Warning re 24/7 Home Rescue

alibee23

For all those that have got nowhere with this company`s claims proceedure, and exhausted all their dispute proceedures,which incidently are a disgrace, simply logon to Money Claims On Line (MCOL). For around £35.00 if the claim is less than £1000, you can set up a case in the small claims court. Make sure you fill in all the forms correctly and provide the court with all the information that they will request once the claim becomes active. In my case as I represented myself the court was sympathetic to me with regard to the fact that I should have sent more information at the outset , but they did allow the case to proceed. (There is help if you are not sure what to do). Make sure you have everything written down and keep all relevant invoices and documents to hand as you are required to make a statement to the presiding judge, and they will need to be viewed .Depending on your location you will be given a choice of courts,however the final choice on venue will be decided by the tribunals service and you may have to travel a short distance .If you feel intimidated by representing yourself the proccedure is very low key and usually in a small room rather than a large court.As I stated in my first post you may have a barrister representing 247 Home Rescue to oppose you, but as i proved if you present an honest account to the court you will win. I feel sure in time 247 Home Rescue will take a more pragmatic view and hopefully settle most cases out of court rather than risk losing financially and more importantly their already tarnished reputation.

alibee23

For all those that have got nowhere with this company`s claims proceedure, and exhausted all their dispute proceedures,which incidently are a disgrace, simply logon to Money Claims On Line (MCOL). For around £35.00 if the claim is less than £1000, you can set up a case in the small claims court. Make sure you fill in all the forms correctly and provide the court with all the information that they will request once the claim becomes active. In my case as I represented myself the court was sympathetic to me with regard to the fact that I should have sent more information at the outset , but they did allow the case to proceed. (There is help if you are not sure what to do). Make sure you have everything written down and keep all relevant invoices and documents to hand as you are required to make a statement to the presiding judge, and they will need to be viewed .Depending on your location you will be given a choice of courts,however the final choice on venue will be decided by the tribunals service and you may have to travel a short distance .If you feel intimidated by representing yourself the proccedure is very low key and usually in a small room rather than a large court.As I stated in my first post you may have a barrister representing 247 Home Rescue to oppose you, but as i proved if you present an honest account to the court you will win. I feel sure in time 247 Home Rescue will take a more pragmatic view and hopefully settle most cases out of court rather than risk losing financially and more importantly their already tarnished reputation.

GypsyRose

I have just done a search on MS.com for boiler cover and an offer came up with money saving expert in partnership offering a reduction for going with this company!!! How can moneysavingexpert possibly recommend after this catalogue of disasters stretching back years???

cokeblk

Hi All
I agree with Gypsy Rose and I would find it very disappointing if MSE are directing anyone towards this Company.
I am another consumer who has been duped by 24/7.
A monthly rolling contract becomes a years binding contract.
A free boiler call out becomes a £75 upfront deposit .
No charges for parts and labour becomes a further contribution towards a manufacturers repair.
With 24/7 everything is in the small print terms and conditions.No hidden excess or charges means we have put them in the small print so they are not hidden and we do have them!!
I have reported them to Trading standards but it seems that they are taking their time to act. I have written a letter of complaint. Never e-mail and make sure you send all letters recorded delivery for your records.
I will take them to the small claims court if I get no joy from them and realistically I am not expecting to.
What I want to happen here is that we can act to get this company stopped from operating in this fashion. I am looking for organisations M.Ps or consumer champions to help me to work on this. I cannot believe that companies like this are allowed to operate outside all regulation and that such little regard is afforded to ill informed consumers who are being given no protection.

Madeleine_Brierley

Hi all. I wish I had read all the above comments about this company before I took out the contract. What a shower!

I've not had to contact 24/7 until recently when they rang me to organise a date and time to do the annual service on my boiler. A day and date were arranged. One hour later, the same operative rang me to arrange a day and date to service my boiler. I pointed out that he had spoken to me only one hour before. He clearly had no memory of our conversation but we agreed that a day and date had been arranged.

Yesterday, I received two calls from the company. Unable to speak to them, I didn't do anything about it. They rang me today and left a message to ring them back and to select option 4 when presented with options. Number 4 was to choose to end your contract! I rang again and chose another option. The girl told me that the call was to confirm that my boiler would be serviced on the day and date previously arranged. Strange, I thought. Why bother confirming when it's been confirmed already?

Two hours later, a young man rang to say that the engineer would be on holiday (I kid you not; perhaps they've only got one engineer) and could they rearrange. I told him they'd confirmed only 2 hours before. Of course, he knew nothing about that. We made another arrangement. got later this month.

Let's see if this one is cancelled or if they turn up. I have a feeling they may turn up on the original day. We'll see. I don't hold out too much hope for getting good service from this company. I'll be going back to Homeserve even though they are much more expensive. Homeserve have a 5* review on a site I found.

