“Unbelievably bad.
I took out this insurance when I moved into a new area where I had no contacts with tradespeople. I went for the complete premium cover, thinking it would take the stress out of any household emergency that I might have.
Nine months later, at around 7.30 on a Friday night, I saw water coming through the ceiling from the bathroom above. I switched off the main stop tap, leaving myself with no water, and called HEA. However they had no record of my cover and no way of checking (because it was out of hours). I had my policy number and the letter confirming cover right in front of me, but this wasn’t good enough. In desperation, I agreed to pay £165 for someone to come out, which they said would be refunded if they confirmed the next day that I did have cover.
I waited up until about midnight but nobody turned up and a phone call confirmed that nobody would be coming that night. The next day, I waited a while and then called them. At this point, they agreed that I did have cover, but said it would take 7-10 days to refund my £165. A nice earner for HEA if they do this regularly, with interest rates at current levels. Then the bombshell – they couldn’t actually find me a plumber, and helpfully informed me that it was very difficult to find one at the weekend. I pointed out that this was literally the whole the point of their service, but to no avail. I was told they’d check if I was authorised to find my own plumber and invoice them for a call-out. This was presented as if they were doing me a favour.
This was all starting to feel quite surreal. The point of HEA’s service was that I didn’t have to cancel my plans and spend my day ringing round desperately trying to find an emergency plumber, and yet that’s what I had to do. No doubt I’ll now go through a world of pain trying to get HEA to reimburse me for this.
I did find a lovely local plumber and it would have been hugely less stressful to do this myself in the first place.
The staff I spoke to at HEA's various inter-related companies were all polite and did their best, but there was nothing they could do to help me. Avoid if you want a company that actually delivers on its promises.”
“Called Home Emergency Assist on 22 Feb 2023 . They did send an engineer out but he wasn’t able to fix the problem. 5 weeks later I am still waiting for someone to come out who can fix it . They never call back , they really are a dreadful company , I wish I had never heard of them .”
“Very unprofessional, avoid this company at all costs. They avoid paying out for anything. All just a money making scam. They avoid paying for boiler contributions and make several excuses to pay for normal repairs. Will never be returning to this company ever again. Smart Cover is a much better company.”
“would give - 10 if i could, unable to get a response to my boiler service or to get my money, trying to get through is a job in itself. A total joke of a company.”
“Where do I start with this company! Please avoid, avoid, avoid!
A couple of weeks before Christmas our central heating stopped working (typically at the time when the temperatures dropped to nearly zero). Initial call was picked up fairly quickly but soon went downhill from there. Had to chase twice (first time I was told the reason I hadn't been contacted was that the initial call handler had noted down my number wrong) and eventually had an engineer attend. Very little information from him but he had got it working and all should be ok but the boiler needed a new part as aparantly there was a loose connection on the board.
Needless to say we never heard anything regarding this work and our heating stopped working again a couple of days later. From that point on myself and my wife spent over 5 hours on hold and many of those calls got cut off and never answered. My wife also spent an age using WhatsApp to try and get an update on when the problem would be fixed.
I work in education and my wife the NHS so spending time on the phone during the day chasing this is difficult.
Needless to say it got to almost 2 weeks passing since the initial engineer visit and we had no choice but to get a local company to come out and fix the problem. The lack of communication was appalling. On the rare occasion we did speak to someone the amount of different companies involved to get an issue fixed is crazy. It seems faults and repairs have to get approved by various different people and companies before anything will be done.
The local company were superb and fixed the issue. It turns out the boiler never needed a new board, there was nothing wrong with it and they were astounded that the engineer was going to replace it!
We have raised a complaint and are awaiting their findings. Needless to say I contacted them informing that due to a complete lack of service I would be cancelling my direct debit.
I have since received an email from the company who deal with payments threatening action and demanding £53 due to a missed payment. It's amazing how quick they are to contact you when it involves payments to them.
I recommend you avoid this poor excuse of a company and put £25 a month into a separate account and save up to use a local company who care about their customers when you need any boiler problems fixing. That's what we are doing.”
“Absolutely appalling service from home emergency assist, having been trying since August to get our boiler serviced . 4 months of being passed from pillar to post and fobbed off and hours on the phone and still nothing. All the phone calls have been from myself except one ( lost track of the numerous calls I have made) Told so many times that an engineer would contact me, nothing. They are taking money out of our account every month, absolutely nothing to show for it”
“If I could give zero stars, I would. Terrible company, only needed assistance once in the year for a blocked drain and they wriggled out of it. HomeServe etc MUCH BETTER.
DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR AND USE A DIFFERENT COMPANY.”
“DO NOT GO NEAR THIS COMPANY. we had a break down and called them , we were asked to call another company who told us we have to pay a 50. They cannot come and repair the washing machine until a month later. I was charged for 35 cancellation of my policy . Their policy was not clear and it is a form of extortion. Avoid them completely .
If I can give less than 1 star I would have.”
“Deal with this insurance Company at your peril
I am 69 years old and had an electrical fault in which I woke up on Saturday 6th March with no electric and half my tropical fish dead. I immediately called an electrician who came out and after around two hours of testing found the fault and charged £245.00. I had forgotten I had emergency insurance and looked through my folder this morning (16th March) and found I did have insurance and so I called the customer help number at 9am dead on. At 9:43 they answered and confirmed that I was still insured and that I could make a retrospective claim. I was put through to the claims department and was immediately refused because I did not call them first and it was pointed out to me that I should have read the booklet. (I forgotten that I had emergency insurance)..... No questions was asked have you got an invoice? Can you prove by way of bank statement or transfer that you paid this amount and are genuine?.....NO, just a straight NO, you cannot claim!!!! In other words, the company was saying, "if we can get out of paying we will". So, I have cancelled my insurance with immediate effect and when speaking to the customer service rep she enquired "what will you do in the future if you need help"? I answered, "exactly what I have just done....PAY FOR IT MYSELF", and added you will loose in the long run, you will not be getting anymore premiums and have lost my custom. I have never ever claimed anything in my life before and now I know that the reputation of insurance companies is true, THEY ARE SHARKS WHO JUST WANT YOUR MONEY AND WRIGGLE LIKE WORMS ON A HOOK TO GET OUT OF PAYING.”
