Homeserve - don't do it!!

[bearskin]

Having the experience from hell with Homeserve, who have a VERY worrying attitude to what constitutes an 'emergency' or a 'repair'. Particularly as they are targeting the grey market - so more vunerable people. Left with a stopcock that doesn't turn off (not an emergency), a leak somewhere (if it isn't pouring down the walls it isn't a leak) a water bill 10 x normal. But none of this is an emergency. They tied tape around the stop cock and left. Nice.Anyone got any managers/directors email addresses??? Please??

[Mr lex]

This is the best I can come up with at the moment, but I will keep looking.

 

HomeServe Contact Details - Contact the right department

 

Lex

[bearskin]

thanks Lex, I've emailed via the web form, I've emailed and faxed my complaint to the Ombudsman, I've phoned the complaint in to admin...but have a sinking feeling that this is going to be a LONG haul

[emmarapid]

Any complaint put in writing, and send rec dev, then they cannot dispute receipt etc. Are homeserve handling the claim? or were they just called upon to do emergency repairs? did they actually manage to stop the water, or have you had to have someone else out to deal with it?

[bearskin]

Its a Homserve claim, and they reckon they have completed the job - but their idea of complete is, to say the least, shoddy. The values they spout in the press and on the website don't relate to real life. 24hrs later and I've not even had an acknowledgement. Why doesn't that surprise me??

 

Thanks Emma, I'll send via recorded snail mail next.

[emmarapid]

What is the cause of loss and the extent of the damage? If you would rather PM thats fine. (I work in H&C Claims)

Are you actually insured with homeserve?

 

* If not put all of this in writing to your insurers (rec dev again) and insist they send out a second company to A) Report on the quality of work (or lack of) and B) Make good any damage caused by the insured event. If they refuse, tell them you will be forced to have to work done yourself and send the bill in - they will always prefer their own contractors.

 

* If you are insured with homeserve, then keep writing on a weekly basis, until you get a response. Set a time limit in your first letter, and let them know you WILL go to the FOS if not - but remember FSA guidelines only state insurers must respond within a 'reasonable time' If one is not forthcoming in this time period take it to the FOS, although this can be quite slow it is completely free and they will more than likely get you there in the end.

 

edited

Edited October 2, 2008 by jonni2bad
Do not ask users to PM you with information

[jodo]

I recomend writing to the Chief Exec at Homeserve PLC, details of personnel are here: Company Summary - Homeserve PLC (LSE:HSV) | Companies | Hemscott.com.

 

I'd go to the Chief Exec. personally.

 

The address is:

Homeserve Plc, Green Lane, Walsall, West midlands, WS2 7PD

 

I've just had an appalling experience with Homeserve, which I'll report on later, once I've simmered down a bit. Have just spent nearly ywo weeks without heating because they supposedly had to get a part for my boiler from Europe. Eventually I just collected it myself from half a mile down the road here in London and said if they didn't come and fit it, I'd have them all over the newspapers. They fitted it.

 

If you do write to the chief exec, i recommend being very polite, absolutely no sarcasm, stick to the facts in the briefest, most businesslike way. You might start with - 'I'm sorry to trouble you with this, but I'm getting no satisfaction any other way...'

 

Good luck! J

[Mochiko]

Hi jodo - can you tell me what happened with your experience with homeserve?

 

i have had a problem with my boiler and homeserve tried to deal with it but actually made it worse ( i had hot water when i first contacted them but now i have no hot water at all... and it is so cooooold! the engineer broke my boiler completely!) and they are now saying that i'm not actually covered by my insurance!

 

it is so so frustrating that none of the call centre advisors to want to solve the problem.

 

how did you get them to deal the problem! i need help! please help!

[purpleteabag]

I to had a bad experience with Homeserve i was left for severn days with no hot water or heating at the coldest time of the year and my wife has MS when I rang them i had to wait an hour and a half before i got through on the friday it was the following monday before someone came to look at it he said it was the pump i will have to order you one that took another week I would advice anyone to stay clear of Homerserve they take your money but don't do the job

[kungfu]

I have a boiler contract with Homeserve.

My Glow-worm Enerygysaver 60 boiler started playing up so I contacted Homeserve.

They sent a engineer to take a look.

He found a leak and said he will order a part.

A week later I got a call from Homeserve saying that the parts will cost too much and they offered me £200 towards a new boiler and they would cancel the contract.

The parts they said it needed were: Main heat exchanger 2000800525 £446 , sec heat exchanger 2000800472 £465 , burner S203154P £165 , gas council number 4131994.

