Homeserve cancelled an appointment

UserX

I arranged a day off work today to be at home so Homeserve can come & fix my boiler.

At 14.01hrs I was eating lunch with my 11 year old. I ignore both my mobile phones going off one after the other - we have a rule that phones are not answered during mealtimes.

At 14.19hrs I pick up the voicemail which was left in a subsequent call at 14.06 - as they couldn't get an answer from me on my phone, they have cancelled my engineers appointment.

!!!!!!? Don't people knock at the front door any more? Apparently because I didn't answer my phone, they will not drive to the property just in case I'm not here.

So now I have to arrange another day off work as they will not send an engineer out. On top of having paid for their insurance cover AND having paid a £50 excess. I am beyond annoyed.

Smithers37

It sucks that you've booked a day off and that they've had to cancel, does it say in the policy that they can do this? If not, make a complaint to them.

Also, why would they drive to your property when they can call you on your phone? I appreciate your rule about not answering during eating times which is one I follow myself, however if you knew that someone was coming that day surely you would have thought to yourself it could have been them? I guess it doesn't help the situation in any case.

Could you ask them to specify you a specific time so that you only have to book a few hours off from work, given that they've had to cancel?

UserX

Also, why would they drive to your property when they can call you on your phone?

Erm....because I've already paid them £50 for the privilege and they can't fix my boiler over the phone!

I have been told a more senior person will be phoning me back "within the hour" - that was almost an hour ago. I checked on their website and they are regulated by the Financial Ombudsman Service, so if I don't get anywhere with this I shall pursue a complaint through them. From their first phone contact to the subsequent message cancelling, just 5 minutes elapsed.

UserX

So they did call back (within the hour, just!) An engineer is coming out between 8-9 on Monday - which isn't actually hugely convenient for me, but I appreciate the speediness of the response. Someone else is going to phone me within 24-hours "but probably on Monday" because I have also requested reimbursement of my £50 excess. I'm happy-ish for now.

[Deleted User]

HomeServe should compensate you for the time you have to take off work on Monday. Since they caused you to have to take that extra time off they now owe you what you would have earned during that time (so you can take it as unpaid leave).

HomeServe_company_representative

Hi UserX,

I am sorry to hear that you are having problems with our service. If you would like to discuss this matter further please contact us with your details and we can look into this for you as soon as possible. please find our contact details from our profile page.

Kind Regards,

Anjali
Here To Help Team
HomeServe

Mallotum_X

To be fair you should have answered the phone if you are expecting someone. Its pretty standard to call ahead to make sure they can get access to the property.

UserX

I just thought I'd update this.....

I had my boiler serviced recently as part of the 'free service' element of the insurance cover. The service engineer told me I needed a repair and what it was and which part. He told me I needed to ring and book and appointment and to tell them what was needed.

The appointment I had on 8 August was for that repair and as you know, didn't go ahead.

Homeserve apologised and admitted that they should have told me at the time of booking that the visit would be cancelled if they couldn't make telephone contact. So they agreed to give me a time-specific slot so that I didn't need to take any more time off from work than necessary - between 8 - 9am on 11 August.

9.15am I phoned because the engineer hadn't turned up - he had 'gone to the depot to collect parts' and was at least 45 minutes away :mad: I was needed in work by 10.30, so that appointment also had to be cancelled. It was rearranged for between 5 - 7pm on Thursday evening - which also meant me leaving work early.

Engineer didn't show again and at about 8pm Homeserve phoned me to say he wouldn't be able to get to me.

The appointment was rearranged again for today - Sunday - between 8 - 10am. I got a call at 8.10 that he was on his way. Engineer duly arrived.... Had a look at my boiler and told me that a part needs replacing.

Yes, I know that. So do Homeserve. I was expecting it to be fitted today.....

The part hasn't been ordered. And should have been.

It will be at least Wednesday before it will be received.

I will need to make yet another appointment (and can't do next weekend, so no doubt I'll need to arrange further, unpaid, time off from work this week.

And, apparently, the bit that needs replacing will take 'a good couple of hours' to do - which would have been perfectly fine on the day I'd arranged an entire day off but is now going to be difficult for me to do without taking an entire day off again.

Annoyed? Doesn't come close.

UserX

Mallotum_X wrote: »

To be fair you should have answered the phone if you are expecting someone. Its pretty standard to call ahead to make sure they can get access to the property.

I've been a homeowner for over 35 years and 'to be fair' have had an awful lot of tradespeople in and out of the house in that time - I don't do DIY! Some have called beforehand, some have arrived within a vague time slot, some have required me just to be here all day. But given that I had already paid the £50 call out fee (and therefore Homeserve didn't stand to lose anything if I wasn't here on their arrival) and given that no company or trades person that I have ever dealt with has ever said 'if you don't answer the phone we won't bother to come' - then on balance I think most reasonable people would assume Homserve would honour their side of the arrangement and show up OR would ensure they are very clear about making their policy known to customers when booking appointments.....

Homeserve actually refunded me the call out fee when they received my complaint about this which, I think, would indicate they do agree they cocked up.

dacouch

UserX wrote: »

I've been a homeowner for over 35 years and 'to be fair' have had an awful lot of tradespeople in and out of the house in that time - I don't do DIY! Some have called beforehand, some have arrived within a vague time slot, some have required me just to be here all day. But given that I had already paid the £50 call out fee (and therefore Homeserve didn't stand to lose anything if I wasn't here on their arrival) and given that no company or trades person that I have ever dealt with has ever said 'if you don't answer the phone we won't bother to come' - then on balance I think most reasonable people would assume Homserve would honour their side of the arrangement and show up OR would ensure they are very clear about making their policy known to customers when booking appointments.....

Homeserve actually refunded me the call out fee when they received my complaint about this which, I think, would indicate they do agree they cocked up.

It's not a £50 call out fee, it's an excess which is your contribution towards the claim.

If the customer is not there when the engineer calls, the cost to Homeserve will be having the labour costs of rearranging a member of staff to recall along with associated costs such as fuel

[Deleted User]

Make sure you keep track of all the time you have had off work and how much it is costing you as unpaid leave. Doesn't matter if you are taking it as holiday, you can still claim it back and then just take it as unpaid later.

Homeserve owe you your hourly rate for all the time you have taken off when they didn't turn up or were unable to fix the problem, beyond the first day. They also owe you interest on that money until they pay up.