Homeserve Boiler Service Contract

[Mycetes]

We have a Homeserve contract for servicing and emergency repairs for our combi-boiler. We pay this on a m oney direct debit. We have not failed in making any payments.

The contract says we are covered for call-out, parts and labour in the event of a breakdown.

The boiler has broken down.

We called Homeserve for them to send us an engineer. They have refused to do this until we pay them a call-out fee of £87. We have refused to pay this. They are refusing to send the engineer until we pay.

Is this fraud = crime

or a civil offence?

Why are there companies like this still trading?

 

[Witch consumer]

Is this in your contract? seems very strange, my mum recently had a flyer off them as her boiler was approaching 12 months old and I can't remember reading anything about call out fees, just lots about peace of mind and exceptional service.

Check your contract and if it's not there then they are in breach of said contract and if they still refuse to take action then you need to act against them.

If it is in the contract, there's not much you can do I'm afraid, except cancel of course - and give them lots of bad publicity.

 

[Mycetes]

It's not there in the contract. What action can I take?

This company has already loads of bad publicity on the web.

 

[Witch consumer]

Trading Standards/Consumer Direct would be a good place to start, you can only take them to the Small Claims Court with a financial claim but you could claim back what you have paid due to their breach.

Before you consider this you need to go through their complaints procedure but you don''t need to do this to go to Trading Standards.

 

[Mycetes]

Is this in your contract? seems very strange, my mum recently had a flyer off them as her boiler was approaching 12 months old and I can't remember reading anything about call out fees, just lots about peace of mind and exceptional service.

Peace of Mind?
Rather let me give the world a piece of my mind.

The domestic boiler fitting and repair business in the UK, the whole industry in my experience is and has been run by cowboys.

1. Engineers who when called out charge huge sums for things which are not broken. Taking advantage and blackmailing you with your situation of having a broken down boiler

2. New Boiler supply and fitting companies who completely disappear after having fitted a new boiler, not completing their work, or giving you the necessary documentation for it.

3. Boiler breakdown cover insurance companies who do not fulfill their obligations.

 

[Witch consumer]

Have to disagree just a little bit with you there, you will find some good guys out there, the problem is knowing who is any good, I have an excellent central heating engineer who is reasonable with his prices, reliable and very good at his job, he does sing rather loudly while he's working tho!!!

If you have had problems with fitters and they are Gas Safe registered then you should notify Gas Safe as all gas engineers have to be licenced and if they get complaints, they should review their licence.

 

[Mycetes]

What I have done here is to post my bitter experiences with dealing with firms, organizations and people in this country who supply, fit and those who maintain domestic gas boilers. Nearly everyone I have ever dealt with has been a cowboy one way or another. I don't put it down to bad luck. If there are "good guys out there", there are a darn-sight many, many more bad-'uns. To paraphrase Gresham's Law: bad business drives out good. The whole industry needs to be purged of corrupt and inept firms.

1. On calling out an engineer to fix my gas boiler, he said my heat exchange was bust and I needed a new one: £400 [price 25 years ago]. I later established that the part was actually much, much cheaper, and he had taken full advantage of my innocence and ignorance of the price of parts in a boiler.

2. The firm we engaged to supply and fit our present boiler at a cost of around £2,000 (way, way over the top, of course) was supposed to give us proper documentation as per manufacturer's specification. They had manufacturer's approval to supply and fit. They never did. They just simply disappeared completely off the scene after they completed the job. Yet another cowboy. And further the manufacturer refused to give us this installation documentation.

3. And now the organization and company we have engaged as emergency cover and breakdowns as raised in this thread.

BAH, the whole industry is 'rotten', like the state of Denmark in Hamlet.

 

[PaulWhittyWhite]

That sound awful paying for a servicing and emergency repairs contract for your boiler, only to find you have to pay a callout fee. I never used to bother with these contact things, until my somewhat older boiler started breaking - getting fixed by a local plumber - and breaking (and on and on). In the end I got some quotes for boiler contracts/insurance and went with STL Heating - as they charged the least - but they're a decent sized outfit so I know they'll be around for the long term !