Left in the cold for 5 days because our Vaillant engineer drove off

I booked a boiler repair because I had no hot water or heating. My partner took the day off to be home but the mechanic arrived just as she had hit the road to drop our daughter off at school at 8:53am.

The engineer called me and I told him she would be back any minute. She got home at 9:09 a.m., but he had left three minutes early because he had a “15 minute wait.”

We were without hot water or heating for five days. TT

Angharad Carrick from This Is Money replies: I am sorry to hear about your experience with Vaillant.

It’s tough being without hot water and heating any time of the year, but now that we’ve reached winter I can’t imagine how upsetting those five days would have been. Not least with a young child.

Plus, you’d paid for a full-day parking permit for your mechanic and your partner had agreed with her work to be home, which adds even more salt to the wound.

Vaillant applies a waiting time of 15 minutes for their technicians.

Your technician arrived at 8:50 a.m. when no one was there, but he spoke to you three minutes later when you told him your partner would be home in a few minutes.

The mechanic left at 9:06 a.m., three minutes before your partner got home.

You say that from the moment he pressed the buzzer, the train driver actually only waited 14 minutes until he left.

The technician claimed to be watching the door to see if anyone had come home, but your CCTV shows he was parked in the opposite direction and he didn’t make a second attempt to press your buzzer.

One of the most baffling parts of this story is that you didn’t get any warning about when the engineer would show up. Instead, he arrived unannounced.

Even the very worst courier companies will give you an estimate of when your package might arrive, even if it’s a five or six hour time frame.

I contacted Vaillant myself to ask if it was customary to adhere so strictly to the 15 minute grace period, especially since you had told the technician that your partner would be home shortly.

A spokesman for Vaillant said: ‘Our engineers are working hard to ensure homes have warm and hot water throughout the winter.

‘For each appointment we have a 15 minute grace period to wait for a client if they are absent, this is to ensure we can deliver our services to all scheduled clients throughout the day, without having to cancel appointments.

“In this case, the customer’s warranty had to be validated by a Vaillant installer because annual maintenance had not been performed for over a year. The customer’s warranty has now been re-validated and the repair has been carried out under conditions.’

While they may dispute when their 15-minute grace period starts, you clearly communicated with the engineer that he wouldn’t have to wait long to be allowed into your flat.

While Vaillant claims their engineers work hard to ensure homes are warm, you, your partner and your young child have been cold for five days.

I understand the next time Vaillant sent a technician, they called ahead to let you know they were on their way.

I therefore asked Vaillant whether it is standard practice to call in advance and, if so, why this did not happen in the first place.

Unfortunately, they wouldn’t tell me and referred me back to their original statement.

Instead of the engineer having to wait a few minutes, Vaillant had to send someone back to fix your boiler, creating more work for itself in the long run.

I’m sure you’ll think twice about using Vaillant again, but at least your boiler is now fixed.

Have you had bad experiences with Vaillant? If so, please email me at angharad.carrick@thisismoney.co.uk