Warning re 24/7 Home Rescue

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Comments

  • We are leaving 24/7 after two years. Looking back I'm amazed we stayed so long. It was sold as "offering you everything British Gas offers but much cheaper." British Gas covered all kinds of breakdowns and the 24/7 saleswoman said 24/7 did also but the first time we claimed we were told only the boiler was covered - fortunately it was the boiler which went wrong and 24/7 agreed to cover everything else if we increased our premium making it only slightly cheaper than British Gas.
    The latest (our boiler is covered for repairs up to £1,000) is that the current breakdown is set to cost £680 so 24/7 explains that that means it cannot repair it economically so all it can offer is a write off of £200 "because the boiler is over 10 years old." I was put through to someone who "might be able to help you." He said the write off would be £600 if we used its engineers to provide the replacement boiler. He recommended a boiler which he said is Which?'s best buy. I logged on to Which? and found it was not so told him which was the best. He said he'd happily arrange that for a mere £3,000 (less the £600). British Gas came in at £200 less than £3,000 and the local Worcester Bosch appointed engineer £400 less and they were both offering a whole lot more than 24/7. So I rang today to say I'd accept the £200. I was told the write off was £0 unless I accepted their engineer because my boiler is more than 7 years old..
    Towards the end of year One the boiler had broken down and I was told an engineer would only come out if I paid an excess of £70 - having no choice I did and it was repaired but this year's fault looks very similar. I asked today if there was anyone one could appeal to about the write off and was told it is not an insurance policy so there's no one to complain to or to arbitrate - unlike British Gas for example.
    Also every call takes ages to be answered and, having been answered, one is usually given another number to ring with another long wait
    You should not touch this company with a bargepole..
  • Horrific company. Please for the love of God hope you never need to call them out. Customer service is rude/aggressive we had an intermittent fault that has now resulted in permanent failure.

    Apparently this is not covered even though I now have no hot water or heating and a 1 year old I have to take to neighbors for a bath. The only resolution they would offer is to pay them £95 security deposit as they doubt that the boiler is faulty.

    I would beg you not to go with 247, I have never known such a disregard and contempt from a company. They constantly want to refer to recordings from previous calls and cut short the existing conversation and say they will call you back which they never do.

    Additionally after speaking to customer care I can clarify that intermittent problems are not covered and is hidden in their terms and conditions. For example my boiler works for one and then for the following few days does not work and displays flame failure, apparently this doesn't come under boiler breakdown. So in summary I pay a direct debit each month for a boiler breakdown policy and have a broken boiler which they will not fix. Do not think of this as home emergency cover but home emergency INSURANCE. They simply view your claim as profit reduction for them and try and wriggle out-of everything. Look elsewhere if only I had stuck with British Gas.

    Next stop watchdog and trading standards.
  • Sam_Smith wrote: »
    Horrific company. Please for the love of God hope you never need to call them out. Customer service is rude/aggressive we had an intermittent fault that has now resulted in permanent failure.

    Apparently this is not covered even though I now have no hot water or heating and a 1 year old I have to take to neighbors for a bath. The only resolution they would offer is to pay them £95 security deposit as they doubt that the boiler is faulty.

    I would beg you not to go with 247, I have never known such a disregard and contempt from a company. They constantly want to refer to recordings from previous calls and cut short the existing conversation and say they will call you back which they never do.

    Additionally after speaking to customer care I can clarify that intermittent problems are not covered and is hidden in their terms and conditions. For example my boiler works for one and then for the following few days does not work and displays flame failure, apparently this doesn't come under boiler breakdown. So in summary I pay a direct debit each month for a boiler breakdown policy and have a broken boiler which they will not fix. Do not think of this as home emergency cover but home emergency INSURANCE. They simply view your claim as profit reduction for them and try and wriggle out-of everything. Look elsewhere if only I had stuck with British Gas.

    Next stop watchdog and trading standards.


