Homeserve - expensive and poor service

Just want to add a few comments on Homeserve. Attend at their own convenience. Don't attend within promised times. Use too many different contractors. Recently had problem with pipe and water flooding through ceiling. Took four days in total to get things sorted. Have made a complaint. Homeserve have decided to close my complaint i.e. ignore it without any discussion with me. This policy is costing almost =A3500 a year. One of their contractors told me Domestic and General was a lot better and cheaper. Warning policies are on automatic renewal so I got stuck with them for a second year.

Reply to
kathycomehome
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In message , kathycomehome writes

Learn to DIY then, my dear

£500 / year is almost the cost of a boiler
Reply to
geoff

I had major incompetence problems with them 2 years ago which cost my insurance company a lot of money. The insurance company sent them in to repair my drains - they didn't do the repair properly and had to be called back, but in the mean time put a camera down and reported the whole system in A1 condition. On the call back they damaged the system and failed after 3 months to repair it so I had to call in a local repairer. This year the drain failed to the extent that 30m had to be replaced by the insurance company.

The local builder has earned a lot of money sorting out Homeserve's faulty repair work for insurance companies - Ansa were used and were excellent.

I recommend that you do not touch Homeserve with a barge pole and that if your insurance company wants to use them, insist on another contractor. Rob

Reply to
robgraham

My barge pole is longer than yours! Seriously, not a company that I would wish to do business with.

Reply to
Clot

Develop a good working relationship with a good handyman and get him to look the place over and fix any obvious risks.

Reply to
John

go to bank, close account and open another. If homoserve demand payment, tell them of your claim against them, in terms of =A3.

NT

Reply to
NT

I can't see what it is to do with a Bank, unless Homeserve is linked to one. If you are talking about closing a bank account so that they can't honour the payment then they (Homeserve) could sue you for it anyway.

To the OP: If their service is that bad then there is a strong argument that they have breached the contract. I'm sure the Supply of Goods and Services Act would also apply where jobs have to be done "with reasonable care and skill".

You can often get free legal advice for this sort of thing from a local solictors, the CAB or Consumer Direct/Trading Standards.

Personally I would write to them pointing out their obligations under the aforementioned act (and how they did not meet them). Threaten to take the matter further if they fail to give adequate compensation. I'd ask for a full refund of your current year's subscription.

Use the small claims court if they don't cooperate.

IANAL.

Reply to
Mark

and there is the crux of these matters..

That is, I'm pretty sure, the correct legal situation - the problem as always (espec. in Broken Britain) is that too many shady operators of all "trades" wander along this quasi-legal boundary taking their "time served", "Federashun Membaship" chances about what is the proper & "legal" way vs who is going to:- a) know/find out that it isn't and b) be arsed to throw good money (or time) after bad and do anything about it.

Wonder if that drove the Aussies and Krauts to impose such draconian jobsworth laws?

Another reason why I endeavour to DIY wherever possible.

Cheersa JimK

Reply to
JimK

You don't even need to DIY.

You have to be very unlucky for "pay as you go" to be more expensive!

tim

Reply to
tim....

Maybe youre still sleepy. I suggested telling them of the op's potential countersue to both put them off suing and create an immedate basis for coutnersuing.

NT

Reply to
NT

You could have a new boiler installed every three years for the cost of it!

Reply to
mogga

Great idea :-)

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

A friend just had a breakdown callout with Domestic & General, and she got the official Baxi engineer, which is reassuring. The premium is =A3130 IIRC, which also covers "corrosion damage", a likely get-out for Homeserve I think. Not all good though. Initial diagnosis from the young engineer was cobwebs in the flue. Next, a more senior guy replaced pcb but, on checking gas pressure, found it too low. Cutting a *very* long story short, Transco diagnosed a blockage in the gas supply and had to replace the pipe out to the road. At one point there were 3 lwb transits in attendance at 8 o'c in the evening. Quite a saga, but didn't cost her a penny, and everything inside and out was meticulously restored. I won't be quite so grumpy when I see my next gas bill.

Reply to
stuart_noblenospam

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