HomeServe

I had a call the very first time early this year on a Saturday night. The answering part is very quick and efficient. You can reach the operator right there and the communication about what would happen and what we would expect has been wonderful. However, I had to call back probably more than six times. It is probably a common practice in the industry that they have a bunch of contractors or third-party vendors they are affiliated with. They send a request to those people according to their preference or priority and it is upon them to call me back to set up the appointment and to confirm it. It was more of a waiting game on my end.

When the first vendor did not call back, I returned a call through HomeServe. I told them I hadn't received any phone call and asked them what was I supposed to do. Some of the representatives were quite honest to say, “Let me try myself and I’ll put you on hold.” It took longer than expected. He said, “I will call you back or give another hour or so.” Then another representative told me, “If they don't call you back, how about Monday or Tuesday?” In the end, Sunday around noontime, they reached out to a different vendor who was willing to come out to service. This was where things became so easy and straightforward. The vendor eventually came out and they did the work. It was a very simple declogging sewer line work. If you have the right tool, it's a piece of cake.

If I'm the one paying the vendor directly, it would be a different story. I have no idea how HomeServe is dealing with more preferred vendors and how the payment is going but I tend to believe they may not have any more interest to satisfy me as a customer due to the arrangement that was made between HomeServe and them directly. But I have no issue whatsoever with the service I'm getting. If the job is satisfactory, that's all that matters. That is what I got on Sunday so I'm happy with it. I will not hesitate to recommend to my friends. Even though they are not directly hired by me, they came out on a Sunday and did a wonderful job at least to complete it.

I had some other guys one time come out, and they had to cut the sewer line. This was in another home, and it was through HomeServe. They had to cut the sewer line, they do what they do. I already know they can't replace the wall and tiles. I’m not concerned about the finishing. I could get that done. I'm concerned about the function.

And now the guy told me he got the contractor to go in and do this stuff, and I have to pay for this. I was gonna call back and see if I could get some help because I’m paying HomeServe all this money. He said there’s a disconnection from my basement bathroom to the sewer line. Also, I have a sump pump, and all the rubbish goes into it and it’s just sitting there because there’s no connection for the sewer to go out. I knew it was something because we had this problem. I called HomeServe twice. The contractor came out, they went outside. They put a snake or whatever down in there, and they said they cleaned it. “Okay, but we still got a problem.”

I had HomeServe for years. Even in my rentals, I got them for the sake of my family just in case the landlord wanna get a ratchet and not do what they’re supposed to do. As long as I had them, I never had any problems until now. They came through. It was just a few problems here and there. And the contractors came, and they service it. Some of them are really knowledgeable. They tell me, “Okay, we’re doing this, but you need to do this. Or we’re doing this and this needs to be done.” When these other guys came out, they tell me nothing. I had to actually get somebody to come in here to tell me what was going on. Other than that, I recommend HomeServe to my friends. HomeServe covers a lot. It’s just now plumbing.

Now with the pandemic, they wear masks to protect me because I'm old lady, and I'm from high risk with diabetes and a heart condition. There's no question about wearing a mask. They come with the mask right on. With HomeServe, I don't have to wait for days for a contractor to come out. Sometimes, if you go through HomeServe, they come right away. The only that disappointed me was that I thought when I got the water in the water lines and drain lines, they would cover if there’s a leak underneath my bathroom sink. If the drain is rusted through and it's leaking, I thought it would cover that but it didn't. I wasn't mad about it. I just misunderstood that it covered the actual sewer lines, not the little drain thing under the bathroom sink.

With the money I paid them for the year, I've already more than got back for my furnace and my air conditioning calls. When an auxiliary heater in my garage broke, I called HomeServe and I found out that the warranty I had didn't cover that little heater in the garage. It had to have its own separate warranty. They did send somebody. He came and he fixed it and I paid for it. Then I called back and I got a warranty on that heating thing in the garage. So if it breaks again, I'll have a warranty on that too. I'm pretty well covered. It's always very good work and good people. If something happens again, they'll send them again. They don’t give me a hard time. So for the peace of mind and that I don't have to write out a check for $1,000, it's worth every penny.

