Domestic Appliance Repair

Seasalt3

Has anyone had any dealings with NAC (Domestic Appliance Repairs)? I booked a repair for my fridge freezer through their website on 27th October and the engineer was due to come today.  He hasnt turned up or made contact despite  leaving messages on his voicemail . There is no phone to call NAC and they only communicate through virtual assistants. I've tried to cancel the appointment but the virtual assistant says I need to contact the engineer. Going round in circles with this!

LessImpecunious

Hello Seasalt - did you get anywhere with this?

I had a similar experience with booking someone for a washing machine repair through NAC. I made an advance payment to the mechanic for the replacement part which I knew needed to be fitted, after which he (with numerous just-about plausible excuses) failed to turn up for about a month. He finally visited and replaced the part after I phoned NAC (which unlike the OP I was able to do) and complained. However, the machine was still leaking (original booking was to replace broken part and investigate leak), so I was asked to pay the labour charge, which I was told would also cover the return visit to fit an additional replacement part, which I was also charged in advance for. Long delay, several requests to visit, eventually gave up and booked a local repair person, who quickly determined that the machine had a split drum, so was effectively a writeoff, which he thought would have been obvious to the original mechanic...

During the wait for the second visit I had a look at several review sites for NAC; overall scores seem good, but the 1 star reviews makes interesting reading, with lots of no-shows, partial repairs with additional payment made up-front, etc; suggesting something of a pattern...

Based on several random tests it appears that anyone searching online and putting in a postcode, for example, is likely to find NAC topping the list and claiming to have a network of repairers in your area; but in fact they seem to be a national "broker" for mechanics who run, or work for, their own businesses, which may or may not be local (mine had a c. 2 hour drive to get here, which might partially explain his reluctance to attend). 

I'm not suggesting that all repair/ers booked through NAC will behave similarly, but I think the fact that booking takes place through another company may give rogue, or just lazy, traders an extra layer of security which makes it easier for them to get away with dubious behaviour... NAC themselves appear to benefit whether or not a job is completed adequately, as they are apparently (according to my local repairer, who had been approached by them) paid a fixed fee for each job they pass to the affiliated repairer, and have disclaimers in their Ts and Cs which mean that any dispute has to be taken up directly with the repairer and not themselves.

Based on my experience I'd advise anyone searching for appliance repairers online to check that anyone booked through NAC is actually local to yourself, or look down the list of SERPS and pick a genuinely local repairer, as they are more likely to be concerned with doing a good job and building/maintaining their own local reputation.

Hope you managed to get your fridge-freezer sorted Seasalt!

whattochoose

I've used NAC Repair for a repair (electric cooker grill) but I'm not sure I would again. 
OK, the repair's been completed, but I've found the process quite unsatisfactory. 
From reading "the small print" it appears they have NAC employees and NAC direct engineers. However, I think the majority tend to be NAC service partners, who are an outsourced means of carrying out repairs. 
I sensed the whole process was not going to be totally professional, so I made a point of creating my own receipt which I asked the engineer to sign after paying him. Also in terms of guarantees for labour and parts I found him somewhat vague, and I am currently persuing this with NAC Repair.
In the event of the repair not proving adequate, I'd have no hesitation in getting in touch with Trading Standards.

Seasalt3

I didnt hear from them so gave up and  found a local repairman on MyBuilder.  He was very good