I keep getting letters from this organisation inviting me to take out a "Water Supply Pipe Cover" insurance for around £12 a year.
Does anyone ever take up these offers? What is the likelihood of their service being required? My house is five years old.
Today they sent me another one, again with the direct debit slip pre-filled with my name and address as if it were a foregone conclusion that I would want this. Bit of a liberty if you ask me.
MM
Never taken one of these out before - but never needed one. Previously lived in a 108 yr old house - no problems in the 6 years I was there. In fact, I've never lived in a house which has suffered from pipe problems - nothing that couldn't be solved by lifting the drain cover. Pay your money and make your choice as they say....
This comes up quite a lot in the media. If you Google you can probably find a lot more info but here's one opinion:
Nick.
I keep getting them from Northumbrian Water. They go straight in the shredder. My suply is a 30 year old 1/2" black alkathene one installed by Barratts. If it was an old iron/lead one it may be worth getting cover but I doubt a modern blue one will fail more than once in a blue moon.
I'd put the money in a personal "insurance" pot and pay up what is required in the very unlikely event of needing cover. You may be already covered by your household insurance anyway.
Keep away from anything to do with Homeserve - they are a load of t******rs and should be avoided at all costs. Their approach is to get the job done as quickly and inexpensively as possible with the nett result that it is not done adequately and you are left either fighting them or getting a professional in to do the work correctly.
Beware Rob
I got these regularly until I rung Yorkshire Water and told them I'd given them my personal details for the purpose of administering my account and not to be sent junk mail.
Haven't received any since.
HomeServe covered my central heating system and both they and their contracters were somewhat less than competent when real problems arose. They then tried, unsuccessfully, to avoid liability under the policy.
Toom
That is EXACTLY the gut feeling I had when opening these letters. Thanks.
MM
Yes, it annoys me that they always carefully pre-fill in the direct debit slip with my name and address. Now, I am paranoid when it comes to shredding. I shred EVERYthing. I even have a little hand-driven shredder extra for the kitchen so that I can shred slips from the cashpoint as soon as I come in. But many people aren't so paranoid and will take these missives from HomeServe and just chuck 'em in the bin without ever owning a shredder.
MM
Never bothered with shredders. We have an old metal dustbin with holes drilled in for air. All personalised junk, envelopes (council won't recycle then), ATM slips, Giro slips attached to bills that are paid by Direct Debit anyway, old letters, etc I put into a storage box. Every so often I have a good old fashioned burn up!
In message , MM writes
Have you ever heard of anyone's water supply pipe failing?
A chance for the terminally stupid to lighten their financial burden
Yes, mine. Last year it started seeping from a joint between old alkathene (sp) and MODE used when the water meter was fitted. To be fair it only started to leak when we moved the meter around a bit during some trench work associated with our extension.
Cambridge Water came out and fixed it for free. It turns out they will do one fix every 5 or 7 years (I can't remember which) for free anyway which makes insurance of the type described even more useless.
"MM" wrote
i dont own a shredder... but i own 4 fancy rats, all reciepts and junk letters are given to them, they make lovely nests out of them, the also love eating the thermal paper used on reciepts,
so if anyones prepared to piece together a letter of reciept after it's been chewed up, slept on and peed on with a few turds added for good measure, not to mention going thru the rat and coming out the other end as ratty raisins, they are welcome to it.
I got one this morning; branded with an "Anglian Water - Direct" logo as well as homeserve. I think I read about as far as the "What would you do if your supply pipe required repair..." hypothetical question, where I thought to myself "get anglian water to dig it up and fix it of course - or DIY if they don't want to!" before consigning the letter to the bin.
For junk mail, that's added value!
Which is ironic, because a few years ago they tried peddling exactly this insurance.
Theo
In message , MM wrote
I've got an "anglian water" one in front of me as I write :(
If you read the small print the contract for the actual repair isn't even with Homeserve, it's with Partner Assistance SA. This means that there will be a commission to both anglian water and homeserve before you get covered.
I wonder what it's like trying to get any redress from the Belguim regulators when anything goes wrong with the service that Partner Assistance SA provide? :)
I would estimate that the number of underground supply pipes that fail each year is single digit percent and overwhelmingly from houses more than 60+ years.
The insurance might be just about justifiable on the basis that they dig up, replace and reinstate the entire incoming pipe as soon as there is a leak. In fact they offer to fix the leak and clear off and NOT RETURN. When there is a leak in the supply there could well be another soon afterwards (the lead pipe has moved/embrittled in more than one place).
The other lie is that you'll be left without water. When there is a leak you probably wont notice for months until there is a substantial wet area in the garden. You will still have a supply. Supply failure due to causes within your property and below ground is pretty much discountable.
I would estimate that the number of underground supply pipes that fail each year is single digit percent and overwhelmingly from houses more than 60+ years.
The insurance might be just about justifiable on the basis that they dig up, replace and reinstate the entire incoming pipe as soon as there is a leak. In fact they offer to fix the leak and clear off and NOT RETURN. When there is a leak in the supply there could well be another soon afterwards (the lead pipe has moved/embrittled in more than one place).
The other lie is that you'll be left without water. When there is a leak you probably wont notice for months until there is a substantial wet area in the garden. You will still have a supply. Supply failure due to causes within your property and below ground is pretty much discountable.
Six years later and I'm STILL getting these letters from Anglia Water Direc t aka HomeServe! Someone else mentioned in the thread that this may be cove red by the house insurance, but meanwhile I've had HI from the AA, the Post Office, LV and now Nationwide. None of them includes the mains water suppl y pipe.
The latest kind offer from Anglian Water Direct includes a statistic from H omeServe: "HomeServe responded to 322 plumbing claims in the are a last year" Yeah, "responded"! What, to say, f... off, mate! We ain't cove ring THAT!
MM
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