Barclays Additions Bank Account

Contrary to a previous review, I had a great experience with my Barclays Premier Life account. I have used the travel insurance and mobile phone insurance but not claimed and I have actively used the tax information service, breakdown cover, airport lounges and most recently HomeSOS.

Clearly all those benefits, not to mention any others, have saved me loads of money.

Again, contrary to the previous review, when my boiler broke I called HomeSOS, I got a phone call within the hour from an engineer who arranged to arrive the following day. He came early in the day identified the problem, but a part needed ordering. Home SOS called me 2 days later to arrange for the engineer, who had the part to come and fit it. The guy came the following day, fitted it, all working.

Whilst this account is expensive (£25 per month) If you have a large overdraft (as I do) the reduction in APR of the debit interest along side the first £1000 being interest free, makes this account worth it if you need phone insurance, travel insurance and any of the other stuff they give you.

I think the other dude was just unlucky!

I am a Premier Life account holder with Barclays and get a number of benefits including Homesos. This account is not worth the paper it written on, Homesos, Eaga/Warmsure and Barclay achieve a high level of incompetence. I have used Homesos twice in the last year and have and both times have been an unpleasant and stressful experience.

In March 2010 my boiler broke down. I contacted Homesos and explained that we had a 1 year old child in the house however it took them 5 days to get an engineer out to me. An engineer was booked twice but on both these occasions it was a no show. Fortunately I also have Home Emergency through my home insurance so I called them and they fixed the fault within 24 hours. I complained to Homesos and I was offered a complimentary full annual service of my boiler, which I accepted.

My boiler was serviced by an engineer from Eaga/Warmsure on the 07/10/2010. Once he had finished the service I was surprised to hear that I was unable to get a receipt and a service report from him. I contacted Eaga/Warmsure and they sent me a receipt only stating that my boiler had been serviced and no faults were found.

Following the service I noticed that my domestic hot water and central heating were slow to heat up. Within a week my boiler locked out. This was reset but locked out again 2 weeks later with the same error code A41. I contacted Homesos in the morning of 02/11/2010 and I passed on all the details and symptoms that I am experiencing and that it had been recently serviced by one of their engineers. That evening I had a visit from an Eaga/Warmsure engineer. He had to contact the manufacturer to get an understanding of this fault code. During this visit the engineer was unable to diagnose the fault and suggested that if the error code re-appeared I should contact Eaga/Warmsure immediately and not to reset the system. I was informed by the engineer that they would be able to diagnose the fault if they could see the error code on the display.

The following morning 03/11/2010 the boiler locked out again so I did not reset the boiler at the engineers request and contacted Eaga/Warmsure who advised me that an engineer will be out that day. That evening I was contacted by an engineer and said that this fault was too complicated for Eaga/Warmsure and that they would have to call out the manufacturers.

On the 08/11/2010 an engineer from the manufacturers arrived. Again I passed on all the symptoms that I was experiencing and he proceeded to replace some parts. A total of 5 parts were replaced but still he was aware that the domestic hot water and central heating were slow to heat up. He then gave up as he had another boiler visit to attend to. I was informed that my central heating system had a sludge problem and would need a powerflush, which is a clean out of the central heating system at around the cost of £400.

I looked into powerflushes and the symptoms required to have a powerflush and my symptoms did not meet this requirement apart from the system was very slow to heat up. I did not believe this to be the remedy.

I contacted Eaga/Warmsure and Homesos and requested that the service details were sent to me as I had reason to believe that my boiler was not serviced in accordance with the service schedule. I have a letter from Homesos dated in April 2010 which I still have stating what the service consisted of and there at least 3 items that were not carried out. I requested that Eaga/Warmsure re-visited my property to diagnose my faulty boiler.

On 25/11/2010 I had a re-visit from an Eaga/Warmsure engineer who agreed that the boiler was slow to heat up. He took a water sample from a radiator downstairs and this would be sent off to be analysed. I contacted Eaga/Warmsure 01/11/2010 as they had not called me to get the results and I was informed that the results had returned at that I needed a powerflush. I asked what was in the water sample and they told me that they could not give me this information and just stated that I needed a powerflush. I also asked for my boiler service report. I was informed by Eaga/Warmsure that as my contract was with Homesos I had to get them to request this information. I contacted Homesos and asked them to get this information for me and as I write this letter I am still waiting for this information.

As I was not convinced by any of the work done or diagnosed by these engineers I decided to get a 2nd opinion. I contacted a local Corgi Gas Registered engineer who is familiar with this type of boiler as he has worked on a number houses on my estate with the same boiler. This engineer visited my property on the 06/12/2010. He noticed that the boiler was slow to heat up but also noticed that everything else was working, as it should. He also stated that there was no evidence of a sludge problem as the circulation is fine and that there were no unusual noises from the boiler. A powerflush was not required.

