Having been without heating or hot water for 7 days (last 2 of which were admittedly because we were not available on the day for which the parts and engineer could be arranged), following an ititial loss of heating on New Years eve, I feel it necessary to draw the attention of any-one reading these reviews to the lack of service from Swale support staff (the engineers are excellent when they eventually arrive!). For the record the initial fault had been admirably responded to, and fault diagnosed /fixed within 5 hours. However this may possibly have been only because we had a toddler in the house at the time and were classified as a vulnerable household. It was not reflected in ensuing faults and responses. Firstly, over the period including New Year, when the issue started, the average time (over around 10 calls) taken for a person to come on the phone was 10 minutes “ as we are experiencing a higher volume of calls than anticipated”. It would therefore seem that the call centre must be understaffed and/or they do not monitor their response times and adjust staffing accordingly? Secondly Swales strap line of "RELY ON US TO KEEP YOU WARM" cannot be relied on as it clearly relies on various of their other advertised/stated claims/positions such as : 1. We offer (for service) 365 days 24 hr. availability 2. We have a fully stocked team of service engineers able to repair breakdowns as quickly and efficiently as possible. 3. We (uniquely) store and deliver all our materials from our warehouse facility (in Sittingbourne?). 4. Our engineers are despatched ….in our fleet of modern comprehensively stocked vans Unfortunately from my experience: a. The 365/24 cover only seems to apply if its not a weekend and no spare parts are required b. The service engineers are not fully stocked; parts are not held in Swales warehouse and the vans are not comprehensively stocked, so repairs cannot be carried out as quickly and efficiently as possible When I raised these issues with senior staff and planners, when trying to expedite my repair, I was told that that they cannot be expected to stock/carry all parts and thus rely on Plumb Centre to provide spares as required. As this is usually within 36/48 hours (by the time parts availability is married with engineer availability), a similar delay is automatically built into any response time? For example, my initial fault resulted in a recommendation for a new pump, on 14-day delivery, followed by 28mm isolation valves being required which were on 2-day delivery. The latter only being required as an engineer had left the system with a broken valve when fitting the new pump. Such pumps and valves must be common to many systems and should arguably be carried on the “comprehensively stocked vans”. It would also seem that Swale have no mechanism in place for urgent procurement of standard spares (my parts were ex-stock from their suppliers) for prolonged /urgent issues, such as collection by an engineer or expedited delivery by supplier but rely on rigid adherence to “our Logistics Department” which is outside planners control and not open at weekends! Thirdly, be aware that if the engineer provides 2 electric heaters, verifies you have an immersion heater and gas fire (even only a decorative one), you will go to the back of any queue as you are deemed to have working heating and hot water! Swale planners etc. ignore the fact that it’s almost impossible to adequately heat a 4-bedroom house with only 2 off 2 kW fan heaters, refusing requests to prioritise/expedite issue “manually”!