Aren Heating and Plumbing

"Contacted them due to our thermostat having de-paired from the boiler, which is an issue we had once in the past and someone was able to very quickly and cheaply resolve it for us. We are not based at the property, so told them we would not be able to proceed unless they were able to commit to a short time window for arrival. They arrived an hour late and made no attempt to contact in advance. In total, the engineers took over two hours before deciding a significant amount of the system needed replacing at an additional cost to the hourly rate charged for the diagnostic. Upon seeking advice, we were advised that an engineer should not need to have been sent out and were pointed to a two-minute video explaining how we could resolve the problem ourselves, which we did and it is now working perfectly."

Trader reply: "Thank you for taking the time to review us. Feedback – positive, or negative – is always important for our company so we can assess and improve our services. We feel it necessary to spend a few moments relaying our side to the story and correcting some of your statements. Firstly, we never provide exact timed appointments due to the nature of our work, it is impossible. We offer 8am-12pm, or 12am-5pm – this is very standard for our company. However, I have checked the job notes, and it clearly states the engineer was to meet the landlord at the property ‘from 11:30am’. There wasn’t a precise time agreed. You also received a booking confirmation (as does every customer) that outlines the job and time slot provided. We have a log of phone calls. You were called at 11:47am to give you an update and provide a time when to expect the engineer, then again at 12:17pm to confirm the engineer had arrived. The engineer arrived on site at 12:13pm (less than an hour into the window you were provided). Secondly, the engineer spent an hour and 45 minutes trying to pair the device. He also called Vaillant technical support (for gas engineers), and our senior engineer to try and pair the device. The thermostat and receiver would not pair on our visit and was concluded to be faulty and would need a replacement programmable thermostat (not a significant amount of the system). We offered a quote for this, for you to consider, as you are not obligated to approve the quote. You would not be charged for the quote unless approved by the responsible person first. You were only charged for 1 hour at a rate of £95 plus VAT, nothing more. Although the engineer was on site for another 45 minutes, we decided not to charge you the additional 45 minutes, as a gesture of good will."

• Initial impression Initial impression: 4 out of 5.0
• Punctuality Punctuality: 1 out of 5.0
• Cleanliness Cleanliness: 3 out of 5.0
• Quality Quality: 1 out of 5.0
• Value Value: 1 out of 5.0
• Overall opinion Overall opinion: 1 out of 5.0