A1 Boilers Reviews 11

Following a thermostat failure and a visit from Northern Ireland Fire Service 🙈 I was staring into the abyss of an insurance claim for thousands for a new boiler. Queue arrival of Gary. 'I'll get that going again for you'. And true to his word, serviced, repaired and running to 90% efficiency I was delighted with him, the work he did and the fair price he charged. Never had a 'boiler man' before.....I have now. Thoroughly recommend

Simon came to service and then repair my boiler which it seems has been quite neglected over the years. He was polite, affable and made quick work. He very kindly advised me on how to use my boiler, checked my radiators and advised on what will need to be done in future to keep the boiler alive. All round good experience with Simon. No bother. No nonsense. Just good work.

Simon arrived within the time slot identified. He serviced the boiler and replaced a motorized valve as agreed on the telephone in advance.

We have used A1 boilers on a few occasions to keep our aging boiler running smoothly. They always show us the parts they have replaced so we can easily see where the fault has occurred and always explain before their visit their fees and other contingencies. I have always found them to be friendly, curteous and knowledgeable.

I've never known a more vile person in the way they speak to customers than Simon of A1 Boilers. I have employed Simon several times to fix my 16-year-old boiler relying on his professional opinion that fixing it would be more economical than replacing it. In hindsight, this has resulted in numerous visits in less than 18 months that have now cost almost the cost of a replacement boiler.

Despite this, I have remained incredibly patient with Simon despite feeling extremely stressed and anxious whenever I speak with him on the phone due to his condescending tone, constant interruptions and speaking over me. He has absolutely no respect for the customer or their loyalty as a returning paying customer.

He also insists on taking debit card details by phone and recording them so that he is free to charge the card whatever he wants when he has completed the job. He expects customers to fully trust him with their card details and the work he will do and what he will charge while ironically not trusting customers to pay him for work done even if they're regular customers. And as soon as I highlighted this from a security standpoint (that banks advise against providing debit card details by phone in advance) and offered to provide him with the card details on site either by phone or via my tenants, he refused this on the basis of "company policy". He ignores that it is against all modern common sense including general bank advice, and refuses to adapt to modern customer sentiment, but instead becomes obnoxious and rude on the phone about it.

After six years of loyal custom to A1 Boilers, the relationship has now become untenable as the company has clearly failed to adapt to modern standards, and the proprietor Simon Cullum seems to be increasingly angry and horrible to customers as a result of this. Good luck with the business, but you have lost me and several others who I referred to you in East London who will now stop using your services, and no doubt others will follow suit. In fact, I opted to have my boiler replaced in the end. A1 Boilers would've had this £3500 job had Simon not been so rude.

EDIT (in response to A1 Boilers' reply):
1. The review is not anonymous at all. It's posted under my Trustpilot account which is clearly and publicly displayed using my full name. It's clear you are not very familiar with the Internet.
2. My number is never withheld and certainly has never been when I called you. It's not my fault that you are using your phone incorrectly. But perhaps consider that your paranoia that withheld numbers usually means something to hide (don't judge others by how you act yourself) is because your phone doesn't recognise abroad numbers, or because some people call from their office phone or using a calling card, or myriad other reasons. Don't be so paranoid!
3. You weren't on my payroll, but by definition I employed your company to do some work. You seem only to think of employment in HMRC terms, but it has a much wider meaning in the dictionary ("to give work to (someone) and pay them for it.").
4. You never gave me any advice about replacing the boiler. But it's nice of you to tell me in a reply to my review after you were happy to take well over a grand repairing it over a number of visits without ever once mentioning it would be more economical to replace it.
5. I don't live abroad at all. I live in Camberley, UK. I have various businesses that require me to travel internationally weekly Mon-Fri. However, as a landlord of multiple UK properties, none of the numerous other tradesmen I've used have treated me any different because of where I'm geographically located at any particular time. It's the 21st century, and people recognise that we live in a global business environment. You have as much recourse for seeking payment whether I spend Mon-Fri in London or Timbuktu given I'm British, have multiple UK properties, have a UK home, etc. Your paranoia is basically backward and narrow-minded in today's modern society, and this is reflected in your lack of modern payment methods such as simply sending an invoice after work is done with payment possible via bank transfer or PayPal (as with most traders these days).
6. My response “What if both your email and telephone get hacked?” shouldn't be the concern here. The fact you want to record my card information on email and text is the issue here, even if only in part on each. Given that most phones provide access to email these days, if someone stole your phone, they would see all my card information via the email and text apps. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. So what you view as a "strange response" is perfectly normal for people in touch with modern technology and life in general. It seems you have had your head in the sand concerning privacy, fraud, security, etc. in technology in recent years.
7. "I can imagine how horrid it must be to feel like an angry and disappointed victim." I never said I was an angry or disappointed victim, but it's clear to anyone reading what you're trying to do here - your attempts to mock are so thinly-veiled, they're pretty blatant, and really only confirm my very first comment - that you're quite a vile person.
8. You talk a lot about your "company policy". But do you understand that you made your rules up yourself? And have you ever stopped to think that your rules are completely out of touch with modern ways of doing things? I don't know any other tradesman that has such ridiculous "company policies". Perhaps you should modernise them as you've lost a legitimate paying customer and don't really come anywhere close to the top of any search results when looking for a boiler engineer online anymore (how I originally found you years ago).
9. Your response to my review is awash with inferences of me having "something to hide", being "unusual, strange and obtuse". But then you agree that I've hired you numerous times, so clearly never had an issue with payment. So it seems your review is highly reactive to try and twist the truth rather than acknowledge your own mistakes and misjudgments.
10. Good luck!

I would suggest printing the above out and sticking them on your wall as the Ten Commandments of How Not to Treat Loyal Customers, especially when it can be viewed very publicly.

The guy came, he knew exactly what he was doing and he made the boiler work within the hour. He was polite, tidy and worked efficiently and thoroughly.

Experienced, knowledgeable and honest and reliable.

Very friendly and reliable service,very prompt response,highly recommended!

Has been servicing our boiler for years. Always an excellent job. Reliable, tidy and very helpful; plus charges seem reasonable.

Excellent! I would highly recommend A1 Boilers.

I’d recommend A1 boilers to anyone looking for a reliable, experienced engineer and a professional service at a fair price.