Which Boiler cover?

GT60

Hi I usually use BG for my boiler cover but have noticed Homeserve offer it also.




What are your views please

System

Given their past problems, I would want to see evidence of a change in culture before I signed up with them. I use a local independent heating contractor for my annual boiler service and cover.

CashStrapped

Why not put the equivalent amount away each month into a separate savings account, so you are not tempted to use it. Let it build up then you have your own emergency fund. You can then use a good local gas repair person.

In addition, some home insurance policies allow you to add boiler and heating cover on to the policy for a bit extra (much less than a separate policy) and cover repairs up to a certain amount. It does not affect your home insurance if you claim.

Sterlingtimes

I use NPower. They are good but there are some critical issues.


[1] Appointments are whole day appointments for investigation.


[2] Return visits following investigation are again whole day appointments.


[3] Intermittent faults may fall outside of cover.


[4] Any job will be executed in the cheapest possible way.


Despite paying NPower, I still paid a plumber £380 to do a job correctly, replacing motorised values rather than bodging them as NPower had done.

attar

I use Vailant for my Glow Worm boiler service, as they are part of the same group. I had received a letter from Homeserve (pretending to be Glow Worm) offering me a one-off service for £99, however I had a service directly from vailant last year for £79. I called Vailant up and they were going to put me through to Homeserve, but after pointing out Homeserve's service was 25% more expensive than last year he offered to book one himself for £79!

So if you have a Vailant/Glow Worm boiler - call Vailant direct for a cheaper price - this may even work for other boiler manufacturers given (the awful) Homeserve has fingers in so many pies!

Zappa001

We took out "central heating care" middle of September and my experience of HES is pretty abysmal. You are not properly covered until the initial inspection, even if you have paid premiums, which they say they will carry out within 28 days. They didn’t come to ours for almost double that. When the engineer arrived he went through long rigmarole telling me why he was unable to even look at the boiler as there was insufficient room for him to be able to work on it and this was against health and safety regulations mumbling that should it ever need a new heat exchanger they were very heavy. Our boiler is located up the wall in the downstairs toilet of an ordinary 1930's semi and he said that the toilet impeded his access (all it needs is a simple work platform to stand on over the top of it). He made a few feeble attempts using my ladder and our kitchen steps (neither of which had been checked by health and safety) but gave up pretty quickly. I told him I disagreed with his conclusion because it had self-evidently been installed without a problem and had been serviced by our local engineer on a regular basis using same set of ladders without any difficulty right up until he stopped doing gas work last year. The HES man said that as our bloke was self employed he could disregard health and safety! He said if he were to complete the service and later his supervisor were to say access is unsafe the insurance would be null and void and our payments would be for nothing, plus they wouldn't pay out for any claim. Then to top it all off he said he could not say that boiler was deemed to be safe because he had not inspected it. It is blatantly obvious that he just didn’t want to do this job and was looking for any excuse. Hopeless; I would not bother with them if I were you, a very poor service and the only plus is its better find out how useless they are before an emergency than during one.

Pincher

attar wrote: »

So if you have a Vailant/Glow Worm boiler - call Vailant direct for a cheaper price - this may even work for other boiler manufacturers given (the awful) Homeserve has fingers in so many pies!

The number provided by Glow worm on their website is actually "Homeserve for Glow worm". I managed to get them to connect me to Glow worm directly, and got a £79 service, which is happening tomorrow.


Glow worm seems to expect people to buy a Homeserve insurance package, which would include an annual service.


I just hope they don't deliberately sabotage the boiler, which is working perfectly right now.

lonestarfan

I've always used British Gas for nearly 30 yrs and wouldn't switch now. When they got too expensive one year I canceled and joined 3 months later at a new customer price but of course had to cover it myself if it went wrong in the short time. I did have a spell of 2/3 years where it was covered by other company but I've never been as satisfied as with the peace of mind I get with BG.
I do have a Sheilas Wheels home contents and buildings insurance policy and once had to use the emergency cover for the heating and was impressed. It's no substitute for a whole policy but was good for the event.
I considered self insurance a few times but since my boiler was installed in 2005 it has generally had a fault every year without fail so I prefer to have a policy.
Sheilas Wheels contents and building insurance comes with the option of home emergency insurance, to give you a single phone call solution to your domestic emergency. If you have our home emergency insurance option, all you need to do is to ring us if your central heating breaks down, you discover a water leak or your drains become blocked. We’ll arrange for a contractor to come and sort out your problem. No ringing around or out of hours rates to worry about – just a single phone call and we’ll arrange for emergency repairs from a reputable contractor subject to an overall limit of £500 (including VAT) for the call out charge and up to 2 hours labour, plus parts and materials up to a maximum of £100 (including VAT).

HomeServe_company_representative

Dear Attar,

Just noticed that your recent post mentions HomeServe. I would like to invite you to discuss any concerns that you may have with us? Please send your details to our email address which is located on our profile page.

Many thanks and look forward to hearing from you.

Anna Mahon
Here To Help Team
HomeServe

C_Mababejive

Many of these service operations now are charging way too cheap and the net result is that they dont have enough bodies and a good number of them are clueless/overworked/underpaid.

Old_Meanie

Avoid Homeserve at all costs. We find that Corgi do an excellent service and their engineer was polite, competent, and more than helpful he arrived on time and rang us in advance to say he would be with us shortly. This beats all firms (including British Gas) we have had to date. Homeserve purports to be the maintenance engineers for Mira showers and our experience has been stressful, and quite literally painful from the start. Our shower was installed as part of a wet room as I am disabled and suffer with rheumatoid disease, arthritis and a prolapsed bowel among other things. Despite assuring my husband when they cold called him that as a disabled person unable to use the bath and also with difficulties washing without help that we would be a priority if we needed their services our experience has proved this was a lie. My husband called initially early on Friday 24 Oct and despite explaining that we had been assured of prompt service was were told the only thing they could do was mark our request priority. This did not seem to matter as several subsequent calls have resulted in a date of Friday 7 November for inspection - NOT REPAIR. I am in great pain after trying to wash myself by pouring jugs of water over myself but I cant do it anymore and my husband has now purchased a rubber hair washing shower which he attached to the bathroom taps and uses to wash me down. I feel lied to, let down and caused stress and pain by this company. I REPEAT AVOID AT ALL COSTS.