Sorry you are not covered but thanks for the £50 excess

HomeServe Reviews
★★★☆☆
2.9
49.0% of users recommend this
  • Customer Service

  • Value For Money

384Butcher's review of HomeServe Reviews - homeserve.com

“Sorry you are not covered but thanks for the £50 excess”

★☆☆☆☆

written by 384Butcher on 04/01/2017

Thought I’d share my experience with Homeserve Plumbing and Drains Cover

Homeserve is underwritten by Aviva Insurance, which also in my opinion brings concern with the regular home insurance and car insurance Aviva supply.

In The summer of 2016 around 6:30am we had water dripping, then pouring through our light fitting in the bedroom onto the bed.

I rushed into the loft to discover our 50 gallon cold water tank had developed a large vertical crack allowing water to gush out. Upon closer inspection the whole tank was ready to give way as it had many white/stress lines all over it (to find out later it was totally brittle)

I turned the cold water feed off to the house via the stopcock and called our plumbing and drains cover at Homeserve, after all this is what I was paying for, right?

I told them the exact issue that the tank needed replacing as was split, this was verified that I said this in a playback of the recorded phone call, I also requested an electrician for obvious reasons that water had been leaking through my upstairs light fittings.

Homeserve told me someone would be out between 8am and 1pm, after paying the £50 excess, considering it’s just before 7am now, it was lucky I could empty the tank and clear up all the water before it caused further damage while I was waiting for the engineer to turn up.

I emptied the loft of boards and insulation and began drying out the plasterboard hoping to prevent too much further damage. If I were unable to do this, say I was of the older generation, and stop the water coming in an ever filling 50 gallon tank I would hate to think of the damage it would have caused.

The engineer (plumber, no sign of an electrician) came out at 12:45 so was lucky it was all drying out by then, the engineer came out, took a photo of the cracked tank and said I needed a plumber as I wasn’t covered, consistently scratching his head trying to decide what to do to make his visit worthwhile as he had already said I’d done everything he would have done.

He eventually decided to put a stop tap to the feed of said tank so that we could have the cold water feed back on in the house, but no hot water. He then left.

Then I phoned Homeserve back, in anger, to ask why this wasn’t fixed to which they replied they didn’t know the problem wasn’t covered until the engineer came out. As said earlier I explained the plastic water tank had a split in it so needed a new one. They replied that tank is not covered under my policy and they are a plaster fitting company that stops issues getting worse, and advise the correct professional to get out. I asked for my excess back but was told no as the engineer did some work.

Following on from this I am still trying to get my £50 excess returned, not because of the money, nor the fact that the engineer put a stop valve in, the reason being is the principle as if they had told me on my initial phone call that I wasn’t covered then the engineer wouldn’t have come out 6 hours later to find nothing need be done and would have made it less awkward for him trying to do something to make his visit worthwhile.

I have contacted senior management and CEO’s of both Homesserve and Aviva as well as the financial ombudsman, of which felt my complaint wasn’t justified as it states in the terms and conditions of my policy that the replacement of the water tank was not included in my policy.

I have since been told it is my responsibility to know all the terms and conditions of all my insurance policies so that something similar doesn’t happen again in the future. Who knows ALL the terms and conditions of all their policies, especially in an emergency situation,

My argument there was surely the call handlers for Homeserve should also know their own terms and conditions and it would be easier to inform the customer that things weren’t included at the time of call and advise them to phone their house insurance, of which in hindsight I should have done but instead I phoned my plumbing and drainage policy providers as I deemed a severely leaking water tank in the loft was a plumbing emergency.

I have tried to cancel my agreement since but have been told I would receive no refund as my policy was paid in full and a claim had been made, albeit this claim that I am disagreeing with.

The responses from both Homeserve and Aviva are astonishing and their customer service can appear rude and intolerant.

I am a landlord of a few properties that all require house insurance and plumbing cover and am always getting asked my recommendations of such firms from friends and colleagues. My response to these people is to tell them my experience and say that I will not be using these 2 companies again so they can make their own mind up.

So as to keep a customer happy for the sake of a £50 excess (and the principle), they have lost all my business and that of others that I know.

I have contacted homeserve CEO
Who passed the issue to someone elseWho left it to another person
The final man started off polite and trying to be helpful but has since become very rude in his responses, considering the customer is always right, he should always be polite, this he fails to do.
I have some email responses from him, of which I will not post at this moment but let me assure you , they are not what you would expect from a Customer Advocate in what I assume is their head office.

I have also contacted Aviva CEO
Who passed it down to a senior customer experience manager who must have gone to the same training school as the above man.

As I am still a paying customer until mid 2017 I feel it is very much within my rights to contact these companies on a regular basis to yet again ask for my excess to be returned to bring my opinion back up on both companies, with the chance of future custom.

Currently I just get a response that their response has been explained already and my email will be filed.

I have said to both companies that I will be leaving my experience with Homeserve on a few review sites and Facebook so that others can see what Homeserve’s and Aviva’s customer experiences are like as you never know how good an insurance company is until you have to raise a claim.

To be continued……..



  • Currently Claiming

    Have you made a claim

  • Buildings & Contents

    Type of Cover

  • Customer Service

  • Value For Money

Homeserveuk's Comment

Written on: 10/01/2017

Thank you for making us aware of your situation.

I understand that you are unhappy with your claims experience and I’m sorry you feel you did not benefit from the cover.

I have looked into this further and a complaint was logged and investigated to ensure that a fair resolution was provided.

We did advise when the claim was made that an engineer will be out to isolate the leak and prevent further damage which we did to the best we could, this is also stated on the terms and conditions as to what we do in this situation.

As the claim was honoured and we did what was stated on the terms and conditions of your policy, the excess fee would not be refunded. I’m really sorry about the inconvenience this has caused.


Kind Regards

Rebecca
Here To Help Team

Reply to this comment
Was this review helpful? 0 0