Homeserve Rip-off – Advice Need!

mark-d_3

We have a Homeserve policy through our RBS Royalties Premier account which covers us up to £500 for home emergencies including our boiler. Our boiler started to play up with no hot water and the pressure meter was all over the place, so we called a local plumber who had a look and said 3 parts had gone, but didn’t do any work.


Next we phoned RBS and lodged a Homeserve claim. We were promised a return call under their terms within 2 hours to, but nobody called after 3 hours. I called them and after a very long wait was told nobody would be able to come for 2 days. So much for emergency cover!


When the plumber did eventually come he identified that the “heat exchange plate” was not opening properly and the “diverter valve” was faulty and needed replacing. I don't know what either of these things are, but I'm glad we wrote them down.



The plumber then made a phone call from our house to log the job with homeserve and also placed the order for the 2 new parts. We were told the parts would be 3-5 days. The plumber also explained step-by-step to a senior engineer at homeserve what the problem was BEFORE being given the go-ahead.


6 days later and we phoned homeserve to check why nobody had been in touch. We were told the parts had been ordered and were expected the next day and someone would phone.

The next day, no phone call, so my wife chased them up. This time we were given a different story. My wife was told we were not covered because the leak had corroded the part.

First of all, what leak? Secondly what corrosion? This is basically made up stuff and now they even deny there is a second part that was ordered. They simply chose not to pay out and made up a very bad excuse, which simply makes them out to be very bad liars!!


We spoke to a manager at homeserve and he said there is nothing they can do and we need to speak to RBS. We spoke to RBS and they said Homeserve is a third party supplier and there is nothing they can do. These phone calls have taken 3 hours of our time!

I’ve never posted in a forum before about a subject like this, but this is one big blatant rip-off and when I did a search on the net I came up with this forum and the many many complaints about Homeserve.


Please can someone advise how I would take action against Homeserve? They have left us for a total of 10 days without heating and water and then suddenly decided not to pay out and made up a story. My wife and I are actually very shocked this can actually happen with such a big company and they must get away with it often. :mad:


Thanks


Mark

gas4you

Sorry to hear this tale. Sadly it is typical of Homeserve generally. You only have to search on here to see many other complaining, but then that does not help you and will not make you feel any better.

I am also concerned that you, your wife and thousands of other members of the public are naive enough to think you are safe with a big company. (No offence intended, can't think of any other way to put it!)

Unfortunately all these policies are smothered in small print so they don't have to pay out anything.

I can only suggest contacting trading standards and lodging a complaint. The original engineer should have told about the leak, assuming it was actually there.

The plate HE not opening is tripe, it is not a part that opens. The diverter valve moves to send the heated system water through it.

What is the make and model of your combi? What exactly is the fault?

I do not know the legality of it, but I would consider getting a good local recommended RGI in to repair and send homeserve the bill.

Also, I would have thought that as homeserve are agents employed by RBS, RBS must have some responsibility.

I actually repaired a boiler yesterday that the customer told me that he had been told couldn't be repaired. I said I must be magic then!

mark-d_3

Hi,

Thanks for your detailed response!

Our first step will be to contact the trading standards tomorrow and tell them what happened.

The make and model are "Worcester 35 CDi II". The exact problem is that the pressure would drop to zero when the heating was not pn, and then when the heating comes on the pressure would go really high (about half to two-thirds of the way). Also, the hot water would only come on if the heating was already on. Another problem was the unit making noises when the pressure was high, so that’s when we switched it off and made the call.

There was/is no leak on the boiler. The boiler is housed in a floor-to-ceiling kitchen unit and when we removed the unit we could see all the pipework for the central heating system. There we noticed there was a tiny leak on a pipe where a plastic connection joined a plastic pipe to a copper pipe. We just mentioned that to see if he could replace that part as well. It was not leaking when he came.

When the engineer was here, my wife took all the notes for him when he was on the phone to Homeserve. That's when they authorised the parts to be ordered and the work to be done. My wife actually made a note of the part numbers for him, which is currently in our recycle bin. When it stops raining we will dig it out!

I’ve also asked another engineer to come out (friend of a friend) to check the parts and assess what the real the problem is.

I am also going to phone Homeserve on Monday and tell them to send me the reasons in writing why they chose not to pay out.



There is absolutely no way we will let them get away with it, so even if we pay out ourselves we will submit a claim like you say and keep the old parts as evidence.


Thanks

Mark

farenuf

These service plan companies are the pits,Best advice is get to know your local gas,plumbing and electrical engineers,word of mouth reccomendations are worth a hundred service contracts

ollski

sounds like you need a diaphragm in the diverter valve 20 quid part and 2 - 3 hours of time. It's wear and tear nothing to do with a leak. From here the problem with the pressure sounds like a flat expansion vessel so the pressure rises high when the central heating comes on. When it reaches 3 bar it opens a safety valve discharging the water outside and when it cools down the pressure will be back at zero. It's probable that the safety valve now has a a very slight weep from dirt on the seating which means it loses pressure now with the heating off. The expansion vessel on an early cdi is a tricky job although a million times easier when the boiler is stripped for a repair on the diverter valve!

anotherbaldrick

My concern with Homeserve is the manner they are currently selling insurance for domestic water supply pipes. Now, the supply pipe is the short connection from the water company main in the road to the houseowners stopcock, usually just as the domestic main comes into the house. Thats it, nothing else, a piece of pipe I have never had a problem with in over 60 years and I know of no one who has either. The way they work it is like this :-
Homeserve send a junk mail to you and within this is the notice they are giving you free 30 days insurance for your supply pipe .
Two weeks later you get a formal invoice type notification stating that "Mr Baldrick, your cover has almost expired-take out cover today to ensure your water supply pipe remains protected. This formal notice carries the Water Company (Thames Water ) name logo and registered office address and on the bottom a reply slip with Bank Direct Debit form.
Subsequently you recieve a barrage of reminders in the post about the dangers you are incurring in not sending them your money.
It worries me that many people , perhaps the elderly, are thus frightened into taking out insurance that in all probability they do not need and they do not want and did not ask for.
I have contacted Homeserve and told them what I think of their dubious practices and stated I do not want anything more from them, however bleats still come through the post.
Anyone getting one of these I suggest they just put the reply form uncompleted into the return envelope and pop it into the post back to Homeserve

w50nky

I agree completely with the above post. I was informed by my insurer that this is covered in my buildings insurance as standard, it may be included by other insurerers. Worth checking out if you are worried and are considering taking this type of cover.

samtheman1k

has your boiler been serviced annually? If so, tell homeserve that and and they can't say no as it has all been looked after.

verntern

Homeserve is a rip-off. My CH boiler policy includes a 'summer service'. Quote ' we will contact you to arrange this'. They didn't and I had to phone them to make a booking. An 'engineer' arrived. Spent all of 8 minutes taking a few readings. Spent the next 5 minutes filling out the paperwork. No cleaning, no checking for worn parts and safety. I will attempt to get Homeserve to do the work I contracted for. If my complaint is not attended to then I will register a complaint with Trading Standards. Eventually I will cancel this inadequate policy with Homeserve and I continue to put aside the same amount of the premium to employ a trusted local engineer to properly service my CH system and respond to any faults.