Dial Direct Home Emergency Claim (live)

principlecounts

Sequence of events, all times are approximate:

Time: 13:00, Saturday 28th December 2013
Situation: Water leak emerges from the living room ceiling, yellow/brown patches start appearing in one corner of the living room. A constant drip continues from one particular location on the ceiling, with other drips slowly appearing elsewhere. Turned off boiler, and stopped using the water taps and shower upstairs.

Time: 14:00, Saturday 28th December 2013
Situation: Contacted Dial Direct 24 Hours Claims Line. The operator recorded the incident, and said someone would call to arrange a local plumber to investigate the leak.

Time: 16:00, Saturday 28th December 2013
Situation: About an hour and 30mins passes, and a call arrives, the guy on the other end, just asks my name, and says if I will be free this evening, and I reply I'll be here all evening. And they will call again if they can find someone to come around. Miffed. So I thought I'll give them 2 hours.

Time: 18:25, Saturday 28th December 2013
Situation: I call the Dial Direct Claims Line, and they just really fobbed me off insisting someone will call, and if there is no one available, then someone will call tomorrow morning! A bit more miffed, seems to be no concern there is a constant leak in my house, and I can't turn on the shower or taps or boiler upstairs before a plumber takes a look. But willing to wait one more day.

Time: 12:00, Sunday 29th December 2013
Situation: Contacted the 24 Hour Claims Line again to see what the situation is. It seems my incident wasn't recorded!!!!!! So went through the process again of recording the incident. I demanded that a plumber come today, as the leak has been going on for over a day. Again, they said they would do their best and again said if no one was available I would have to wait until tomorrow, again!. At this point I'm feeling frustrated, but given no incident was originally recorded, I'll see to their word if someone would arrive today.

Time: 19:50, Sunday 29th December 2013
Situation: I would call them again, but I know they will say the same thing, but I thought I would document my experiences here with Dial Direct as events unfold, who knows it could turn out rosy, but so far it's not looking good for Dial Direct, an official complaint will be in process in due course. Looks like I'll have to take a day off work tomorrow :-(

Copying this thread to feedback@dialdirect.co.uk

I will keep you folks updated.

BonkersBonkers

By now I would have claimed on my home insurance.

Something similar happened to me because I live in a rural area and they had no plumbers in my area. (Different company) They tried to fob me off by saying it could take 3 or 4 days for someone to come - I got hold of the yellow pages (you know now how long ago this was LOL) got hold of a local plumber paid him myself and claimed it back.
At first they refused as I was not using one of their preferred plumbers but after one letter of complaint I got it all back.

principlecounts

Thanks for your reply.

3 or 4 days! They are supposed to offer a Home Emergency Service, sounds more like a Lazy Emergency Service.

If no one arrives tomorrow morning, I'll call someone local, I think I have genuinely given them enough time, and yes a written letter does the trick.

Anyone on the inside care to disclose what the delays could be?

Update: Yellow Pages - old school! :-)

rs65

BonkersBonkers wrote: »

By now I would have claimed on my home insurance.

Agreed, home emergency cover just deals with the emergency. Buildings and contents insurance may cover the resultant damage.

principlecounts

I do have home emergency cover.

Just called Dial Direct's emergency line, the operator says the out of hours folk are not picking up. They are going try again in 15mins. Awaiting a call back.

rs65

principlecounts wrote: »

I do have home emergency cover.

Understood. The important thing is to get the problem fixed so maybe worth trying your home insurers to get a quicker resolution.

You can complain to Dial Direct later.

BonkersBonkers

principlecounts wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

3 or 4 days! They are supposed to offer a Home Emergency Service, sounds more like a Lazy Emergency Service.

If no one arrives tomorrow morning, I'll call someone local, I think I have genuinely given them enough time, and yes a written letter does the trick.

Anyone on the inside care to disclose what the delays could be?

Update: Yellow Pages - old school! :-)

Lets think about this one shall we - Emergency cover very cheap a few quid a month if that - weather in last few days ?? Too many claims not enough staff??

TSx

rs65 wrote: »

Understood. The important thing is to get the problem fixed so maybe worth trying your home insurers to get a quicker resolution.

You can complain to Dial Direct later.

Home insurance is unlikely to pay for plumbers or anyone else to come out to resolve the issue - they should be made aware as soon as possible if you intend making a claim with them but I would imagine in most cases they will ask you to get the cause fixed yourself.

rs65

TSx wrote: »

Home insurance is unlikely to pay for plumbers or anyone else to come out to resolve the issue - they should be made aware as soon as possible if you intend making a claim with them but I would imagine in most cases they will ask you to get the cause fixed yourself.

I was hoping they would have access to trades to call upon, rather than paying for it, if a fix would avoid further insured damage.

Getting a tradesman at this time of year will be difficult for anyone, including Dial Direct.

principlecounts

Will update later, but the floorboards have been ripped open, and the plumber *thinks* they know where the source of the leak is.

principlecounts

Getting a tradesman at this time of year will be difficult for anyone, including Dial Direct.

It doesn't matter, if you provide a 24 hours service, someone should be available. I was on-call last week for my job, if I am alerted to be in work, even while I'm munching on my turkey, I attend to the alert. Because it's Christmas and New Years Holidays is not an excuse.

Well, what a day, so I allow the morning for any phone calls to arrive and nothing sounds, and to my surprise the phone calls start flocking in. One from a self-arranged plumber who I talked to yesterday, incase the insurers didn't ring. Ironically, I filled out an online form for the self-arranged plumber where I could upload photos and someone would call within 4 hours time, they took 10 hours. I said I would call them back if my insurers didn't call back by 12pm the same day.

Shortly afterwards, I get another phone call from the insurer's contractors who arrange the tradesmen to come around, and alas, a plumber is scheduled to arrive at my property in between 11am-12pm.

Plumber arrives, probably the most eccentric plumber I've come across, I thought he was a good plumber, doing his utmost to be a pragmatic, investigating the potential sources of the leak, ripping out floorboards etc. rather than making hypothesis, which is apparently is sufficient for the first look for insurers, so the insurer can decide what to do next. It seems he really hated insurance companies, at times the plumber was making phone calls to verify some actions, and get the go aheads, it just seemed [to the plumber] it was all just unnecessary bureaucracy.

It transpired, the plumber could only do an hour's work at the property, and he was tasked to investigate a boiler-plumbing issue, so he couldn't (or didn't have the time) to rip out the floorboards through to the bathroom - which it seemed where the leak was originating from. In the end, the plumber suggested we place towels and let the floorboards open until this is all solved ~ 6-8 weeks.

The next stage, I seem to have been offered two different pieces of advice. The plumber said we let the insurance know that more work needs to be done. I called the insurers and they need an update from the plumber. I've called twice today, once at ~2pm, the next at ~8pm. And was advised to call back later the first time and call the next morning, as they can't get through to the plumber's organisation.

This is going to be a long road, the plumber also forgot to return the hammer I lent him.