arrange a call with a Senior Engineer & get the manufacturer on the phone. We'll get it booked in and off he went...

Visit 2 - 72 Hours later, -12'c outside, no CH or HW. Along come Mr Senior Engineer, goes through the same process as Engineer 1, asks for Instruction Manual, good job I kept it, then diagnoses a completwly different set of faults to Engineer #1. Parts now required. Will have to order them. No idea of when they'll be in stock etc.

Visit 3 - 11 days later, a little warmer outside but no CH or HW still. Engineer #3 arrives, with replacement parts, fits them but still no resolution. Now says its sludge and your CH pipes are too small, but we'll book back in for a 3 hr job and take eveything apart from the boiler to see if its a blockage.

I phone insurance company and tell them to cancel any further work from these cowboys, also a colleague of mine used to work in their Preston Call Centre and advised me that every visit they make is worth £80 to them, so they'll come out as many times as they can. Don't expect them to phone you when they say they will, and even though you may spend all day sat in waiting for them to arrive, they'll probably come after hours when you'd be home from work.

Is it now fixed? Nearly, paid a local plumber to come and check everything out - diagnosis - replace heat exchanger under warranty..