Warning re 24/7 Home Rescue

I add the material below as a warning to anyone considering 24/7 for boiler and central heating cover. I have rarely come across such ineptitude as the following correspondence demonstrates.

Thank you for your (two identical) replies to my complaint via email on November 23rd. However, I think we might be at cross purposes. Your reply says you have reviewed my complaint and apologises for an engineer not arriving at an arranged time. Forgive me, but I don't think you read my email very carefully if at all. My complaint was about a completely different matter.

This is what I think has happened. Your email is clearly a standard pre-prepared template response to the many complaints you must get on a daily basis. Someone has clearly pressed the wrong key. Perhaps the standard response to my complaint is sitting in someone else’s inbox and they are now as puzzled as I am.

That being the case and for the avoidance of doubt, I have copied below my original complaint in the hope that, at least in part, there might be a glancing reference to the points I have raised. I’m pretty sure there will be a standard response on file. It’s just a case of hitting the correct key:

I bought one of your more expensive packages. WS0105887. I wanted the peace of mind that should anything go wrong with the boiler I would receive speedy, reliable service.

The boiler HAS failed. The hot water supply is frequently no more than tepid, the digital display is blank and the boiler continues to heat the central heating system long after the desired temperature is achieved.

Despite these faults, when the problem was reported 24/7’s response was that the problems did not meet the company’s criteria for repair under the contract.

Those criteria are:

Breakdown

means a sudden and unforeseen mechanical or electrical malfunction which results in the particular unit not working completely (i.e. no heating or hot water is available).

A representative of the company said that because the boiler was heating water the condition didn’t represent a “breakdown” despite there being no hot water available. Well, my contention is that “sudden and unforeseen” applies, as does “electrical malfunction” given the blank display, all of which adds up to the boiler “not working completely.”

If your business model is so precarious that you need to use semantics to justify not honouring your contractual obligations, then the Lord help you.

The representative I spoke with was adamant that complaints had to be in writing. I am equally insistent that you should explain to me in writing clearly and precisely why my boiler breakdown does not qualify for repair under my contract with you so that I can take the matter further.

Once again, I look forward with a degree of trepidation to your reply.



Thank you for your email.

I have reviewed your account and can only apologise about the wrong email being forwarded to you.

I can see that the claim was declined as the fault reported did not amount to a breakdown. As per the terms and conditions of the contract we cover you solely for a complete loss of heating and hot water, as confirmed at point of claim the facilitates were not as hot as you would like them to be.

You opted into a pay on use service and the engineer attended to diagnose and he reported that parts were required. Our technical team contacted the tenants to get the serial details from the boiler, due to no contact for several days the claim was closed down. Should you want to proceed please contacted the technical team with the serial details on 0345 3192 247.

Regards 247 Complaints Team

______________________________________________

Thank you for your response which is pretty much as I expected. Before I say farewell, I would just like to make one or two observations for your consideration.
As it’s my name on the contract, I am surprised that the technical team persisted for so long trying to contact the tenant for the serial number of the boiler instead of calling me. When the technical team did finally contact me it received the details requested by return, although their email to me seems to have been sent after the claim had been closed down.
As you say, an engineer visited and advised that spare parts were required to rectify the problem. I can’t help wondering why the engineer didn’t think to make a note of the unit’s serial number there and then while he was on site.
You ended your email by saying that if I wanted to proceed I should contact the technical team on 0345 319 2247. After the obligatory quarter of an hour’s wait for an answer, I was told that it was the wrong department. Perhaps you could amend your contacts book.
I forwarded the requested details to someone called Luke on November 30th and my one desire now is that this job is completed so that I can get out from under.
I am clearly with the wrong company given that I simply want cover when a boiler fails to operate within its stated parameters. Thankfully, three other providers I have spoken with define a ‘breakdown’ as just that.
Please don’t bother to reply. I have written this as much as a warning to others as a response to your email.

I have to add to the list of service complaints about 247 Home Rescue sadly.

t’s very easy to set up a policy with them online and seems efficient until ...you have to deal with the call centre.

I could write a small novel, but will spare you that. In short I received promises of service deliverables that simple weren’t met and numerous call transfers because ‘another department deals with that’.

When I subsequently contacted the complaints team, they initially responded on the basis of a complaint that was factually different to mine. When I asked them to re-read my complaint they responded informing me that I had allegedly received contact (and had been booked a service appointment) that (i) I had not received / been informed of and (ii) I had not been told of in my earlier dealings with their contact centre.

In the end I just gave them notice to cancel my policy (they confirmed it was cancelled by phone - but their oral confirmations have proven less than reliable for me to date) and went back to British Gas. Hopefully 247 won’t keep trying to re-instate my direct debit.

Signed up in sept, and paid the whole year up front. Couldn’t book a service until March. Tried to cancel and got abused, and not all my money back, despite them not fulfilling their side of the contract.

Do not use them.

You’ll get better service from your local guys.

Hi all

Please beware that 24 7 home rescue isn’t financially registered company so don’t buy any cover from them. I wish I had read warning before but now I am stuck with this bad operator. Don’t only rely on trust pilot reviews because they mean nothing if company can get away with messing customers. I never had such a bad experience from any other company so far. Very rude staff, engineers don’t have a clue about boilers, misleading terms and conditions!

Stay away from bad operator 24 7 home rescue