A follow up to my June review of our Worcester Bosch air conditioning installation.

Back in June I wrote about finally giving in and investing in a proper air conditioning solution after two brutal heatwaves, and about what a difference it made to me as someone who is neurodivergent with extreme heat sensitivity. If you missed that one, you can read it here.

I said at the time that the system was not cheap, but that it was a sensible and wise investment. Several weeks on, I stand by every word of that. What I did not expect was that I would be writing a follow up, and that the follow up would end up being about customer service rather than cooling.

The Noise Problem

Not long after the installation was signed off, we noticed a noise coming from one of the condenser units. The rest of the system had been impressively quiet, which is exactly what we had been promised, so this one unit stood out immediately.

Noise is not a small thing for me. Sensory sensitivity comes with the territory when you are autistic, and a sound that most people would filter out and forget about sits in my head and refuses to leave. This was not a case of being fussy over a minor niggle. It was genuinely affecting me in my own home, which is the one place I am supposed to be able to decompress.

Calling the Installer Back

We got straight back in touch with Robert Trevis at R Trevis Plumbing and Heating Ltd, who carried out our original installation. He came back out to look at it without any fuss, and without the faintest suggestion that we were making something out of nothing.

He could not resolve the noise himself. Rather than leaving it there or telling us that the unit was within tolerance and we would have to live with it, he did what a good installer does. He escalated it. He contacted Worcester Bosch on our behalf and stayed involved throughout the process.

That deserves saying out loud, because plenty of tradespeople would have shrugged and moved on to the next job. Robert did the opposite, and it is precisely why I recommended him so warmly the first-time round.

Worcester Bosch Step In

Worcester Bosch arranged a site visit to assess the unit properly. Following that visit they identified that some internal parts needed replacing, and the remedial work was booked in for 4 August.

At no point did we have to chase, argue or justify ourselves. Nobody tried to talk us out of the fault, and nobody attempted to bounce responsibility back to the installer. The problem was listened to, investigated, diagnosed and scheduled. If that sounds like a low bar, spend an afternoon reading online reviews of almost any other manufacturer and you will see how rarely it is cleared.

The Day of the Repair

On 4 August two engineers arrived to carry out the work. What we absolutely did not expect was that they would be accompanied by Jo Shepherd, the Chief Executive Officer of Worcester Bosch.

She was not there because of us, and she was not there for a photograph. She was out in the field with her engineers, spending the day seeing what their working lives actually look like: what they deal with day to day, what gets in their way, and whether there is training or equipment they need that they are not currently being given.

I cannot overstate how rare that is. A great many senior leaders talk about being close to the front line. Very few of them get in the van. Standing in a customer’s driveway in early August, watching your own engineers work and asking them directly what would make their jobs easier, will tell you more in a morning than any dashboard or quarterly report will tell you in a year.

Meeting Jo Shepherd

It was completely surreal, and it was also brilliant. We got on really well, and I found her genuinely interested in the detail of what had gone wrong, how it had been handled and what our experience of the whole process had been.

The engineers replaced the parts, the work was completed and the problem was sorted.

I came away feeling something I very rarely feel as a customer in 2026: properly looked after. Good customer service has become so scarce that when you actually receive it, it registers as remarkable rather than normal. It should be the other way around, and it says a lot about the state of the market that it is not.

What Good Looks Like

If I strip this back to what actually happened, the sequence is quite simple. A fault appeared. The installer took it seriously and escalated it when he could not fix it. The manufacturer inspected it, accepted it, ordered the parts and turned up when they said they would. The chief executive of that manufacturer chose to spend her day learning from the people doing the work.

None of that is glamorous. All of it is the difference between a company that sells you a product and a company that stands behind it.

Where This Goes Next

I am looking forward to staying in touch with Jo and continuing the conversation, particularly in my role as Chief Executive and Founder of the AI and Cyber Security Association (AICSA).

Heat technology is quietly becoming a connected, data driven and increasingly AI assisted industry. Heat pumps and air conditioning systems now sit on home networks, talk to apps, respond to energy tariffs and, in some cases, respond to signals from the wider electricity grid. That brings real opportunity and it brings real risk, and I would very much like to pick her brains on where Worcester Bosch sees artificial intelligence going in heating and cooling, and what that means for the security of the units bolted to the outside walls of millions of British homes.

I have written more about that side of things for the AICSA, and I will link to it here once it is published.

The Ratings

Worcester Bosch After Sales and Service: 5 Stars

Diagnosed properly, escalated properly, fixed properly. Add a chief executive who spends her working day with her own engineers, and you have a service operation I would happily recommend to anybody.

R Trevis Plumbing and Heating Ltd: 5 Stars

Robert came back out, took the problem seriously, could not fix it himself and immediately escalated it to the manufacturer rather than leaving us to it. Gas Safe registered, based in the West Midlands, and every bit as good on the aftercare as he was on the installation. Please get in touch with me if you would like his contact details.

The Units Themselves: 5 Stars

One faulty condenser unit out of a full multi split installation is not a reason to mark a product down, especially when the fault was resolved this well. The system is doing exactly what we bought it to do, and I am sleeping through the night in weather that would previously have floored me.

Final Thoughts

Things go wrong. Parts fail; units develop faults and no manufacturer on earth has a zero defect record. What separates the good companies from the rest is what happens next, and on that measure Worcester Bosch and Robert Trevis have both been exceptional.

If you are considering an air conditioning installation, and particularly if you are someone who struggles with heat for neurodivergence or health reasons, my advice from June has not changed. Do it. Just make sure you choose a manufacturer and an installer who will still be picking up the phone if something goes wrong six weeks later.

Photo courtesy of Jo Shepherd.