Warning re 24/7 Home Rescue

accorian

midnight_bazaar said:

Wish I noted the contents of this thread more seriously before I took out not just 1 but 2 policies with these people.. .
Ive been offered a new Ideal Logic boiler, but just dont like the hard sell of this company. Even the engineers are not that knowledgeable on older boilers when I took plan out I said I didn't just want a qualified gas engineers but one withe experience of older boilers who been servicing and repairing boilers for over 5 years but think its part of the hard sell. 
I will see what other options they offer eg the parts that are not obsolete, or a better new boiler alternative.

The best new boiler alternative is any boiler from any source other than from 24/7 Home Rescue.

Seriously, you need to get out of 24/7's clutches as soon  as possible, not prolong your own exposure to risk by voluntarily staying on with them. The way they treat their customers has been chronicled so often and for so long on here that it needs no reprising now.

We had our central heating boiler replaced last year after our Glow-worm (which really was only a cheapjack affair to begin with: Glow-worm sold' em at a bulk discount to new home builders, like the firm who constructed our home) was finally condemned, after 13 years of erratic performance by an independent heating engineer we found in our locality. He provided us with all the details and prices of the Worcester-Bosch (or perhaps it's Bosch-Worcester) range, and we opted for one of the most powerful models seeing as how our home is a large townhouse with multiple floors and bathrooms.) The total cost, including installation, was £1,260; the heating engineer concerned did a great job, took all day to complete the work, and was meticulous in cleaning up and vacuuming at the end of the day.

We  are, however, very glad to be rid of it and the seemingly endless number of times when we had to carefully re-pressurise it becaise it had stopped working. . I certainly wouldn't recommend you continue on with your Glow-worm in  hope of finding spare parts for it: the build quality of our unit was not exactly state of the art. (That said, 13 years isn't too bad for the life of a central heating boiler nowadays, so at least our Glow-worm stayed the course for a fair amount of time -- this despite the er, objective "advice" we used to get from the British Gas engineers who came to service it annually during those years when we were daft enough to keep chucking money out every month for British Gas Homecare's boiler/central heating protection.)

Our new boiler came with a hefty, reputable manufacturer's guarantee, and we have the further comfort of  the fact that the heating engineer  we dealt is a registered Bosch-Worcester equipment supplier -- I'd very much doubt an outfit like 24/7 Home rescue enjoys Bosch-Worcester's  (Worcester-Bosch's) endorsement.

Best advice is get rid of 24/7 now. Buy a reputable boiler with a good manufacturer warranty from a licensed installer. In future, you'll have the comfort of the warranty and  know exactly who to turn to if and when the boiler needs attention.

djaume

AVOID THIS COMPANY. Just cancelled my 95 year old mother’s contract with this disgraceful, uncaring and duplicitous company who use every trick in the book to avoid fulfilling call-outs and repairs while simultaneously using hard-sells to vulnerable people, including trick texts to get you to ring them only to find it’s about trying to flog more of their dodgy merchandise. You go round in circles every time you have the misfortune to call them and they will do anything to weasel their way out of providing the service they advertise. No ombudsman, so social media the only recourse. 

royalmike

accorian said:

midnight_bazaar said:

Wish I noted the contents of this thread more seriously before I took out not just 1 but 2 policies with these people.. .
Ive been offered a new Ideal Logic boiler, but just dont like the hard sell of this company. Even the engineers are not that knowledgeable on older boilers when I took plan out I said I didn't just want a qualified gas engineers but one withe experience of older boilers who been servicing and repairing boilers for over 5 years but think its part of the hard sell. 
I will see what other options they offer eg the parts that are not obsolete, or a better new boiler alternative.

The best new boiler alternative is any boiler from any source other than from 24/7 Home Rescue.

Seriously, you need to get out of 24/7's clutches as soon  as possible, not prolong your own exposure to risk by voluntarily staying on with them. The way they treat their customers has been chronicled so often and for so long on here that it needs no reprising now.

We had our central heating boiler replaced last year after our Glow-worm (which really was only a cheapjack affair to begin with: Glow-worm sold' em at a bulk discount to new home builders, like the firm who constructed our home) was finally condemned, after 13 years of erratic performance by an independent heating engineer we found in our locality. He provided us with all the details and prices of the Worcester-Bosch (or perhaps it's Bosch-Worcester) range, and we opted for one of the most powerful models seeing as how our home is a large townhouse with multiple floors and bathrooms.) The total cost, including installation, was £1,260; the heating engineer concerned did a great job, took all day to complete the work, and was meticulous in cleaning up and vacuuming at the end of the day.

We  are, however, very glad to be rid of it and the seemingly endless number of times when we had to carefully re-pressurise it becaise it had stopped working. . I certainly wouldn't recommend you continue on with your Glow-worm in  hope of finding spare parts for it: the build quality of our unit was not exactly state of the art. (That said, 13 years isn't too bad for the life of a central heating boiler nowadays, so at least our Glow-worm stayed the course for a fair amount of time -- this despite the er, objective "advice" we used to get from the British Gas engineers who came to service it annually during those years when we were daft enough to keep chucking money out every month for British Gas Homecare's boiler/central heating protection.)