Its seems that if the cost of repairs is above £200 then Homeserve will not attempt to fix it but just offer you £200 for a new boiler and cancel the contract.

You are better off putting the money aside instead of paying Homeserve.

THEY WILL KEEP TAKING YOUR MONEY AND WHEN YOU MAKE A CLAIM THEY WILL SIMPLY SAY ITS BEYOND ECONOMICAL REPAIR AND PAY YOU £200 AND CANCEL THE POLICY.

SO, BEWARE IF YOU HAVE A CONTRACT WITH HOMESERVE. THE MOST THEY WILL COVER IS £200!!

[HollyWillow86]

KungFu -

 

It is not that Homeserve will not spend more than £200 repairing your boiler.

 

The parts they said it needed were: Main heat exchanger 2000800525 £446 , sec heat exchanger 2000800472 £465 , burner S203154P £165 , gas council number 4131994.

 

This means that, inclusive of VAT, repairing your boiler (ONLY in parts, this is not even including labour) would cost in the region of £1200.

 

Your boiler is beyond economical repair. Which means that it costs more to repair than the boiler is actually worth.

 

The BER clause in your policy states that, if this is the case, Homeserve will contribute £200 towards the cost of a new boiler.

[kungfu]

It seems that HOMESERVE never have to repair a boiler. They can just claim BER in every case and pay you £200. As to the cost of the parts it seems that I am in the wrong business. I can buy the same boiler brand new for £800 and just by selling 4 of the parts I can raise £1200!!

[Sisterluck]

Unfortunately We've had similar experiences with our boiler. We took out the breakdown cover thingie in around December 2008 and just before Christmas the hot water and heating packed up. It took Homeserve (and at that time we were using N-Power engineers) TWO MONTHS to finally get the boiler to work! At the time we had a four month old baby so as you can imagine it was far, far from ideal! We had a similar thing with sourcing our own part when they were saying they couldn't get hold of one etc. and really terrible customer service where we had to keep on chasing them, I think we were phoning them every day in the end. Anyway, you'd think it had ended there, but no. After the put up our monthly payments for the trouble of having a claim the boiler started to go silly again this winter, just over a year after. It's currently broken and we've had people and parts coming and going for six weeks only to finally find out that the last fella who came seemed to think he had eventually found the problem. A leek in the heat exchanger. This has probably been the same problem as last year but because the weather got better we didn't use the heating as much and the leak must have stopped or slowed down until the heating was back on again. This year my four month old is 17 months but I am now four months pregnant, none of which seems to matter to HOmeserve who, when we complained verbally, admitted that the call log seemed to be totally one sided... us phoning them!

They have now said (now that they know what the problem is) that the boiler is... surprise, surprise beyond economical repair... although we had to chase them to find this out. Someone phoned on Friday and when we returned the call nobody could tell us anything about our claim only that a letter had been sent out... still hadn't come today so we phoned to find out why and apparently it was our cheque!

I'm livid because of the Homeserve attitude and the fact that they've taken back two very pricey parts that they found weren't actually needed and are now saying they can't afford to fit a new heat exchanger and one new wire!

Sorry to keep on but it just seems disgusting to me. I'd heard bad things about British Gas but this has made me think we might give them a go next time, surely it couldn't get much worse!?!

[HollyWillow86]

It seems that HOMESERVE never have to repair a boiler. They can just claim BER in every case and pay you £200. As to the cost of the parts it seems that I am in the wrong business. I can buy the same boiler brand new for £800 and just by selling 4 of the parts I can raise £1200!!

 

Was there any part of your terms and conditions, or what I wrote for that matter, that you actually read?

[kungfu]

Yes, I did read the T&C and your comments. Just to prove it here is section 8 of the T&C:

8. Beyond Economical Repair - The point at which we

estimate that the cost to repair your boiler exceeds its value

(based on the scale of valuations according to age and boiler

type). In the event of the boiler being found beyond

economical repair a £200 contribution will be made towards

the replacement of the boiler and the policy will cease.

 

It is in the interest of HOMESERVE to ensure that any claim which is likely to cost HOMESERVE more that £200 results in BER. This way HOMESERVE only only has to pay out £200. The way HOMESERVE ensure BER is to inflate the price of parts.

 

Here are some other satisfied customers of HOMESERVE ....

Homeserve Insurance Reviews

Home Serve/ Warranty for electrical items in your house

clik2complaints.co.uk-Sounding Boards - Gas and Water Companies - Homeserve GB Ltd.

