Review of Homeserve Plumbing & Drainage

Yesterday (3 March 09) at 2.15pm I noticed a dripping sound coming from under my kitchen sink cupboard. I removed the kick-plinth and found a large puddle, but the source was not evident. Worried, I turned off the stop-cock in the house and called Homeserve, with whom I have had a policy for several years (but, thankfully, have never had to call upon!).

The customer service chap advised that someone would call me back within two hours to confirm the appointment time for the plumber to attend. Two hours came and went ... no call. So, I called back and spoke to another chap, re-explained all that had happened and was told that the call had been booked with the plumbers but he was unable to get a response to his calls to them as they were not answering their phones. At this point I was told that the call had been passed through to the customer services department (so what department had I come through to?) and either they or the plumbers would call me within 30 minutes.

You guessed it! No call was forthcoming and I had AGAIN to call Homeserve, whereupon I was almost immediately transferred to the 'contractors' and was left on hold for over ten minutes (good job I don't mind a bit of The Beatles!). Exasperated and believing that everyone in the 'contractors' department had gone home (it was close to 5pm by now), I hung up and re-dialled the Homeserve number. This call was answered by a rather tetchy young lady who proceeded to advise me that the engineers had attemtpted to call me at 2.15 but had got no reply ~ rather strange as I had only just discovered the leak at that time and hadn't even called them ... are Homeserve employing psychic staff?? She then advised that she would transfer me to alternative engineers as the earliest the previous engineers could attend would be Thursday (5th March). I was again advised to expect a call from the engineers within 30 minutes.

Amazingly, within 15 minutes a 'charming' young man called Luke from PowerRod called and said that he would come out the following day. I explained that the problem was actually turning into a serious situation at this stage due to our lack of running water and heating and asked if he could attend earlier. After some grunts and noise almost akin to intelligible speech, including "well, that's not my problem" (to which I made the appropriate remark ~ best not repeated here!), he volunteered an apointment that evening between 9pm and 11pm (by now it was about 5.45pm). I enquired whether or not there would be any chance of someone arriving any earlier, but was greeted by a surly "I've given you the choice of tomrrow or between 9 and 11". Basically, a 'stuff you' attitude. This lad really needs some serious customer relationship training ~ accompanied by some manners.

Later that evening at just after 8pm a very welcome gentleman by the name of Mike from PowerRod arrived and within about 30 minites had assessed the problem and made repairs. I am inclined to think that Luke 'chickened out', particulalry after I had told him not to "adopt that tone with me".

In summary therefore, I am very ambivalent about the quality of service afforded to me by Homeserve throughout the entire experience and I am seriously reconsidering my policy renewal next time. Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business of this nature and Homeserve patently doesn't suffer from it very much!