    Hi,

    I know it's soon, but have you got anywhere with trading standards?
    I had such a horrendous experience with 24/7 (who work 10-4!) back in September, I tried and tried and tried to get somewhere but was so stressed with it I haven't been able to bring myself to restart my complaint but I've just come off the phone to citizens advice who are referring me to trading standards.
    They are without a doubt THE worst company I have ever dealt with and I'm a good £1500 out of pocket thanks to them.
    Horrendous!
  • I joined them 3 months ago with cover for everything including appliances. I stayed with BG for the first 2 weeks just in case of a breakdown. Unfortunately one month after joining the oven seemed not working when I called they informed me that the apliances cover start ONE month after the cover starts. Fortunately the oven infact worked perfectly after that. Funnily sae happened with the fridge freezer 2 weeks ago and the guy in the claims department was intrugating me in such a way as to try to catch something to avoid dealing with the problem which is what made me decide to leave them, now I had to give a notice in writing to cancel policy after a month.

    I will go back to BG of course despite being more expensive
  • i know this is an old thread but since other's have posted warning about this company, I wanted to add the following which you can find the detailed version on TrustPilot (reviews/57a0d1cd0000ff0009772ceb).

    Summary version:
    I purchased a policy in Oct 2015 with key terms being agreed as zero excess and "fixed price for 2 years". My monthly premium had been £18.80 but as of 1st August, they increased it to £21.80 to my surprise. What is the point of saying the price is fixed, when it is not?! Completely absurd!

    Apparently, they did send me a letter which I didn't receive. They emailed me a copy when I queried it and to my surprise:
    a) The letter was dated 8th June, which is not "at least two months" notice they say they will give in their Terms & Conditions

    b) The date of the letter was the same date I had had my boiler serviced. This meant I could not longer cancel the policy if I wanted to (as I had used their services) and they have sneakily locked me in (unless pure coincidence?)

    I did complain on the phone and they agreed to change my premium back to £18.80. But talk about BAIT AND SWITCH. There is no chance I can trust a company with such unethical trading practices and I intend to cancel as soon as I can. I would strongly advise everyone to avoid them. "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
  • Ultra64
    Ultra64 Posts: 24 Forumite
    So, our boiler stopped working and I wasn't too worried as we had a company called 247 Home Rescue on our side!!! I left endless answerphone messages.....was on hold for ages.....until it said at the very end, no one is here to take your call. If you know no one is there......why not put that at the start of a message. I have actually had £7.48 added to phone bill just because I was trying to contact this company....with no success (that waws just one phone call)! Plus.....they were not there when I needed them. It took two more days till I was actually able to get through to anyone. What a joke!!!! Like someone else said, they just outsource to other companies to get the job done. So this company is probably one person, not sitting at their desk as no one answers the phones....and just passes it on to someone else to deal with at a very cheap price. I ended up just going elsewhere and the issue was fixed in a couple of hours. I'm out!
  • This Co. appeared to be cheaper than British Gas for my Let Property boiler cover,so I joined up to a 12 month contract.However when my tenant rang to call an Engineer out after the Boiler had stopped working,a series of questions were put to her. 'It started to play up 3 weeks ago after your Engineer serviced it' is the Phrase that delighted the call centre girl.'Because you didn't notify us 3 weeks ago,we can't come out'.
    'If I am in the AA I call them out when the car has broken down, not when its playing up' she tried.
    'Read your terms and conditions' was the reply.
    I can imagine that there is a very small dept to help the Customer,and a great Big one to try and wiggle out of any claims.
    This Company is exactly what you don't want in an Emergency.It's like lending you an Umbrella when its sunny and asking for it back as soon as it rains !
    Do not be fooled by the (slightly) cheaper premiums,Life is too short.
  • We are glad we found this thread as it gives us a home to record our own experiences with 24/7 Home Rescue. Myself and my family, including a 3 year old girl and 6 year old boy are currently suffering as a result of this company's actions which have not only been unethical but are possibly bordering on criminal.


