Warning re 24/7 Home Rescue

247homerescue wrote: »

Thank you for Review. we are very sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the service that was provided, In regards to this can you please email our complaint team at 24/7 home rescue with you reference number and a brief description and we will be more then happy to look into this for you and try resolve the issues that you have raised.

24/7 home rescue

Is there a reason you are repeating the same post??

ddaddy wrote: »

It's a good job I came across this post. I was just about to sign up for a landlord policy with 247.
Does anyone have any recommendations apart from British Gas?

I'm responding to your post, though this is also a response to those by Dee Smith at #228 and earthchick at #229.

The situation in which Mrs P and I found ourselves in January, 2016, is one which many other householders will no doubt have encountered. We'd been with British Gas HomeCare for years, and years, and years . . . and every year, British Gas increased the annual premium. What had started at £10.50 (we're meticulous record keepers) had become £23.80p, every month, 12 months of the year.

We sat down and looked at the figures. That we're now paying British Gas £285.60 a year, for which we get an annual boiler "service" (which really isn't a service in the way that a car is services, more like a check and maybe a quick dusting.)

Just about everyone we know -- neighbours, and friends -- have British Gas to make sure their central heating boiler is functioning OK. But, but, but . . . Many a heating engineer has, over the years, very kindly come on MSE and posted about. .

Paranoia.

The paranoia of home owners that oh-dear-god, the boiler's going to blow up at any minute! What will I do? Who can I turn to? I must, must, MUST pay out every month for an insurance policy (because that's all it is: insurance) to cover the cost of anything going wrong.

To its lasting credit, the service we received from British Gas's engineers was never less than superb. And when we needed a next-day call-out -- which, in 10 years, we needed. . . twice -- that's what we received. No ifs. No buts. And no "up front charges" like those inflicted by scam outfits masquerading as substitutes for the kind of service British Gas provides.

But. But. But. . . We also received cautions, with every service, that our boiler was getting old. (As are we.) That though parts were available then, those parts might not be available in future.

This wasn't a hard sell, wasn't even a soft sell, really . . . but it was always enough to stimulate the nagging doubt at the back of our minds that some day, some time, we were going to have serious trouble with our central heating and might be wise to buy a new boiler.

We were, in a word, developing a quiet, though expensive . . . Paranoia.

The kind of paranoia on which all such service providers depend for the success of their business. The not unreasonable fear of householders that unless -- UNLESS -- they fork out what turns out to be a cumulative small fortune in monthly insurance premiums, then oh boy, are they going to be in trouble one day. Some day. Whenever. That in the depths of winter the house is going to freeze up and there's not even GhostBusters to call. . .

We decided, we're not paranoid. Nor are we stupid. But stupid gets no more stupid than paying British Gas £286 a year to insure a boiler that's working just fine, thank you. So-oo . . . We cancelled the British Gas contract.

The last payment was January, 2016. It's now February, 2018. Between then and now we would have paid £23.80p (or possibly, even more than that, given British Gas's annual price hikes) we would have paid £23.80p a month for the 11 remaining months of 2016, the 12 months of 2017, and the two months (so far) of 2018, a total of 25 months: £595.

Five Hundred and Ninety Five Pounds . . . handed over for the, er, 'protection' of a central heating boiler and its annual service.

In our case, we found a plumber who was highly recommended by neighbours and friends. He was good at what he did, but he was not a heating engineer. So . . . we asked him to recommend one. He did. Result? In 2016, we paid £60 for a boiler 'service' (which he actually described as more-of-a-check and clean) and then, in 2017, a further £65. He's local. He offers a 24-hour emergency call-out. He values his customer and he values word-of-mouth recommendations. I doubt he's unique.

Our central heating boiler is a GloWorm. Anything but the finest of boilers. Our house is new build and the boiler was installed in August 2005. We asked our heating engineer -- in view of British Gas's cautions about the, er, "life-time" of a boiler -- what he thought about our boiler. He said: 'Nothing wrong with it.' We asked, when will it pack up? He said: 'Who knows? It'll last until it. . . doesn't. No-one can forecast the expiry date. Not even British Gas.'

We had one problem with pressurisation last year, so needed a 24-hour call-out. Our heating engineer provided it. Cost: £40.

The point of all this is not that we've paid out a total of £165 these past two years in regard to our central heating -- instead of £595 -- but that none of these insurance arrangements, doesn't matter whether it's from British Gas or anyone else, will cover the cost of a replacement boiler. The insurance is not like that of a car: there's no write-off value. You just pay and pay and pay the premium and when the day comes that the boiler is no longer repairable -- though that's something in respect of which a householder should always but always obtain a second opinion -- then that's it, you shell out a four-figure sum.

One day -- maybe tomorrow, maybe next week / month / year or year after -- we'll need a new boiler. It'll cost. But what we won't have done is chucked hundreds and hundreds of pounds away in the meantime on entirely unnecessary "boiler insurance". And that's. . . Goooooood.

Finally, in regard to the outfit that is the focus of this particular thread: prospective customers should treat it with the same blatant contempt demonstrated in the utterly illiterate postings on this thread of its so-called "representative".

Most posters on here take the trouble to ensure that what they say is coherent and grammatically correct. Most posters here think you should treat people as you wish to be treated yourself, and that means communicating with a care for language and a respect for the reader's intelligence.

24/7? Don't make me laugh -- or rather, you carry on, 24/7, because every laughable scripted post on this thread has served only to show that this is a business which deserves no-one's respect and, absolutely, no-one's custom.