HomeServe USA

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Description of Work: They came for annual maintenance.

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Description of Work: Home Serve offers home service agreements. I've included a letter describing my experience with them.

Description of Work: HomeServe USA we have a yearly contract. They come in once a year and do an overall test on the furnace and the cleaning.

Description of Work: No service was performed.

Description of Work: NOTHING!

Description of Work: I had 2 out of the 3 toilets in my house stopped up. I have in ground plumbing problems..

Description of Work: We had a shower leak in an upstairs bath. The plubmer came right on time and worked for over two hours to find a fix the problem. Very professional, very thorough, and cleaned up perfectly.

Description of Work: Good response under a service contract

Description of Work: A must-have service plan for us.

Description of Work: Diagnosis and repair of a hot water heater.

Description of Work: GFI outlet went bad, kept resetting on/off. Since my problem occurred after hurricane Irene it took them a day to find an electrician to come fix my small problem. They called within a day and an electrician came and replaced the outlet.

Description of Work: I've got several policies through HomeServe USA. They cover different kinds of problem. They cover the line from the main to the house so that if my water pressure goes down the service line they take care of it. If I have drainage problem, they'll come out and I can get them in emergency as well.

Description of Work: Partially completed AC tune up.

Description of Work: .This insurance covers the water lines into my house, inside the house, and into the sewer system.

Description of Work: "Service date" refers to last customer service contact - an attempt to get a furnace tune up which on the surface is part of their package, but which in reality can only be done outside of heating season, and with some difficulty. This is basically an insurance subscription for emergency work on a furnace. You pay them $300+ per year and they will come and do emergency repairs. That's fair enough, but don't get the idea these folks are like a responsive local plumber who will do both maintenance and emergency service. There are two parts to this review. An actual service visit (great) and the corporate business model and customer service (better this year - 2011 - but basically not customer-friendly and very rigid) I had a furnace problem in 2010 that stopped the furnace when it was 10 degrees outside. The tech came in an hour and fixed it. He was wonderful. He said the contract did not cover a basic plumbing issue, but he did the needed fix to get the furnace running. This was fantastic and deserves a B+ (not A, because tech was not allowed to change problem part, even for a fee, he could just make it run at the moment). The problem is the business model, the customer service behavior, poor communication, and the rigid senior management policies. The contract price includes a furnace tune up each year. But it turns out the company will only do them from March through August. They don't make this visible in their one paper mail each year, and if you want the included tune up even one week outside their limit, for example, they will not come. To be honest, this is indeed what they say in the fine print of the contract, but this is not in the main brochure, and the scheduling process is not easy or flexible. In addition, I have always been told to have the furnace tuned up before the heating season, so it is done after the furnace sits unused for 5 months. Furnaces "settle" when not used, and I have found it best to get it tuned just before the heating season, to detect any problems. Can't do that with this company. Could do that with the smaller company this company bought out. Booking a date 5 or 6 months in advance is a real problem for some of us, especially given their open slots. This year they said they would come in the other 6 months, but at a price of $90. It also turned out to be very hard to find a time slot even at the $90. I therefore paid for three years of the "service" and they never did a tune up. At their $90 off-season price, that means I paid $270 for "tune ups" that they never did. So - this is not a service policy. It is an expensive insurance policy for limited emergency repair only. When you compare this to the auto policy on my car which is not much more in cost, this is a very expensive policy. Their customer service call centers were disorganized in 2010. They are more organized now, but still rigid and not always informative. Their marketing is somewhat misleading, because they still behave like they are part of the local utility. This implies you have a local partner, but they are really some form of corporate call center, and local contractors, who do not seem to be part of the same management structure. The emergency repairs rate high. The business model is not particularly helpful.

Description of Work: I purchased an annual service contract with Home Serve (HS) in early December 2011. I had previously had annual contracts with Boston Gas and its successor National Grid. My previous contract expired in October 2011. I never received an e-mail, phone call, or snail mail about renewing the contract. I discovered the lack of a contract in November 2011 when I was in Florida visiting my mother. My housemate called me to tell me the heater would not turn on. When I called HomeServe it told me I had "canceled" my contract; I would have to pay for a separate service call ($169) and then begin a "new" annual contract. I tried complaining to HS but to no avail. It was adamant that I had "canceled" the contract. So, I did have a service call in late November that fixed that problem. On January 4 around 5PM the furnace failed to ignite when zones were calling for heat. I called Home Serve and asked for a technician to come to my house. The tech support staff said the earliest appointment would be the following morning. I asked if I could go on another list in case someone canceled their appointment. Around 10 PM I called HS several times about my lack of heat. A person at tech support said service was on a first-come, first-served basis. I called customer service, but it said it did not have access to the tech support database. Customer service only handled problems with bills! I asked if I could talk to a manager, but the manager gave me the same story. The technician came the following morning and, retrospectively, did absolutely nothing. Well, he did try to sell an improved heating unit to me. He did ask that I remembered his name when and if I decided to go with the $500 to $1,500 "upgrade."