Warning re 24/7 Home Rescue

Ningaloo

animel71 said:

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!!!!!! 

Hello - Im stuck in the same position, would you kindly just give me a heads up of the grounds on which you won. Did you have to use a solicitor as well?

animel71

Hi, I used the small claims court online system. You have to go to mediation first, we were offered a paltry amount through mediation so said we would take them to court. They said they had 'a really good case', they didnt. They refused to pay through the online small claims system so it then went to a court in Manchester. 247's representative had no clue about the case, they submitted their evidence late so the judge didnt take it into consideration. I submitted a very thorough file of evidence. Didnt have to get a solicitor, just represented myself and won.

The online small claims system is misleading as it says you can get interest on the amount owed if you win, you dont. It also says you can claim travel expenses, you can't. 

Ningaloo

animel71 said:

Hi, I used the small claims court online system. You have to go to mediation first, we were offered a paltry amount through mediation so said we would take them to court. They said they had 'a really good case', they didnt. They refused to pay through the online small claims system so it then went to a court in Manchester. 247's representative had no clue about the case, they submitted their evidence late so the judge didnt take it into consideration. I submitted a very thorough file of evidence. Didnt have to get a solicitor, just represented myself and won.

The online small claims system is misleading as it says you can get interest on the amount owed if you win, you dont. It also says you can claim travel expenses, you can't. 

Thank you for this. I had an email from 24/7 recently proudly saying they are now covered by the Financial Ombudsman. Well, I may go down this route if I don't get anywhere directly with them first. I've also got legal cover as part of my home insurance. I'm pretty convinced 24/7 will force me to go to court by being awkward but I'm not going to give in. Thanks again for the info.

Ningaloo

With regard to canceling your 24/7 policy. Is there a way of doing this without incurring a penalty?  The small print implies its a rolling month by month contract, also mentions 12 months and then also states they can change the rules to suit their company. The more I read the very small t&cs, the angrier I get with this Company.

Ningaloo

animel71 said:

Hi, I used the small claims court online system. You have to go to mediation first, we were offered a paltry amount through mediation so said we would take them to court. They said they had 'a really good case', they didnt. They refused to pay through the online small claims system so it then went to a court in Manchester. 247's representative had no clue about the case, they submitted their evidence late so the judge didnt take it into consideration. I submitted a very thorough file of evidence. Didnt have to get a solicitor, just represented myself and won.

The online small claims system is misleading as it says you can get interest on the amount owed if you win, you dont. It also says you can claim travel expenses, you can't. 

Looks like I'm going to have to go to court, they just keep sending me around in circles. If anything, it's made me more determined to go to Court. Did you have to quote previous cases in your defense? I'm just unsure how in-depth I have to go with the submission in quoting case law etc? ANd was it breach of contract that you used or another law?

animel71

Hi, you don’t have to quote any law or anything as it’s for lay people. The judge had read all the evidence prior to the case and just confirmed a couple of points with me. One was to confirm that they hadn’t refunded the amount of money they claimed they had (the 247 rep didn’t seem to have an understanding of the case.
In my evidence I showed their terms and conditions that they’d breached. You also have to prove you’ve exhausted their complaints process prior to going to small claims.
Keep an eye on your bank account, shortly before going to court they went into mine and took £264. I claimed it back through the bank and reported them for fraud. 

Good luck!!

accorian

Fantastic work by animel71. And yes, there's no need to start worrying about "case law" in a civil action brought before a small claims court. A case there is judged on its facts and not  by precedent. As to reporting 24/7 for attempted criminal fraud in the way in which a substantial sum of monies was deliberately yet furtively taken, that's the best news yet: getting this lot locked up sooner rather than later would seem an overdue solution to a problem that the authorities should never have allowed to continue for as long as it has done.

Finally: a word about 'OImbudsmen'. Regard them as a joke, not a saviour. That applies to the Financial 'Ombudsman' as much as any other. They say they are not allowed to 'take sides'. They are not allowed to 'decide in favour of one party rather than another in a dispute".

Essentially, they are there -- the entire operation, management and staff -- to earn  large chunks of taxpayers' money seemingly unrelated to competence or experience. No Ombudsman Service of which I'm aware has yet come up with an outcome in which justice has been properly served.

