Home emergency cover

HaddockCollider

I'm putting this under insurance although it's more the aspect of getting something fixed in an emergency than having insurance pay for it that I care about.

Are there any recommendations for providers of a service to dispatch a plumber or electrician or locksmith when you have an emergency?

I ask because late last night I got a mains water leak in my kitchen. While I was trying to contain the problem I was on the phone to my home insurers to ask them to arrange for someone to be sent out to deal with it. The guy on the phone took a exception to me swearing when I knocked over one of the buckets I was filling from the leak and immediately hung up on me. Once I had managed to find and close the stopcock I called them back and the same guy hung up again as soon as I spoke.

Is the only way to find a reliable provider of this service to hunt for mentions of it in insurance company reviews, or can you buy it as a separate service?

marcia_

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6667035/home-emergency-cover

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/home-insurance/home-insurance-add-ons/

I know you probably had a reason for swearing but no company is going to take that and continue to offer you a service if they believe you were abusing their staff.

MyRealNameToo

Obviously context is critical and the thickness of the skin of the agent… a lot of customers are very abusive towards call centre agents, or worse. In my call centre days we had to give one warning reminding the customer it's a criminal offence and that our calls are recorded and then terminate the call if they persisted.

I always dealt with complaints and so people swearing at me wasnt that uncommon but being male, middle class and often being an escalation I didnt face it half as much as others did as people seemed to assume I'm more senior to the extent that as a spotty 17 year old I often took over calls from my manager because people didnt believe the strong accented squeaky voiced woman was a manager. Likewise for similar reasons I didnt get any of the pervy calls the female agents got.

No ones going to say its ok to swear at their staff, not in this day and age. Stuff happens, if something off call makes you swear then make sure you apologise to the agent and let them know you were cursing at something else and it wasnt at them. Obviously if it's a 5 minute flood of swearing you'll likely be cut off before you get to apologise.

HaddockCollider

As you say, context is key, and I know this was poor service that I will not be renewing.

Anyone got any suggestions for finding a reliable home emergency service?

marcia_

look at the link i posted above. There is a link in there to compare insurance and articles about what you need to cover etc