After a few minutes of doing some diagnostic checks he found that my boiler's input rating was lower than in should be. This means that it not receiving as much gas as it should be and this would be the cause of the boiler be slow to heat up. This check is part of the annual service and should have been identified and I am also surprised that the other engineers did not check this either. He contacted the manufacturers who visited a few weeks before to re-arrange a re-visit and as I write this they are due to visit me this week.

In the early part of December I received a call from Eaga/Warmsure complaints who had received my complaint via Homesos. She in formed me that the boiler has been serviced in accordance with their service schedule however the engineer stated that he was unable to check the Flue system as the component in my boiler has seized so he was unable to check this. I was not informed of this by the engineer and this contradicts my receipt from Eaga/Warmsure that my boiler had been serviced and no problems were found.

An engineer from the manufacturer re-visited my property on the 17/12/2010. I informed him of the symptoms that I was experiencing and showed him the report from my independent engineer. He checked the input rate and agreed it was low. He replaced the gas flow valve and proceeded to investigate further. He continued to take the gas pipe apart that leads into the heat exchanger and found that a clump of dead flies had captured in a filter subsequently blocking the gas flow. This blockage was the result of the boiler be very slow to heat up. The engineer re assembled the boiler and the fault had been cured and the boiler heated up normally. I also asked the engineer to check to see if a component that checks the flue system has seized. He confirmed that it has seized so this meant that the flue system had not been checked so the full service could not have been carried out.

Had I followed Eaga/Warmsure's diagnosis and recommendation to carry out a powerflush of my Central Heating System as they stated I had a circulation problem, this would not have rectified the fault in anyway. I would only have been £400 poorer. It does concern me how many other customers Eaga/Warmsure are giving incorrect advice to.

So the result of the faulty boiler was that dead flies had accumulated in the gas pipe inlet to the heat exchanged thus blocking some of the gas flow resulting in the boiler being slow to heat up.

I have also requested for my service information including the flue and input rate readings that were supposedly carried out in the annual service. I seriously doubt that they will have the flue readings as they were unable to carry it out as the component to check this had seized however, I was only aware this when I received a telephone call 2 months after the service stating that this component had seized.

I have also requested for the results of the water sample. I was informed by Warmsure that they could not give me this information. I was informed that I needed a powerflush but I was not convinced as they refused to give me further information. I would like to know what was in the water and what gave them the conclusion that I needed a powerflush and how this would have rectified the fault of the boiler being slow to heat up.

I have contacted Barclays and the are not interested. Homesos will not be used again and I will go through my home insurance which is with a different company. I am now looking at cancelling my Premier life account as it is worthless if you try to use it.

Called HOMESOS on the 14/11/2010 reporting a leak in the toilet. HOMESOS send 3 different plumbers to repair one single pipe that's was leaking which took them from the 14/11/2010 to the 03/12/2010; one plumber ended up breaking up the valve in the cistern leaving water leaking until the 18/12/2011 when the last plumber came to repair the valve demanding cash on the spot and did not even give a receipt after the job saying Barclays Bank will pay me.

Each and every time I contacted HOMESOS Agencies and the staff were always struggling to bring up my job reference number which raised many questions on the continuity of job left half way done; on few occasion I have been told that there was nothing under that reference number. The 1 week emergency break did not help matters as we came back on the 30/12/2010 to spend a couple of days in a flat without a toilet then this plumber came on the 03/12/2010 to cause further damage instead of repairing and promised to order another part in which he was going to come back and fix. When I rang HOMESOS on the 04/12/2010 to inform them that their plumber had had repaired the pipe but caused some damage to the cistern I believe HOMESOS logged this as a new job caused by us rather than their Agent. HOMESOS were supposed to save my soul but the whole saga has caused me financial losses, severe psychological damage and depressed the whole family. I would not recommend anyone to Barclays HOMESOS, they are a waste of space and time.

Warning

Please avoid barclays Additions and Premiere Accounts. The Home SOS is totally useless, it should be caleed DIY SOS as beleive me you will end up getting your problem resolved yourself. Go with British Gas. Be aware you have bben warned

I have writen 3 letters to barclays complaints department about problems we have experienced with Barclays Home SOS and Eaga. We have received an acknowledgement of the letter sent on the 20/12/2010 but no response. We have not received an acknowledgement of the letter sent on the 28/12/2010, no response to our letter on the 7th of January we cannot contact anyone in the Escalation Team or Customer care as they will not return our calls.

We are very unhappy with the lack of communication we have experienced and the difficulties and frustration in trying to find out what is happening with regard to getting our boiler repaired and the total inefficiency of Eaga.