    In short, we tried to make a claim on our policy for our heating not working, and our policy was cancelled with immediate effect.


    In more detail, our heating stopped working on Sunday evening, and we reported this to 24/7 Home Rescue the following Monday evening. We expected to get an engineer visit either the same day, or very early the next since they advertise that if you have anyone in your home under 5 years old then they will endeavour to achieve this. Our Engineer did not arrive until the Wednesday after a series of ‘mistakes’ by 24/7 Home Rescue - firstly, they forgot to take our policy excess of £75, so when we phoned back to find out where the engineer was, they told us he had never been booked because they forgot to take our excess. We paid as soon as we were asked and were then told that an Engineer would visit the following day (Wednesday). Wednesday rolls around - no Engineer. We phoned again, this time, it turned out that they had cancelled the Engineer visit, but were unable to tell us why. They rebooked it, and fortunately the Engineer was finally able to attend later that day.


    The Engineer spent a short while looking at our system and determined that the 3-port valve needed replacing and that the thermostat required replacing. He shared the cost with us - £284 including parts and labour, plus VAT, so in total £340.80. From here, we assumed plain sailing, the Engineer had been, diagnosed the problem, and said he would return on Thursday to fix it.


    Thursday lunchtime - a call from 24/7 Home Rescue to my Wife. “We have cancelled your claim and your policy with immediate effect because your boiler is beyond economic repair.” My Wife was extremely upset and in tears having spent 4 nights with small children with no heating in this current extreme weather we are experiencing.


    At this point I decided I needed to speak to them to find out exactly what was going on. I called and spoke with a man who claimed to be called James Thomas - the Head of the Authorisation Department. I asked if the call was being recorded, he said No (despite the on-hold message telling me that it was). I asked if I could record it, he said if I did, he would immediately hang up.


    James confirmed that they had cancelled the policy because the boiler was beyond economical repair, and they only pay up to 60% of the value of a boiler, taking depreciation into account, and with that in mind, our boiler, an Ideal Classic, was currently only worth £210, so 60% of that is £126. So I am only covered for £126 on a policy that I pay £9.60 a month for, which is £115.20. I pointed out that this did not seem fair “It was your choice to take out the policy” came the response. The policy is worth nothing to us based on this. More on “Beyond Economic Repair” below after I got chance to read their terms and conditions.


    ‘James’ also told me that the thermostat was not covered by our policy, and this had been quoted at £39 by the Plumber. ‘James’ sent me an email with a sentence from the plumber in it that simply read “The job is a min of 3 hours just on the valve as it needs draining off and filling back up. If the system airlocks which gravity fed do ill end up there for 5-6 hours. The stat is a 2min job”, as I asked for some evidence of anything! The email came from someone called Aaron, not James.


    They have not provided an annual boiler service which is included in the cost of our policy - we have held the policy for seven months, and in their defence it does say that we should get a boiler service between 8-12 months. I asked for a refund of either some of the money we had paid them since we were now not going to get a boiler service, or a refund of the £75 excess, since they were not going to fix anything. I was told in no uncertain terms there would be no such refund. As it stands, I have paid them £142.20 so far, which is the cost of the policy each month, plus the £75 excess. Our boiler is still broken, our Children are cold, and we have to pay to fix it ourselves just before Christmas despite having cover in place.


    Now, some of the above may or may not seem reasonable on their behalf, but when you dig into the terms and conditions, they have made a few glaring errors:


    Cancelling the Contract - “We may cancel the service contract at any time by sending 14 days’ notice to you at your last known address” - They are in breach of their terms and conditions since the policy was cancelled with no notice.