Rather, it's all happy-clappy stuff about how-we-got-two-opposing-parties-together-to-talk (as if somehow the complainant is co-equally responsible for a matter having to land on the Ombudsman's desk) and how-we-got-one-of-the-parties-to offer-without-admission-of-fault-or-liability-a-goodwill payment-so huge-it-might-even-have-exceeded 25 quid.

Gosh. Golly. Wow.

Mariom

I had a breakdown policy in my rented flat and when the CP12 was due, 247 sent someone in to carry this out. On arrival the boiler was switched of by the tenant and the 247 employee, could not start the boiler and found that the PCB was faulty. 

No problem, I stupidly thought, as I had breakdown cover, but was told that it was void, as 247 found the boiler fault. I looked through their T&C's and could not find anything that related to this.

I was then asked to pay £248.00 on 22.11.21 to get the boiler manufacturer in to repair the boiler. As we were in the winter months and the property was tenanted, I had no choice but to get the boiler fixed. 

When the Ideal boiler repairer turned up, he changed the pcb and found that the insulation retainer/ionisation kit product no 171845 had not been changed according to the manufacturers recommendation, so did this as well. 

This should have been done when the boiler was previously serviced by 247. The failure of this part could have caused a boiler meltdown and probably in extreme cases a fire. One of the clips had already broken that was holding the insulation, so it was only held by the other clip.

I have asked 247 for the section in the T&C's that states "if 247 find a fault on the boiler, the breakdown cover is void" and have not received anything from 247. They have said that there is nothing that can be done as the breakdown was found by their repairer.

I have also stated Ideal's comments here"I have however spoken with the engineer who attended and he confirmed that as an engineer working for the manufacturer’s he has a responsibility to check that the ionisation retaining pins are in place; he confirmed that they needed upgrading and would have expected this to have been picked up by the service engineer"

This is unacceptable, as I am being charged for a service and it is probably not getting done or the service staff do not know what they are doing.

I have also paid for a breakdown cover, which is a waste of money, as 247 manages to wriggle out of carrying out repairs.

I would like a refund of the £248.00 as there was breakdown cover in place and none of the documents I have seen show anything about the cover being void.

The Trustpilot reviews could be falsified and should be investigated, as Trustpilot is viewed by consumers a lot for peace of mind, but if reviews are easily setup by 247 employees', they are the same as the Indian scam centre's. 

andrewlya

I have had a terrible experience with this firm 247 Home Rescue, to get an idea of how bad it's been please read my letter of dissatisfaction to them. 

I feel my mum has been really taken advantage of by them. Is anyone else you maybe able to advice, maybe I could get my premiums refunded? It's been a truly shocking experience. 

"To the Complaint’s Manager,

 I am writing this complaint as I and my mum are very unhappy and very disappointed by the unfair treatment and misadvise we have experienced with 247 Home Rescue, which has not rescued my elderly mum’s home when her boiler broke down she was in the freezing cold house for nearly two weeks.

We joined 247 Home Rescue back in 2017 and had never missed a payment since then. As you can see we have been long-standing clients of yours and put our trust in your services.

On the 3rd of December, I’d to rung up Home Rescue to make a claim as my mum’s boiler totally broke down. My mum had no hot water and the weather was freezing cold. I paid the excess fee of £75 and had one of your engineers come out to have a look at it. The engineer came round on the day arranged and did not repair it at all, instead we had a call the next day to say you were not prepared to cover the repair costs and that we needed a new boiler as it is too old and can’t be covered on our policy.

 I am really not happy about this, because when I first took out this insurance I let you know the age of the boiler. Also when reviewed the boiler cover in March 2022 I had made it clear to your advisor on the phone that my mum’s boiler is 14 years, and it is on your records, and I specifically asked the advisor if the boiler, being 14 years of age, will still be covered for repairs and I was told that it will be covered regardless of its age. I decided to renew it and paid the premiums. Had I been properly advised that mum’s boiler is not insurable, I would have stopped the payments. I was not explained how the cover works and what level of cover the boiler would be covered for.