This is a catalogue of attempted repairs to our boiler

2/12/2010 service engineer came out diagnosed new part

7/12/2010 service engineer brought wrong size part returned to office came back and fitted new part

7/12/2010 boiler not working properly

9/12/2010 service engineer came out and said the boiler needed a new diverter valve

17/12/2010 service engineer came out to fit diverter valve he said it was not the problem and that he would have to order another part

17/12/2010-23/12/2010 constant attempts by myself and my husband to try to find out what was happening (hour and hours spent on the telephone) we were eventually told new part would be fitted on the 28th of December

28/12/2010 service engineer came to fit part he said it was the wrong part, this part had already been renewed by their engineer on the 7th of December and that he would have to order another part.

On New Years Day someone from Eaga rang and advised the part had been authorized but that the warehouse was closed until the 4th of January and they would not be able to access it until then.

We rang Home SOS on the 5th of January as no one had contacted us about fitting the part they advised someone would contact us

7th of January a worker called rang us from the escalation department at Home SOS she advised we would need to pay an excess of £283.83 before any more work would be carried out on our boiler. She would not tell us what the breakdown was of the £1000 pound that had been used up in repairs up until now or a guarantee the out boiler would be fixed if we paid this money.

We expressed concern on the 20th of December and have continued these concerns in our communications snce then, about what Eaga may be billing Home SOS for but still find it difficult to understand how they have used up the £1000 we are allowed for repairs.

We have now asked the heating engineer who services our boiler to look at our boiler and give us an estimate for repair and wish we had done this on the 2nd of december 2010

My boiler failed on the 3rd of December and today is the 4th of January and it is still not fixed, no heating or hot water.

I am a Premier Client and this service is an absolute disgrace - Avoid at all costs and take out a policy with British Gas instead, they are by far the most reliable.

Excuse after excuse after excuse.

The "Breakdown Emergency Engineers" that Barclays use have been closed from 24th of December to the 4th of January - probably one of the busiest time of the year when it is very cold and most people are at home for the festive period.

I have a 12 month old who became ill with Croup and was told that my family was not a priority as my son was not under 6 months old !!

We have had to provide our own heating and have been offered no assistance whatsoever.

Just to add insult to injury - I work for Barclays

Avoid this rip off Premier Life account at all costs, you will not use half of the "Benefits" anyway.

Barclays Home Sos - TREAT THERE CUSTOMERS WITH NO RESPECT UTTER DISGRACE

AVOID THERE PROMISES AND TAKE OUT YOUR OWN PERSONAL COVER AND CANCEL ADDITIONS/PREMIER PAYMENTS - YOU WILL BE BETTER OFF

I AM NOW ON DAY 8 WITHOUT ANY WATER OR HEATING DUE TO A BURST MAINS WATER FEED

SO NO WASHING NO FLUSHING CISTERN

All I GET IS THE RUN AROUND AND FALSE PROMISES I AM NOW BEGINNING TO BELIEVE EAGA/WARMSURE ARE JUST A FIGMENT OF MY IMAGINATION.AN ENGINEER HAS BEEN PROMISED EVERYDAY AND EVERYDAY HAS FAILED TO SHOW & BELIEVE ME I NOW THINK THEY ARE RUNNING OUT OF EXCUSES.

Hiya. I have tried them when my boiler died on me. It was emitting carbon monoxide which is very dangerous. It's been three days. It's freezing cold and snowing outside. Sm passed around from one department to another and still waiting. Would I recommend them? No! Same with a friend. Their phone needed replacing. They don't give new ones. Only used. Some are worse than the only he already had. Took him two months b4 getting a decent one

SOS EMERGENCY--UTTER RUBBISH !!

absolutely disgusted with the service from additions plus my boiler broke and yes they were out the same day but 8 days later i am still waiting for hot water and heating they told me they can fix it in another 3 days told them i am utterly disgusted with this as i have a 9 & 2 year old when i rang the service company i was told "well you only pay £72 a year for this service and that british gas charge £40 a month" is that really a good enough excuse??? i am putting a formal complaint in too . been a customer of barclays for many years, will i be using them any more? the answer is NO. i may even notify the papers of what service they are providing to their customers

yes, at face value , this account seems excellent value for money, however you get what you pay for, the only time we tried to use any of the services was when our boiler broke down, 3 months later we still had no boiler, no hot water, despite 4 home visits, all the engineers were verging on incompetent and some were just rude, eventually i contacted british gas, paid a one off call out charge and the boiler repaired the next day.

Barclays were at best trying to blame the contracters, they seem to forget , we pay our money to barclays not the contractors....i would hate to think i would have similair issues using the travel insurance abroad.