I had an independent contractor. I paid over $500 for them to come up and run a camera. The pipe is about 10 feet out that has a deep dip in it. What happened, stuff built up in that area and eventually, it caused the backup. It may take a while to do it, but eventually, it does. I passed that on to Haynes. When that came out, I showed them that. They said there was no problem. I’d always have water in the pipes. I said okay. But then, I had another backup that came back out. They ran another camera down there. It was the same thing. They said it’s slow, but there was no major problem. They cleared it. Then it started backing up again.

Then they came out and ran another camera. They said I had a broken pipe, which I suspected that. They replaced a portion of the pipe, but it didn't replace the part where the dip was. About two weeks ago, I had another backup. I called them and the guy came out. At first, he couldn't get it ‘cause he had a little smaller snake. He called back and a guy came out with a larger snake. He went back to clear the line.

I was explaining to him the same problem I was having. I said it's gonna be back up again eventually. Haynes came out and they looked at it. Homeserve was calling another company ‘cause another company came out this Wednesday. They ran a camera down there. The same thing that I've been telling Haynes and my contractor that paid for, the problem was that dip in the pipe. They just confirmed everything that I had to say. They sent the paperwork to Homeserve.

HomeServe is going to replace that section of pipe, but they haven’t done that. I'm just praying right now I don’t get another backup before this occurs. But Homeserve seems very cooperative with me, and they’re very nice and very pleasant. But the problem hasn’t really been solved as of yet. I would recommend them because Homeserve is not doing the work themselves. They have contractors and they go by what the contractor says.

I had a big problem about five years ago though, and I’m still not satisfied with that. The first time the guy from Plumb Genius came, I had a leak in the drain under the house. There was water standing under the house. They came out but didn't have a sump pump and I didn't have one either. They told me it was my responsibility to pump the water out from under the house. I did that but I thought that was BS. They came back out and they said they found possum tracks under my house, so they refuse to go under the house until I capture the possum. I've never captured a wild animal before in my life but I have a grandson who loaned me a live trapper but all I caught was a really irate squirrel.

But now, even with these many years later, I don't leave the vent grilles open and the fan. There's this stench that comes up from under the house. I guess that'll be there until I die and this house is passed on to somebody else. I feel sorry for that person, but there's nothing I can do about it.

After the initial deal, I didn't realize that there would be a problem like this. Once the leak was stopped and it dried up, there's always this problem. I will never use Plumb Genius locally either because they were just inept. The two guys that actually fixed it, they were good. Initially, if they had come out and fixed it, they had the equipment and they wouldn't have been afraid of the possum, it would have been fixed while it was just water from the washer or something like that.

But as far as HomeServe is concerned, they have been wonderful. They got my information, addressed the problem, gave it to a technician to help with the problem and it was someone who was in the area, which was what they're supposed to do. I have no problem with them because they contacted the technician and got him out there.

The next experience started on the 17th of February. I rang homeserve at 11.50pm to say that I had a pipe leaking at the side of the boiler and I couldn’t find the stop cock and the water was coming through the ceiling, they sent someone out and he isolated the water so leaving me with no toilet, no heating and no water as I was told that they wouldn’t be able to mend the problem but someone would ring me between 7am and 10am the next morning to arrange for someone to come out that day as priority, nobody rang so I rang homeserve at 11.55pm and I was told that the job was booked in for the 21st of Feb I was gobsmacked and said no someone needed to come out that day so they went off and when they came back they said that someone would ring me back shortly to tell me when someone could come out.

I left it for half an hour and then rang back as I thought that half an hour was sufficient time to work out when someone could come out to me the person I spoke to said he would go and find out what was happening. When he came back he said that someone should be with me in about 40 mins (I was told this at 12.45pm). By 16.59 nobody had arrived so I rang homeserve again and this time I was told, "I’m really sorry something has gone wrong and you’re not actually booked in for this afternoon" (so at 12.45pm I had been blatantly lied to by homeserve) and the best they could do was to get someone out to me in the morning, I was crying and in a bad mental state by this time and said they could send someone out to do the repairs but homeserve just don’t want to.

I was left for 32 hours with no toilet, no heating and no water. I was using a bucket as a toilet and had lost money as I had work booked in but couldn’t do it and because this is the second time this has happened in the exact way as the first time it has left my mental health in a very fragile state and I’m now not coping with life yet again because of this company. To have a bad experience once is bad enough but for it to happen a second time in just over a month is inexcusable. I would warn everybody not to go with homeserve as they are very unprofessional and they make people ill.