Our new boiler came with a hefty, reputable manufacturer's guarantee, and we have the further comfort of  the fact that the heating engineer  we dealt is a registered Bosch-Worcester equipment supplier -- I'd very much doubt an outfit like 24/7 Home rescue enjoys Bosch-Worcester's  (Worcester-Bosch's) endorsement.

Best advice is get rid of 24/7 now. Buy a reputable boiler with a good manufacturer warranty from a licensed installer. In future, you'll have the comfort of the warranty and  know exactly who to turn to if and when the boiler needs attention.

Take it from some one that has 40 plus years experience in the industry Worcesters are not a great product, make good money repairing them day in day out.
Most of the money going to them is for advertising and not product R&D, Granted there warranty is good, 

bcareful

HOW THIS COMPANY (SO CALLED) ARE ABLE TO CONTINUE TO OPERATE IS SOMETHING I TRULY FAIL TO UNDERSTAND .. I YEARN FOR ONE OF THE T V PROGRAMMES LIKE BBC's WATCHDOG TO SORT EM OUT ONCE & FOR ALL .. THEY REALLY DO SEEM TO BE ABOVE THE LAW AS YOU & I WOULD UNDERSTAND IT & SIMPLY SPEAKING BREAK MOST PEOPLES HEARTS, MINDS & RESOLVE .. JUST PLEASE DON'T SIGN ANYTHING .. 

bean1983

Just wanted to add that we had a similar experience with this company, they are a complete scam, their company moto should be ‘beyond economical repair’ because that’s the mantra they live by! They aren’t governed by anyone so can basically do whatever they want. I’ve tried complaining to the financial ombudsman but they’ve told me they have no jurisdiction over 24/7. I also contacted the citizens advice bureau and they’ve passed my complaint to trading standards. Luckily we were only out of pocket a few hundred pounds but I dread to think of all the vulnerable people who’ve been forced into signing an extortionate contract out of panic at being without their boiler.

animel71

Hi everyone, have posted a copy of the final complaint we sent to 247 Home Rescue to give you an idea of the two unbearable years we had with them. We went to court with them, and were successful in our claim. Just prior to going to court, 247 Home Rescue deducted two payments of £216 from my bank account, stating it was for boiler cover!? I had cancelled any boiler cover I had with them by sending letters by recorded delivery to two of their addresses listed on the companies house website. One of the letters was received and signed for, despite this, they still stated we owed the money. I claimed the money back through my bank and reported them for fraud. This is the worst company I have ever dealt with in my nearly half century on this earth!!!!
Here's the final complaint we sent;
In September 2016, I took out annual boiler cover with yourselves Ref: XXX. I paid twelve monthly instalments of £13.23 starting October 2016, ending September 2017. On 26th September 2016, I received an email from Tasneem Sidat asking me to describe the type of boiler I had etc. I replied to Tasneem on 14th February 2017 with all the relevant information but heard nothing further. I didn't receive an annual boiler service as stipulated in the contract. I did not renew this boiler contract, and have no copy of a renewal from yourselves. In January 2018, I again took out annual boiler cover with yourselves (Ref: XXX). I paid £158.76 upfront for cover for a year, I did not receive an annual boiler service.

On 1st February 2018, you took a payment of £16.23. from my bank account, then again in March, April and May.  I sent a total of three emails to admin@247homerescue.co.uk on 24th February, 1st March and 21st March to ask what these payments were for (initially I thought they were for roadside assistance that I did not request). I received no replies from yourselves and therefore cancelled the direct debit that appeared to have been set up for this on my bank account (I contacted you to say I was doing this as I’d received no replies to my emails).  On 11th April I submitted a complaint about this via the contact/enquiry form on your website. The following day, Mark Dwayne replied to me stating that you could not formally acknowledge this as a complaint, I had to submit it through the online complaints process. I duly did this, and on 13th April I received an acknowledgement of my complaint from yourselves stating that it was being allocated to a member of your complaints team, and that it could take up to eight weeks to be resolved. It also stated that if there was no resolution after eight weeks, it would be automatically escalated to the Legal and Compliance Manager who would provide a decision within seven days thereafter. 

On 1st May, I sent an email asking if there had been any progress with my complaint, I heard nothing back. I again emailed on 30th June stating that it had now been eleven weeks since I had submitted my complaint and asking what was happening. On 2nd July I received an email from Samina Aziz (socialmedia@247homerescue.co.uk) stating that she had no record of my complaint being received. I sent her a copy of the email acknowledgement from yourselves (and also a screenshot from my internet history showing my logged complaint), but still,  she said she had no record of this and could I re-submit my complaint.  I also asked if my complaint could be forwarded to the legal and compliance manager but she stated; ‘complaints are not escalated until we have a log of the complaint and you will be advised the same by the legal and compliance manager’. On 12th July I re-submitted my complaint, she said she would get this looked into. I have yet to receive a reply to this.

