How are HomeServe still in business

Well, I should have checked here before I was suckered into falling for the HomeServe scam. I think all the fancy claims on their website are just hot air, designed to suck-in gullible punters. Not that I’ve ever considered myself to be gullible before, but they ARE slick…

I noticed my boiler was leaking (dripping from the bottom) last week but otherwise working fine, as it has been for the past 10 years. After a bit of research at the weekend I decided to use HomeServe’s “Fixed price boiler repair & cover” service after looking at a few other sites that seemed to be more obvious scams (such as “MR Boiler Repairs”).

Their T&Cs looked OK. To quote the very first line: “Information is key! You need to tell us as much as you can about the repair as possible.” They go on to say “If we arrive and the repair requires more work than was agreed when you booked the repair, then we may have to charge you more for the work”. Fair enough.

I tried to book an appointment on-line and entered full details of the fault. When I tried to submit the form it went straight to a “We’re sorry something went wrong” page. I tried a few times but no luck. It is the same today, and probably has been for months. Try it and see. You can view the webpage source code and if you understand Javascript you might find that it’s hard-coded to do that.

This may be for a couple of reasons: 1) there won’t be a ‘written’ record of what you say the fault is; and 2) it forces you to phone them, which is always the main marketing objective. Of course, it might be that something actually went wrong, but wouldn't such a big firm notice they weren't getting any internet traffic (or have checked the error logs) and quickly fixed it?

So I called the number (this is around lunchtime on Sunday). The operative didn't ask a single question about the boiler or the fault. The only details he took were my credit card details. He didn't offer any reference numbers, etc. Just said I’d get a call from the engineer within two hours. Of course, nothing materialised until the following morning.

Again, no details of the boiler or fault were requested, but an appointment was made for the engineer’s visit the next day. He arrived (nice knowledgeable chap) took a look and listed several items that would require replacement. He said he would report back to HomeServe for authorisation and they would contact me with the news.

I got the call a few hours later. The boiler is allegedly beyond economic repair and needs replacing. They cancelled my ‘fixed price’ repair request, but offered the names of companies who could do the work directly for me. I told the operative what I thought of their scam and said I would be informing Trading Standards.

The ‘fixed price’ repair costs £240. The scam is that they don’t follow their own procedure and T&Cs, they just generate a telemarketing opportunity. Of course there’s no way of telling but I strongly suspect that if the engineer finds a trivial problem then they charge you the full £240. That’s a tidy profit, plus they have you hooked on their annual insurance policy.

If it looks like the repair will cost anything near £240 they play the ‘beyond economic repair’ card. There is then a good chance that you will use the installer they suggest for your boiler replacement. It’s a no-lose money making scam for them.

All of this is just my own opinion of course – do your own research. Right, time to Google “trading standards”…

Recieved yet another offer from anglian water to take up Home Serve
Had reason to call call them for blocked drain 5 years ago,apprentice turned
up(overheard on phone trying to solve problem)said toilet needed removing etc!
Told him to politely go away!called Dyno Rod job fixed within 1hrs,had to pay
unblock drain(all work carried out outside)since bought rods £13 and have kept
drains clear

the worst company i have ever had the misfortune to pay for a 'service'. How do you justify a water tank leak that after more than 3 months still hasn't been repaired?! They will not turn up to repair, frequently let us down on the day. frequently lie and tell us the parts are ready when they are not, refuse to let me speak to an area manager, refuse to discuss compensation, a CEO that refuses to even acknowledge a letter, refusal to release the 50 pages of notes on their system relating to this issue, twice closing my complaint without a discussion about the many problems, lazy engineers who cannot be bothered to properly check the problem, engineers that blame each other and contradicting each other, inability to speak to same person twice.