A rant about Homeserve!!

sharonbetty

Boiler blew up yesterday at 3pm - that's 30 hours ago. Phoned Homeserve who deal with Home Emergencies on behalf of our Inusrance Company. They told me to expect a call back within 24 hours ro arrange a call out. Guess what? Despite 4 phone calls to them since 3pm this afternoon no one has come back to us - each time we are promised we are being dealt with but we are really cold, Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat and all that but I don't suppose for one moment we will have any central heating! AAAAAAAAgghhhhh. I do appreciate that due to the awful weather they will have been inundated but is this reasonable service I ask myself and does anyone else have any words of wisdom for me?! (I feel a bit better now!)

duggie1982

Very strange that they dont just book an appiontment when you were on the phone. Very strange.

P.S. Is it fixed yet?

sharonbetty

Well despite promises of phone calls and appointment arranging, nothing happened from the Sunday until the Tuesday when I asked if I could arrange for my own engineer to fix the boiler and send them the bill. They agreed - to shut me up! Had the boiler fixed the next day, Wednesday and finally on the Thursday (bearing in mind the initial call was on the previous Sunday) someone phoned to make an appointment to come and fix the boiler from Homeserve. I told them politely where to go!!! Thanks for your interest!

Cardew

When you send them the bill, let us know what they say please.

duggie1982

Thank god you got it fixed then. Homeserve have only limited engineers so sometimes is cheaper for them to get your local out to fix the problem.

ireneski

Homeserve are rubbish. When this year's contract is through I shall not renew. They don't even have their own engineers.

The 24 hr service is a phone answering service. They don't come out within 24 hours, which is what I thought!

khimg

I have a boiler contract with Homeserve.
My Glow-worm Enerygysaver 60 boiler started playing up so I contacted Homeserve.
They sent a engineer to take a look.
He found a leak and said he will order a part.
A week later I got a call from Homeserve saying that the parts will cost too much and they offered me £200 towards a new boiler and they would cancel the contract.
The parts they said it needed were: Main heat exchanger 2000800525 £446 , sec heat exchanger 2000800472 £465 , burner S203154P £165 , gas council number 4131994.

SO, BEWARE IF YOU HAVE A CONTRACT WITH HOMESERVE. THE MOST THEY WILL COVER IS £200!!

Rains_2

khimg wrote: »

I have a boiler contract with Homeserve.
My Glow-worm Enerygysaver 60 boiler started playing up so I contacted Homeserve.
They sent a engineer to take a look.
He found a leak and said he will order a part.
A week later I got a call from Homeserve saying that the parts will cost too much and they offered me £200 towards a new boiler and they would cancel the contract.
The parts they said it needed were: Main heat exchanger 2000800525 £446 , sec heat exchanger 2000800472 £465 , burner S203154P £165 , gas council number 4131994.

SO, BEWARE IF YOU HAVE A CONTRACT WITH HOMESERVE. THE MOST THEY WILL COVER IS £200!!

If the residual value of your boiler is less than the value of the parts it would require to fix then it is declared Beyond economical repair and you get offered £200 towards the cost of a new one. The residual value of the boiler is calculated depending on the make and age of your boiler, so the older it is, the greater the chance that it will be declared BER. The claim that the most they will cover is £200 is incorrect.

khimg

Rains wrote: »

If the residual value of your boiler is less than the value of the parts it would require to fix then it is declared Beyond economical repair and you get offered £200 towards the cost of a new one. The residual value of the boiler is calculated depending on the make and age of your boiler, so the older it is, the greater the chance that it will be declared BER. The claim that the most they will cover is £200 is incorrect.

Why would Homeserve attempt to fix anything that would cost more than £200 when they can claim BER and fobb you off with £200?

Rains_2

khimg wrote: »

Why would Homeserve attempt to fix anything that would cost more than £200 when they can claim BER and fobb you off with £200?

Because that's not how the BER clause in your contract works.

If your boiler is say 2 years old, they'll spend up to £800 to repair it, for every year older it is that cost reduces; so a 3 year old boiler will have £750 spent on it, 4 years old will have £700 and so on. Those aren't the exact numbers and it depends on the type of boiler you have to determine the exact figure.

If the cost to repair it goes over this calculated amount then it is deemed Beyond economical repair and they will offer you money towards a new boiler.

khimg

Rains wrote: »

Because that's not how the BER clause in your contract works.

If your boiler is say 2 years old, they'll spend up to £800 to repair it, for every year older it is that cost reduces; so a 3 year old boiler will have £750 spent on it, 4 years old will have £700 and so on. Those aren't the exact numbers and it depends on the type of boiler you have to determine the exact figure.

If the cost to repair it goes over this calculated amount then it is deemed Beyond economical repair and they will offer you money towards a new boiler.

My boiler is six years old, HOMESERVE have not spent a penny on it, just offered me £200.