On 29th July we had a problem with our boiler, you took a payment of £75.00 in case the fault was an existing one.  After many phone calls, we were told by ‘Liam’ in the technical team that the boiler was un-economical to repair. We asked to speak to a manager and he told us that he was a manager and refused to put us through to his manager. When we phoned back we were informed that Liam was in fact a supervisor. When we mentioned that we hadn’t had a boiler service, Liam stated that an annual boiler service would not have picked up on the faults that had been spotted (We note that n-powers annual boiler service in 2016 was a 36 point check that included checks of the flue). We did however speak to ‘Luke’ in the technical team and he was helpful and tried to get a resolution for us. He stated that the cost of the boiler repair was £500.00 in total and we would have to pay £200.00 towards this which we duly did. The engineer came out and got the boiler up and running but when checking emissions from the flue he discovered there was a large crack in it and had to condemn the boiler. If we had received annual boiler services from yourselves, then surely the problem would’ve been spotted sooner and preventative work could’ve been done so that the problems did not get bigger and lead to irreparable damage. 

Due to the lack of contact from 247 Home Rescue, on 5th August I submitted a review of the company to trust pilot.com and received a reply from Sam at the social media team (is this the same Sam I had been dealing with previously?). Her reply highlighted that the payments you had taken for £16.23 were for another boiler contract!? She advised for me to correspond with her which I duly did. I sent an email to her on 11th August explaining that here had been a mistake and I appear to have been ‘double’ paying for boiler cover also, the problems we’d had when our boiler broke down, I did not hear back from her. I emailed her again on 26th August to ask what was happening but as yet I have received no reply. 

We have paid £645.44 in total to 247 Home Rescue (nearly the cost of our boiler) and we are left wondering what we have received for this in return; No annual boiler services, money being deducted from my account with no explanation, no reply to a complaint that was submitted in April, terrible communication/lack of replies to emails, and a condemned boiler. I feel that it would only be right to receive a full refund as well as some compensation so as we can pay towards a new boiler. I can provide copies of all emails mentioned in this letter should you require them.

Due to the lack of response to my previous complaints, I have submitted a copy of this complaint to the European Commission’s online dispute resolution centre, I have also submitted a brief complaint through your online dispute resolution centre explaining that I want a reply by the end of the week and for you to confirm that you wish to resolve this through said dispute resolution centre. If you do not then I would like to proceed to go to court. 

bcareful

I Absolutely FEEL For You animel71 .. Tho Clearly You've Got Stamina and Determination to push on through .. They Made Me Genuinely ILL and Absolutely Ruined a Holiday I was on in Cyprus by persisting with their horrendous customer beatings throughout it .. I Pray to God You Win Your Battle .. NO ONE Should Ever, Ever, Ever be beguiled into using this dreadful, terrible, so called company ...

rolybrom

Well done, these people deserve to be held to account. We had exactly the same trouble with them and that was about five years ago. I would imagine my review is probably on page 500 of all the negative reviews that have ever been written about them. What I can't understand is how they are still trading as the Office of Fair Trading were informed at the time of my review. I wouldn't recommend them to my worst ememy.

animel71

247homerescue said:

Dear animel71,
We note your frustration and your concerns in this matter and we assure you that this issue is of serious concern. Please note that when a customer logs a formal complaint using the online procedure, they are advised of an 8 week time period to which the complaint will be resolved. As you have mentioned, in your particular case, we have agreed to a mediation, this was in order for us to come to a final resolution to your issue.
For further liaison, please contact us with your reference number at socialmedia@247homerescue.co.uk

Regards
M.James
24|7 Social Media Department

Hi, I was indeed informed about the 8 week turnaround, didnt hear anything back, complained again, was told you hadnt received my original complaint (even though I showed you a complaint acknowledgement from yourselves), waited another 8 weeks, didnt hear anything back. Contacted your social media address, didnt hear anything back, went to mediation, didnt agree on anything, took you to court, and won!!!!!! 

mariabholmes

Too many excuses not detailed in the agreement not to carry out work under service contract!

 Just called 24/7 Home Rescue my boiler fault repair is not covered because 'it was picked up by the engineer and not my tenant' they had not been using the boiler as it was the Summer months so didn't realise there was problem! 24/7 Home Rescue response - it is no longer classed as a breakdown so is not covered by my policy.
I had a previous issue and decided to give the company the benefit of the doubt. Twice burnt! I have been a customer for a number of years and this is the first time I have tried to make a claim on this service contract! I definitely won't be renewing!
Interestingly I had one friendly guy who came to service the boiler who was leaving the business because in his words he was 'a heating engineer and not a sales person'!
In my opinion AVOID, AVOID, AVOID

By: Maria Holmes29-09-2020