Clairewoods74

I have just had the same as everyone on this thread! Do they actually cover anything? Feel completely swindled! Boiler was making awful noises in March and not working efficiently but I was told that the only way I could get an engineer out was if I paid £75 then ant extra for parts and labour. In other words, not covered as it hadn't actually properly broken down! So couldn't pre-empt it getting worse or it breaking down. We left it but we are now having issues with heating coming on when we don't have it to come on, hot water issues, pressure issues etc. It has broken down. I have been told that again that it isn't covered as a pre-existing issue. How would they know though as they haven't ever looked at it! Again, can pay 75 plus parts and labour. In other words my boiler is not covered at all in the way it was explained to me and I am supposed to have no excess but this clearly isn't the case as the only way I can get them out is pay! What on earth do they cover? What faults are 'acceptable?' They just keep referring to the terms and conditions but none of this is explained when you sign up! I have also had no service which was promised. They have an answer for everything! Completely regretting changing from British gas now as at least they came out, no queries! They say if it's too good to be true it usually is and you get what you pay for and this seems to be definitely the case with 24/7! I'm cancelling my direct debit and hoping we can get an independent plumber out now as now left in the lurch by 24/7 with money down the drain! Complete con artists! DO NOT sign up with this company. I'm complaining to watchdog as I think there are enough unhappy customers to warrant them being looked into.

alibee23

As I stated in an earlier reply take them to the small claims court as I did, and won.For around £35 you can set up a small claims court hearing. I used money claims online, MCOL, which is a relatively simple proceedure.

I am sure that after having lost in court they will be more amenable to an out of court settlement, as their defence was extremely poor. I ran rings around their barrister, and the Judge ruled that the breakdown of a boiler is not encumbent on it stopping working entirely, but more importantly that it should be capable of providing hot water and heating as it was designed to do from it`s original manufacture.

Please don`t be put off by their complaints department, they will try to wriggle out of the contract by quoting the small print, but be persistant and take them to court as a last resort and you will win.

GJRW

These are my experiences of 24/7 Home Rescue


Took out boiler breakdown cover costing £9.60 per month.


Needed to make a claim and was told due to the age of my boiler the max I could claim was £200. Eventually decided to take this on the chin as I didn't specifically ask when taking out the policy , but paying approx. £120 for £200 worth of cover isn't a very good deal.




Policy came up for renewal at £19 per month, I decided to cancel when asked why I explained that the insurance premium is higher that the actual amount of cover I would get.


When I checked my bank statement I noticed that they had taken a payment for £19, when I queried it I was told yes my policy had been cancelled but in between my cancelling the policy and the final payment being due they had put up their prices which under their terms they had the right to do.


I've asked twice for written / e-mail confirmation that the policy has been cancelled , I haven't received it yet. I was given no notification of the price going up , I was however informed of the renewal price - which is why I cancelled.


Based on my experience I would not take out cover with company under any circumstances.

FarawayPictures

Just adding my disgust of this company.
I took out a policy and received a document that said in big letters: RELAX, YOUR COVERED. Claims limit £1000.
That actually turned out to be completely misleading. I was only entitled to 60% of the boilers current worth for any claim including engineer time. As I have no idea what the worth of the boiler was (it was nowhere in the paperwork, so i assumed they had worked it out when they took all the boiler details) it came as a shock when my claim was dismissed.
I went throught he complaints procedure and was turned down, so turned to the Ombudsman, and got this reply:
Thank you for contacting us about your service agreement complaint. I’m sorry to hear about what has happened.

Having reviewing the information you provided, it doesn’t appear that your complaint is one we can help with. This is because 247 Home Assist Ltd is not a business that is regulated by the financial regulators (The Financial Conduct Authority).

I got the boiler fixed myself, buying the part for £50 and having a local engineer install it for another £50.
After seeing the engineer at work I decided to put aside the money I usually save for a service and go on his books. he showed me how the boiler had never been cleaned, had at some time had a leak that was never cleared up. What I was disgusted at was this had been regularly serviced with British Gas! He told me they are only allowed 45 mins for a service that he takes 90 mins to do.
My advice from all this...find a good local engineer and use them.

TrapperJohn

Never been a customer (thank god) although I was ringing around about two years ago in an emergency. They have been trying to contact me ever since. What happened to privacy laws. The powers that be need to come down on this company.Even their SPAM email is unprofessional. How do these people sleep at night. I can just imagine them down the pub Friday after (work?) and laughing of the stories of customer (victims) mis-fortunes. Yeah its my round folks I just captured another couple of suckers this afternoon. Makes me sick!

Dear TrapperJohn.,

Ref: WS0084427
24|7 Home Rescue wants to thank you for your continued custom.
You QUALIFY for 2 Months FREE Home Emergency Deluxe just reply “YES” to receive your two free months.

Please reply with your “YES” to activate your membership.

Kind Regards

REWARDS TEAM


Tel: 0345 3192 247

(Links which I never clicked. I can't post because I am a newbie to forum)