HomeServe say my hot-air boiler isn't covered | This is Money

Land Of Leather - Blagger.com - The place to leave feedback and comments about companies you have used

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/insurance-assurance-companies/162173-homeserve-dont-do.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/insurance-assurance-companies/224002-homeserve-not-following-policy.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-consumer-issues/178585-homeserve-warranties-problem-claiming.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-consumer-issues/174686-boiler-problem-homeserve-powerflush.html

[richardgflack]

Hello, seems like there are a lot of us with cause for complaint against Homeserve. My partner's elderly parents had a '5 star maintenance agreement' with Homeserve and renewed it in early January 2008. One week later their boiler started to leak and Homeserve declared it 'beyond economical repair', cancelled the contract and refused to return any of the premium, leaving them with no heating in the middle of January. This was before they started offering the £200 for cases of 'beyond economical repair'.

I complained on their behalf,going up the line of command and finally writing to the CEO (Richard Harpin) at his home address in Nun Monkton, Yorkshire. The most that I was offered was a return of premium.

I then complained to the financial ombudsman's office and the complaint was upheld with an award of £548 (the original cost of repair). Homeserve refused to accept the decision of the adjudicator and it was referred to the ombudsman proper who upheld the original decision and awarded interest.

Homeserve have paid the £548 but not the interest of £88, despite the fact that they are legally bound to do so. I have written requesting payment of the interest but my letters have been ignored.

I have now requested help from the ombudsman service to get the interest paid. I will post again when the matter is resolved.

 

In the meantime, my advice to anybody considering a Homeserve product is - Don't even think about it!

Edited March 1, 2010 by richardgflack

[kungfu]

Hello, seems like there are a lot of us with cause for complaint against Homeserve. My partner's elderly parents had a '5 star maintenance agreement' with Homeserve and renewed it in early January 2008. One week later their boiler started to leak and Homeserve declared it 'beyond economical repair', cancelled the contract and refused to return any of the premium, leaving them with no heating in the middle of January. This was before they started offering the £200 for cases of 'beyond economical repair'.

I complained on their behalf,going up the line of command and finally writing to the CEO (Richard Harpin) at his home address in Nun Monkton, Yorkshire. The most that I was offered was a return of premium.

I then complained to the financial ombudsman's office and the complaint was upheld with an award of £548 (the original cost of repair). Homeserve refused to accept the decision of the adjudicator and it was referred to the ombudsman proper who upheld the original decision and awarded interest.

Homeserve have paid the £548 but not the interest of £88, despite the fact that they are legally bound to do so. I have written requesting payment of the interest but my letters have been ignored.

I have now requested help from the ombudsman service to get the interest paid. I will post again when the matter is resolved.

 

In the meantime, my advice to anybody considering a Homeserve product is - Don't even think about it!

 

 

Thanks for the info richardgflack.

I have made a written complaint to Homeserve but they have dismissed it. I will now follow your route and write to the ombusman and copy the charman/directors. I get the feeling there is widespread abuse of the "Beyond Economocal Repair" clause by Homeserve. If enough people complain to the ombudsman then, hopefully, they will see a trend.

[richardgflack]

Good luck but you will need to have a final letter from Homeserve saying that the case is closed as far as they are concerned. They should then send you details of how to complain to the ombudsman

 

Part of the reason why I won the case was that the ombudsman thought it unfair that Homeserve did not specify exactly what the BER condition actually meant. Homeserve have a sliding scale of values depending on boiler type and in my case they valued the boiler at £470. Any claim costing more than this would automatically be rejected and the contract terminated.

 

The ombudsman took the view that had the figure of £470 been published, it was unlikely that the customer would have been prepared to pay a premium of over £200 to get that level of cover. By keeping the level of cover secret Homeserve can give the impression that you are fully covered when you are not. Many people might assume that BER only relates to older boilers where parts are difficult to obtain. In my case the boiler was only 3 years old.

 

British Gas, despite their faults, have no such conditions attached to their Homecare policy.

[alexishw]

"Having the experience from hell with Homeserve, who have a VERY worrying attitude" I would like to second that. The concept of customer service is unknown to this company. I have been waiting 7 weeks for them to fix our fridge freezer. They have only contacted us once in this time and the conversation I just had with a Mr A. Clark at customer services left me astounded.