 Now when it had come to claim, I am told that the boiler is not insurable and you will not cover the costs of the repair even though my policy is meant to cover parts and labour, that is the whole purpose of this. Instead, I was inundated with phone calls, emails, and texts messages from yourselves about the new boiler installation. I was later given a quote of £254 to have it repaired. This begs the question, what is the point in having this boiler breakdown cover and paying for this for more than 5 years to still be told to cover the costs ourselves? This is the whole point of having this type of insurance cover so that we do not incur the costs ourselves. I knew how expensive it is to fix the boiler and this is why we had taken out the boiler repair service with yourselves so that you cover the costs but instead you have been taking our money for 5 years and still wanted us to cover the costs on top of that? Why have insurance then? What have we paid for? What kind of insurance is this that requires us to cover the repair costs?

Nevertheless, I naively decided to pay the fee of £254, as I did not want to go with the boiler replacement scheme you were insisting on getting, to have it fixed with Home Rescue as my mum was very cold and I needed to act quickly. I believe this fee should have been covered by your company. In the meantime whilst waiting for the appointment, I’d decided to get an independent gas engineer out to give us a second opinion. And it was a good job we did. The engineer had told us that the boiler is in too good condition to be replaced and should be repaired instead. He told us that it will only cost £40 for the part. The engineer repaired it and the boiler is now working heating the house and giving the hot water to my mum. I have now asked for a refund of this £254.

I believe we had been grossly misadvised, we feel Home Rescue just wanted to sell the new boiler when the current one is in a good condition, also the price quoted for repair was unfairly high, considering we paid the premiums in excess of over £1,000 over the course of 5 years you still wanted us to fund the cost of the repair as well when you promised to do this job for us.

 I am now under impression that Home Rescue has been dishonest with us, you have treated us unfairly, misadvised us regarding the condition of the current boiler to sell us a new, more expensive one with the interest payable over 5 or 10 years, when you could have just repaid the good boiler. You had taken the excess fee of £75 and then wanted me to also cover the extra £254, that is £329 in total, when it actually cost us £40 for the part. This is outrageous and your company needs to be seriously looked into by authorities and Trading Standards as you have no interest in covering the customers but only take the money.

Additionally, when I called up to request the refund on the 14th of December 2022 I spoke to one of your Advisors called Ibrahim, and expressed my concerns to him, he advised that a Manager will give me a call to discuss this issue.  Of course, no one has called me since then. I find it unacceptable and this again shows a complete disregard for your clients that pay you money to look after them.

I will await your response to my complaint as you have not delivered on your promise to repair our boiler knowing full well the make and age of the boiler and essentially passing the entire cost of repair onto us when it is your job to cover. This company needs to be taken to task as this has to be illegal what you have done to us.

This is actually 2nd time when you let us down. When we tried to make a boiler claim 1st time a few years ago you had refused to come to repair it because it did not meet your policy criteria. I did not cancel the cover then, even though I was not happy that you did not help us when we needed your assistance. Despite of 1st negative claim experience, I still decided to continue and give your company another chance. Back then I had called an independent gas engineer, paid the fee, and had the boiler repaired, whilst still continuing to pay the payments for the boiler cover with Home Rescue.

I, therefore, would like the following questions addressed:

1.       Why have you been taking our money every month all these years if the boiler is not insurable/ too old?  You knew the age of the boiler and its make. One of your engineers serviced it every year so you must have known, and have records about its condition whether it was still insurable or not and you at no point told me to stop paying the premiums as the insurance would not cover it.

2.       When I reviewed and renewed the boiler insurance in March 2022 I had specially asked if the boiler will be repaired in light of its age. It was confirmed to me by your Advisor it will be covered regardless of its age. Why was I misadvised on this? The advisor did not tell me what level of cover I was insured up to or that the boiler’s value would not support any claims or anything of the sort. The only response I had was that regardless of the boiler’s age the cover will insure the boiler for parts and labour, hence I happily renewed it.

We feel let down by your service, there has been a total disregard for the fact that my mum had no hot water and no heating in freezing weather conditions & you did not do your best to put it right. On top of everything, we had to incur more financial costs by having an independent engineer fix our boiler on two separate occasions when we had been paying you to do it.

Paying you for the cover has been a complete waste of time and a drain on my mum’s finances.

The Trading Standards will need to be aware of this so that other people are not taken advantage of like we have been.

I look forward to your prudent response and resolution to my complaint.

 

Your unhappy client"

andrewlya

So many complaints about this firm, I am shocked as why have Trading Standards not done anything about this rogue company? They haven't changed their ways, do regulators think this is an acceptable level of service? They just take the money and don't do anything.