    Their definition of Beyond Economic Repair was explained to me on the phone as “the retail cost of your boiler, minus depreciation” - ‘James’ googled the model, found it for £609, and then used an unknown algorithm to arrive at £210, and as above said we were covered for only 60% of this. (£126). Their terms and conditions state: “Beyond Economic Repair - means in the opinion of our approved engineer, the cost of repair is 60% of the manufacturer’s current retail price.” Depreciation is not mentioned anywhere, at all.
    Assuming that around £609 does represent somewhere near the retail price, then we should be covered for 60% of this - £365.40, well over what the Engineer quoted (£340.80).


    My wife phoned back to point out these inconsistencies with the terms and conditions, and was told that they could see I had spoken with Aaron previously - so he had indeed lied to me about his name. She has now logged an official complaint with them and informed us that Management will be in touch within 48 hours. They also confirmed that the boiler claim cannot and will not be progressed since we no longer have an account with them because they have cancelled it!


    We are absolutely appalled by the Customer Service and the timeline of events. It is extremely unethical and they have breached their terms and conditions in at least two ways. We will wait for 48 hours, and if no satisfactory conclusion is reached then we shall contact both Trading Standards and Watchdog. I guess we also have the option of a No Win No Fee lawyer available to us.


    Let’s see.
  • rolybrom
    rolybrom Posts: 5
    First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    edited 18 November 2016 at 4:37PM
    24/7 HOME RESCUE IS THE SORT OF COVER YOU DON’T WANT!




    The more this company is exposed the better. I see from all the negative reviews that have been left, there have been quite a few people that had the same thing happen to them. So I would advise anybody to stay well clear of them and if they have been caught out by 24/7 Home recue to report accordingly.
  • I took out a Boiler Care agreement with this company and wasted my time, energy and money.
    Upon reporting a fault with my boiler I was asked to deposit £75 excess charge prior to an engineer coming out. There is no mention of this in any of the Company’s documentation!
    The engineer came out and diagnosed a problem with the Thermistor. He stated that he would email the diagnosis to 24/7 and they would be in contact to arrange the actual repair. A thermistor for my boiler costs a maximum £20 to replace.
    A few days later I got a call from a rather aggressive 24/7 operator claiming to be the Operational Manager (gave his name reluctantly as Oliver, then James then Oliver James). I doubt if it’s any of these. He informed me that I required a new pump. He further explained that because the price of a new pump is more than 60% of the value of my boiler 24/7 were not obliged to fix it. However for a “special” price of £320 he could arrange for the manufacturer to fix the problem. My choices were pay £320 to have the boiler fixed or to have the boiler declared beyond economical repair with no financial contribution from 24/7.
    Luckily I had the phone number of the engineer who first came out so I contacted him to clarify the nature of the repair – he confirmed a replacement Thermistor. I contacted 24/7 to highlight the discrepancy.
    A few hours later Mr Oliver James phoned to tell me that the engineer had made a mistake and that the diagnosis was a faulty Thermistor but possibly a faulty PCB Board. Mr James went on to explain that the company would wish to ensure that I was left with a fully functioning boiler and to make sure they would replace the faulty Thermistor and replace the PCB Board.
    Of course the price of a PCB Board is more than 60% of the value of my boiler and 24/7 were not obliged to fix it (the market value of a PCB Board for my boiler is circa £180).
    However for a “special” price of £320 (note the amount) he could arrange for the manufacturer to fix the problem. My choices were pay £320 to have the boiler fixed or to have the boiler declared beyond economical repair with no financial contribution from 24/7.
    I enquired why 24/7 would not just fix the Thermistor but was told that 24/7 is “just not that type of company.” Mr James went on to explain that as a professional practitioner (he did not say of what) of FIVE Years he could not understand why I felt I was not getting a bargain.
    I asked to speak to his superior but he explained that the Managing Director was in New York. It beggared belief that Mr James held such an exalted position as second in command at 24/7. I should have felt privileged that such a “Senior Manager” contacted me in the first place.
    Needless to say – my direct debit contributions have been cancelled and credit card transactions halted.
    DO NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR THIS COMPANY
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