And to Finish this Month of Nicely.......

Hi Barney

Hope you are ok mate 

Any news Barney? You've been quiet for a while, how you doing mucker?

Hi Steve, thanks for asking. Well eventually it got the better of me and I found myself not being able to be around gas boilers without shaking and sweating and I still cannot work on a gas boiler where I am confident, even with work colleagues I don't want to be anywhere near a gas boiler, sounds crazy but that is the way it is.  It seriously affected my sleep for around 4 days, so rather than bother the doctor I decided to get rid of all the bottles of scotch I've acquired over the years (I don't drink normally) but I was downing a bottle in around 30 minutes just to get a couple of hours sleep. Anyway crazy as it may seem, you suggested going to work in a cat sanctuary, it just so happens whether it was the same day I cannot remember, but someone dumped an old cat in the back garden which was at deaths doors all ribs and bones probably only had a couple of days to live, anyway she totally side tracked me as I concentrated on getting her better and she's still here, she's an old cat and has a thyroid problem but she is now on medication and getting some quality of life in her remaining time. So she probably did me more good than the doctor.

I'm still suffering with chronic headaches and I have lost virtually all my hearing in my left ear, whether this will return or not I do not know only time will tell. Financially it has had a major effect losing just one client has cost in the region of £150k as I've said previously I was doing a project at 20th Century Fox, fortunately I had people onsite and although things haven't gone to plan, we're still there and the problems haven't all been from my side.

As to the boiler & the boiler manufacturer, I'm guessing I'm going to have to be careful what I say here from a legal point of view. From the outset, the manufacturers admitted full liability and I was led to believe that the boiler would be independently inspected, this appeared not to be the case it was in fact inspected by themselves. I was also led to believe that this was a one off incident and it had never happened before, it wasn't I tried to do some research into this for a few weeks and drew a blank, but as luck would have it I changed the search terms this morning and bingo all the information I need, it would seem that one of their own engineers also received a broken nose in exactly the same fashion in August of last year, now if this is the case which I will find out as to whether it is true or not and there are other incidents. Then what happened to me was aggravated by the fact that they the manufacturers have known for quite a while that there has been an issue with these boilers and have neither informed the heating industry or homeowners of a potential risk. Now I have had the report on my particular boiler for around 10 days the report stated that there was an issue with dampness on the electrodes / ignition causing low resistance, in other words although gas was entering the boiler there was no sparking on the ignition probes, so after 5 attempts at trying to light the boiler locks out, this happened 3 times, so when it did eventually light the boiler had 20 volumes of the normal amount of gas in the combustion chamber and then it sparked in the right place and the rest is history. Something else has also happened to divert attention away from the ignition probes which I cannot go into for legal reasons, but will gladly do so at a later date. I have emailed the manufacturers some questions on their supposed independent report which they have chosen not to answer or even acknowledge, you have to draw your own conclusions as to why not. At the moment they are not aware that I now have information on other incidents and I have been totally easy going with them as it was never about compensation ect, in fact I haven't even instructed solicitors yet although I have had a brief conversation with one. But in my opinion they are trying to cover this up.... 

Glad to hear back from you Barney, and the power of cat therapy eh?

It's hardly good news, but it must be a weight of your mind knowing this isn't an isolated incident. I know what you mean about not being for the money, but it sounds like you do need to sit down with a solicitor. You've been through the mill, and deserve compensating. Plus if this isn't flagged to the heating industry or escalated legally, then other engineers could end up in a similar position 

You've done nothing wrong, but it does sound like you need to sit down with a legal professional, if nothing else they can give you some options and likely outcomes.

Good to hear from you Barney - I hope it all works out for you in the end!

Oh Barney! You've had a terrible time, good to hear from you. Definitely get a decent solicitor on the case and hopefully that will help you deal with it. 

I'm glad the cat came to help, poor thing. Sounds like you needed each other.

Take care x

Good to see you are OK as you have really had it rough the past few months .. After something like that it is natural to feel how you are feeling ...It's like the falling off the horse and having to get back on again asap scenario ,but it's easier said than done... I've just lost my hearing to and it's awful ,so I hope yours comes back again after time... It does sound like you have had a bit of good luck with kitty turning up ,they are good for the heart and soul .... Anyway hope things start getting better for you soon

Hey Barney

Good to see you back on here.

Not going to say much else as just going to echo the above really.

Best of luck though 

This is getting funny now as my solicitors after 5 months of trying, have still not received any acknowledgement / correspondence from either the boiler manufacturer or their insurers.... Time to ramp up the pressure would have been much simpler if they had just apologised and covered my lost earnings and that would have been the end of the matter......

Originally Posted by Barney

“This is getting funny now as my solicitors after 5 months of trying, have still not received any acknowledgement / correspondence from either the boiler manufacturer or their insurers.... Time to ramp up the pressure would have been much simpler if they had just apologised and covered my lost earnings and that would have been the end of the matter......”

Sometimes insurance companies are indefensible 

They know they are in bed for a claim, its a fairly straight forward case so they really should stop messing around and pay up. 

It would help close the whole saga for you too buddy. 

Keep us all posted - good luck