I requested that someone contact us on Monday with an update on the parts order ( parts I could of had delivered within 48hrs) . His response was that "it is nothing to do with myself" I "cannot say if anyone will call you" "This conversation is recorded write what ever you want" I regret taking out the insurance now and would not touch homeserve with a barge pole. We also got a standard letter response from the complaints dept. which just confirmed my belief that it is a total waste of time even talking to these people....

[richardgflack]

Hooray! Finally got full settlement (see previous post) after the ombudsman reminded Homeserve that they were legally bound to pay the award in full. In fact, they not only paid the outstanding amount but also added £40 as a goodwill gesture.

 

I would like to think that they have had a change of heart as far as customer service is concerned but I think I'll wait awhile before committing to that view.

 

It took more than 2 years but I got there in the end.

 

Never give up, never surrender.

[kungfu]

Hooray! Finally got full settlement (see previous post) after the ombudsman reminded Homeserve that they were legally bound to pay the award in full. In fact, they not only paid the outstanding amount but also added £40 as a goodwill gesture.

 

I would like to think that they have had a change of heart as far as customer service is concerned but I think I'll wait awhile before committing to that view.

 

It took more than 2 years but I got there in the end.

 

Never give up, never surrender.

 

 

Well done. I too have filed a complaint with the ombudsman on the grounds that Homeserve did not publish the BER scale of valuation for my boiler. I will not bother with boiler insurance again as there are too many hidden exclusions. I will use the money for an annual service instead.

[HollyWillow86]

Yes, I did read the T&C and your comments. Just to prove it here is section 8 of the T&C:

8. Beyond Economical Repair - The point at which we

estimate that the cost to repair your boiler exceeds its value

(based on the scale of valuations according to age and boiler

type). In the event of the boiler being found beyond

economical repair a £200 contribution will be made towards

the replacement of the boiler and the policy will cease.

 

It is in the interest of HOMESERVE to ensure that any claim which is likely to cost HOMESERVE more that £200 results in BER. This way HOMESERVE only only has to pay out £200. The way HOMESERVE ensure BER is to inflate the price of parts.

 

Homeserve do not make or sell the parts. Most of the time, the parts for the boiler are bought directly from the manufacturers themselves. Or if not the manufacturer, then standard part stockists. The parts cost exactly as much as they tell you they cost. It's not in their interest to make up prices. The people that make the BER decisions are those who deal with the claims. Such as myself.

My life would be much easier if I could simply tell the engineer to go ahead with the repair, regardless of the cost - but then that doesn't make sense when you're talking about paying out double what the boiler is worth.

It makes NO difference to my wage whether I cover you or not. No difference to targets. None. The only difference is, we get a screaming customer raining down abuse because we're not covering their boiler, which no one wants.

It's not a conspiracy.

We're not out to get you.

[7194Knight]

I am now one of many (Look on the Ombudmans Site) who are proceding further regarding a complaint to the Ombudsmans Office regarding my Boiler issues. I was left for 2 weeks in February (Coldest winter in recent history) without heat or water. My boiler is 3 years old and since 23rd jan, they have been out to it 5 times and are coming again tomorrow !! It would have been cheaper to replace it. I am also reporting them to the Information Commissioners Off (Information Commissioner`s Office) for the Lies I have been told and their 'Reluctance' to supply me with a Full account of my converstaions and correspondence with them.

I have nothing but contempt for their lack of responsible action. They take the money but do not provide a satisfactory service.

[7194Knight]

Well done. I too have filed a complaint with the ombudsman on the grounds that Homeserve did not publish the BER scale of valuation for my boiler. I will not bother with boiler insurance again as there are too many hidden exclusions. I will use the money for an annual service instead.

I am now one of many (Look on the Ombudmans Site) who are proceding further regarding a complaint to the Ombudsmans Office regarding my Boiler issues. I was left for 2 weeks in February (Coldest winter in recent history) without heat or water. My boiler is 3 years old and since 23rd jan, they have been out to it 5 times and are coming again tomorrow !! It would have been cheaper to replace it. I am also reporting them to the Information Commissioners Off (Information Commissioner`s Office) for the Lies I have been told and their 'Reluctance' to supply me with a Full account of my converstaions and correspondence with them.

I have nothing but contempt for their lack of responsible action. They take the money but do not provide a satisfactory service.

[Simon Fullerton]

Hi

 

Had a burst pipe in central heating, contacted Homeserve and they told me not an emergency so wait 24 hours before anyone will come and look. I cant wait that long with a family, no hot water, no central heating...

 

So I called out local plumber who arrived in 15 minutes, fixed the job in an hour.

 

I then cancelled all my policies with Homeserve.

 

Job done.