Homeserve - another bad experience

Madfish

I recently posted to ask what people thought of Homecare and got mostly negative responses. Well I can now add my story to the 'don't go there' pile.

After signing up in November after a £100 boiler problem, I have had British Gas drawing money out my bank ever since, after the promise of a initial visit within 30 days nothing happened. However last week I found my boiler loosing pressure every morning due to a slight leak underneath. Fine i thought its covered by Homeservice so I gave them a ring and they made an appointment to come in 3 days (glad my heating was'nt totally down).

Anyhow the engineer arrived and said that my boiler would not be covered under the plan as parts were no longer available, I did say it was only 4 years old and agreed it was a 'cheap and cheerful' but parts were still available.

'Not from us' he replied!

He then started playing with my electrics and said he house was unsafe as it had no earth, I really started to have my suspicions then as I hold a city and guilds in electrical installation and was pretty certain that was not true (he even said 'i'm no electrician but they give us this little tool to test with). he said I would not have to pay for the cover and I informed him that they had been happily taking my money for 3 months and he was stumped, he gave me the number for British Gas and told me to phone them.

I did and the happy sales advisor form a few months ago had now been replaced with 'I dont give a f**k' advisor, who told me that I would get my money back within 28 days, cheers BG.

Post visit I borrowed a test meter from a pal and discovered there was nothing wrong with my earthing (as suspected), the parts for my boiler were readily available from a local supplier, and the engineer had not put the cover back on the boiler so its hanging loose on one side.

It seems BG are happy to have you as a cutomer as long as you do not have a boiler that could potentially cost them money, really I'm glad I found out so early as now I can put the money paid to them in a emergency fund in case it happens again. Be warned they will find any excuse to wriggle out of a job.

notbritishgas

Bit confused here. I presume you are talking entirely about BG Homecare agreement. You mention Homeserve twice, this is a completely seperate company to BG, whether they deserve your condemnation I do not know.

Cardew

You are talking about BG Homecare I assume?(not Homeserve)

It seems BG are happy to have you as a cutomer as long as you do not have a boiler that could potentially cost them money,

You are quite correct. BG, like any other firm offering a form of 'insurance', simply will not take on anything that they consider a bad risk - and that is understandable.

What is worse is their attempts to get out of contracts where customers have paid for years. Their usual excuse is that 'spares are not available' or the system needs a 'powerflush' costing about £600.

It really is sad that a firm who offered an excellent service to many are resorting to these tactics, as well as pricing their service way above inflation each year.

Madfish

Bit confused here. I presume you are talking entirely about BG Homecare agreement. You mention Homeserve twice, this is a completely seperate company to BG, whether they deserve your condemnation I do not know.

Quite right, my mistake...edited

Madfish

You are quite correct. BG, like any other firm offering a form of 'insurance', simply will not take on anything that they consider a bad risk - and that is understandable.

I agree, if my boiler was 10+ years old or not working on the initial visit I could understand, but the boiler is working fine at present and I have the paperwork that shows it was fitted 4 years ago. If the boilers have a history of problems then BG should have told me when I took the policy out (I quoted them with the boilers model number in November) rather than that though they would take the money and ask questions later, imagine if you took out car insurance only to find when you had an accident they said sorry were not interested in you as a customer but have your premium back and good luck with your written off car because thats basically their policy...

Cardew

Agreed! I am not a fan of BG Homecare and their modus operandi.

P.S. You haven't edited the title!!