i’m a heating engineer and 12yrs ago I installed vaillant weather compensation on a vaillant boiler. the boiler misbehaved and Vaillant were called out. They ummed and ah’d and did nothing. The client a barrister, issued a “call to act” under the guarantee, and the next morning vaillant had the solution.

These companies don’t care about bad publicity, as they are needed, and heating is a dark art for the U.K. population..

More like dealing with DSS, or the church I’m afraid

@hmk The installers aren't on the MCS 'find a contractor' list but the designer of the system is. (Same woth Vaillant list) They are both MCS certified though. I have received some legal advice and am currently weighing up options. Good to know that your Insurers helped though. I've tried all ways to work 'positively' with everyone concerned but it has to be a two-way street. In fairness to Vaillant, they have been mostly helpful, but it's frustrating that I'm still left with so many questions and issues that noone can or chooses to answer. I fear that unless I involve a solicitor nothing will change. It has all dominated my life for over 9 months now all told (since my previous pump failed last June) to the point where my health is suffering badly and so is my quality of life.

@alec-morrow It definitely does feel as though you have to keep on and on to get anything done and they hope you'll give up. The burning sense of the unfairness at it all keeps me from doing that but the more my health suffers because of the situation the harder it is to keep going. However, if you then 'take a stance' they do one of two things. 1. Try to actually sort it out as they are fed up of you 2. ignore/obfuscate/gaslight and/or go on the 'attack' by blaming you in some way. What I find completely farcical is when you ask a question for months and months which doesn't get answered then go away and do some research, go back and say to them 'I've come across this bit of information etc. which is relevant' and they then say 'Oh yes, that is the case' and they knew it all along!! Weather comp a case in point.

There is definitely darkness in the 'vested interests' aspects of any given situation. That, I am discovering. More honesty, transparency and integrity is urgently needed.

Hi Saz, When I first approached my Heat Pump manufacturer (can't name due to gagging order in exchange for parts and repairs, but its not Vaillant) it was to their Technical Services Dept who for over three months stonewalled us, ignored us, blamed us, fobbed us off, sent us around in circles, were downright rude at times, etc. so I did a bit of research and found the email addresses of six of their senior UK employees, including UK CEO, UK Head of Marketing, UK Head of Customer Care and UK Head of Technical Services. Research on Facebook and Press Articles quickly revealed most of these. I then copied my next (very comprehensive) communication to their Technical Services representative who had been 'managing' my case to all of these senior people, mentioning my findings that Rip Off Britain was about to run an article on people having problems with heat pump installations and, due to their 'fobbing me off', I was sending my case to them to be aired on TV.

Within 24 hours I had the personal attention of their Head of Technical Services who arranged for an inspection and the replacement parts, and when I could not find a contractor willing to fit the parts, they sent one of their 'trusted associates' to fit the part and get the system working again (a second visit to replace a broken and bodge repaired sensor has not yet happened).

It was interesting that when their inspector first came on site they were very keen to check the design of the whole system and everything connected to the heat pump. When chatting to the inspector they said how the manufacturer had in the past had a lot of problems with heating companies who did not understand how heat pumps should be installed, in some cases simply swapping an old gas or oil fired boiler for a heat pump with no further alterations, and it had cost them a lot of money putting right poor installations where in some cases the poor installation had caused damage to the heat pump. This was why they now only provide a warranty on heat pumps installed by their own approved heating engineers.

The Heat Pump market is very competitive, and whilst at the moment demand is high they realise that bad press can undermine their future sales, and when a group of people discover they all have problems with the same manufacturer and start a very public group action this can destroy their reputation and all future sales, and possibly result in major reparation costs.

@hmk My complaint is turning into more of a dissertation as there are so many documents to refer to because unless I back up my case with facts it's going nowhere. I also intend on getting it widely read when it's finished, probably anonymising it for the public domain and I will go fully public if I have to. The 'conclusion' of my complaint is going to be a entitled 'desired outcome' and there is a long list. If, and only if, most of those are met and those that aren't are justified as to why not, will any reputations in my eyes be salvaged. I'm thinking about including the positive aspects of my experience too, for balance, but to be fair there isn't much to write home about on that score.

Hi Saz, I tried to do a lot of technical research and even quoted technical performance standards where I felt that their product failed to meet 'expected durability' under current consumer regulations, that got very little response and often resulted in being ignored and stonewalled. I got technical installation manuals, found testing standards on the parts that had failed, questioned design issues where I found that later models had been modified.

The legal advice pointed out that as a consumer we should not be expected to have this technical knowledge as we had had the work done 'in good faith' and beyond the user manual we had no responsibility for understanding how or why a system works or should be designed, and no responsibility for pointing out the manufacturer's / installer's failings beyond the fact that the expected and advertised standards (performance or durability) had not been met. 

The hours and hours of research in the end came to very little and the only real part of my argument that got any positive response was from saying that "I believe that other people should be made aware of your company's shortcomings and appalling attitude to customers who have purchased your product in good faith and in the belief that you are a respected and trusted company." And making sure people at a high level within their organisation knew what was likely to happen if they did not start working towards a positive resolution urgently.

@hmk Hmmm, yes food for thought. The docs I refer to are mostly the relevant Standards docs and other docs published by both Gov and other orgs. I feel I have to do this research as I want to try to do something to help both current and future tenants so need to be well-informed as my complaint touches on the wider issue of (currently seemingly non-existant) tenant rights as bill payers.

Posted by: @saz

I'm sure all this is within the basic screen of other manufacturer's heatpumps, like the Ecodan? Can anyone here advise?

Some settings like the weather compensation curve are behind a long-press on the menu key (so not the usual tap to open the menu) but do not require a passcode. I can't see any way to "child lock" the basic settings on the Mitsubishi FTC6.

Having to remind my LL today that I have asked for weather comp to be set up. A company is going to be sent out after 19th April to finish the flushing of the leak sealer and move the strainer to the correct position but no mention of weather comp. No mention of addition of antifreeze either which was recommend by Vaillant *sigh*

So have just heard someone will be out on 20th April, but have been told an electrician will be required to set up the weather compensation?? Wut?? Why would this be? No rewiring is required is it? Just settings changes?

@saz It does seem odd, as you say. I think our heatpump installer left all the controller programming to the electricians, as they were the most technical staff they had. Or maybe someone broke a wire in your system or didn't install something correctly and some of this trouble has been because no-one wanted to admit it?

@mjr Yes I guess it is the case that the plumbers leave the controller side of it to the electricians but I find that frustrating in a way. The previous company contracted out that side of it so no wonder they weren't keen on people wanting to tweak their systems to get the best efficiency as it would mean sending the sparky out each time? Which rather proves my point that end-users should have control of things like setting up weather comp. and not have to go through all this palarver/be treated like idiots.