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Repaircare

If you are looking for domestic appliance repairs there is a National Company ( Repaircare ) offering fixed price appliance repairs. Their fixed price appliance repairs include call out, parts, labour and VAT. When you consider that the manufacturers charge on average about £99 but then add the cost of parts this service has the promise of being potentially cheaper.

Summary of services -

Get an instant repair quote – Repaircare

Who are Repaircare?

Repaircare are part of Connect Distribution who are the UK’s largest distributor of appliance spares and accessories. They supply much of the independent repair trade and I had a spares trade account with them for 25 years going back to when they were known as Electrue. Connect Distribution run the 4Washerhelp Spares site ( This previous Blog article explains more about them – New white goods spares and accessories site )

Very easy to get a quote

The Repaircare appliance repairs website is one of the nicest designed and easiest to use I’ve ever come across and features 3 simple steps to get a quote.

Using the “get a quote” box you just select the type of appliance and brand from the drop down menu, and then enter your postcode. This takes you to a page showing a large calendar with all the available repair dates over the next few days and weeks highlighted in orange. The fixed price* quote is printed on each of these dates. If you click on any of these dates the box turns green and you can click proceed to complete the booking. It’s incredibly simple and well designed.

How do they do it? What’s the Catch?

I’m naturally pretty sceptical and not easily impressed – always looking out for a catch. It shouldn’t be possible for Repaircare to be able to include the spare parts in their repair charges but they are the UK’s largest spare parts distributor so they have access to much cheaper parts than most and they obviously think they can. However, they do have a disclaimer in the terms and conditions ..

“We reserve the right to cancel a repair if on inspection or during the repair of the product it is deemed beyond economical repair. In such instances we will refund (to your credit card) any monies you have paid less a call out charge of £40.00 (inc VAT)”

This caveat is needed to protect them from having to completely rebuild an appliance at great expense or carry out repairs that are in fairness “beyond economical repair”.

RepairCare advertise fixed price repairs but unfortunately the truth is they do not fix every appliance for the price initially quoted and cover themselves against really expensive repairs by the terms and conditions quoted above. Most repairs should however be covered by the sum quoted and if your appliance is beyond economical repair it won’t cost you any more than from any other large company as they will just charge the £40.

Summary

Offering fixed price repairs is a big ask. Repaircare have access to very cheap parts because of their massive power as part of the UK’s largest spares distributor 4Ourhouse. When calculating the cost of parts they use the trade cost of parts and not the retail cost which everyone else uses. The price difference can be substantial and this gives them quite a bit of leeway.

Margins must be small and this operation probably relies on economies of scale. As it is covering all of the UK they may be able to achieve the quantities of repairs necessary to be viable. However, they need most repairs to be relatively minor to balance out the expensive repairs. if only people suspecting they have a serious fault use them the system just won’t work. I have received some complaints though which is disappointing. They may have been struggling to cope with the work load at the early stages as they have promoted themselves very heavily. However, Repaircare have at last responded pro-actively to public complaints and put in place a system to allow people to complain directly to a manager. People with complaints previously felt they had no option but to complain on the Internet because they couldn’t get past the call centre staff to complain to a manager. I put this contact detail on one of my comments – Contact Repaircare

If you are the type of person who takes comfort in prices being fixed and inclusive, then fixed price repairs may be for you. You could end up paying more than necessary if your appliance turns out not to need any parts or needs inexpensive parts, but you could save money if it needs an expensive part.

Make sure you read and understand their terms & conditions though as if parts are “too” expensive they can say the appliance is not worth repairing.

Alternatives?

Some manufacturers also offer fixed price repairs now at rates competing with Repaircare. For example Ariston, Indesit, Hotpoint, Creda and even the obsolete Dyson washing machine have fixed price repairs. Also, AEG, Electrolux, Tricity Bendix and Zanussi have relatively low and reasonable labour charges – Appliance manufacturers repair charges and contact numbers

Independent Repairers

Independent appliance repairers obviously charge for parts on top of their labour costs, but local engineers may well charge substantially less labour than a large company meaning the majority of repairs could be cheaper even when adding the cost of parts. Of course the dilemma is that it’s not possible to know who will be cheaper until an engineer has looked at it by which time it’s to late. Find an independent domestic appliance repairman or company in your post code area

Written By - Washerhelp on June 4th, 2009 with 105 comments
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#1. June 9th, 2009, at 10:34 AM.

Free estimates and no call out charges – are they realistic?: good value for money repair as most manufacturers charge around this price just for the Labour. ( Appliance repairs ...

Tony Fisk Tony Fisk
#2. June 18th, 2009, at 9:10 PM.


Booked a repair of our Miele washer, which is making nasty bearing rumbles. Charge was £129 rather than £70 – fair do’s, it’s a Miele.

The chappie turns up, says it will take two people to do the job and will have to be taken to the workshop, that the charge is too low, and went away. Still waiting a week later for an estimate of how long and how much. Not impressed so far……

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#3. June 19th, 2009, at 4:28 PM.


Hello Tony. That´s not good. Have you tried ringing them? Please keep us informed.

Saritasinpelo Saritasinpelo
#4. June 19th, 2009, at 8:22 PM.


Thank you thank you thank you… found this website on Google, just as I was despairing about the possible cost of calling out a repairman (or having to fork out for a new machine). But one Friday night in later, machine is fixed, by me – your new biggest fan :-)

L A WIlson L A WIlson
#5. June 26th, 2009, at 4:36 PM.


I’m not sure that this lot are worth the hassle.
Appointments were only available several days on from purchase.
Their engineer failed to turn up for the first appointment.
Second appointment he diagnosed the problem but did not have the parts
Third appointment he ‘fixed it’ but told me not to switch on for 5 hours (it’s a freezer).
When I turned on it was exhibiting the same fault as it started with.
Still waiting for their engineer to ring me to arrange a further call. I will have been 3 weeks without a freezer and taken 4 days off work. The manufacturers would have been more expensive but I suspect more responsive and effective.
Their call centre is very much ‘computer says no’ . The operators are not empowered to do anything other than call the engineer and get his answer service, as I had already done.
It seems impossible to speak to a team leader or supervisor.
Great idea poorly executed. The system is process not customer focused.
Telephone calls are expensive and there’s a lot of ‘please hold the line’.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#6. June 26th, 2009, at 5:16 PM.


Hello L: Thanks for your contribution. I’m not sure what you mean about only being able to make an appointment several days on, as most people would want immediate appointments or within a few days.

Not turning up is bad, though that happens a lot across many companies as engineers can get stuck on a job or have traffic problems and it’s just not possible to complete all jobs at times. A courtesy phone call is expected though.

It’s also not unusual for parts to be required and a second visit necessary – that’s very common because it’s impossible to carry all but the most common parts for the most common machines. Even the manufacturers often have to return with parts another time although I would expect the manufacturer to have more parts than anyone carrying out repairs to all makes.

Reports I’ve heard indicate manufacturer’s service is commonly poor and long waits for appointments and parts common too.

Unfortunately I have no idea how many satisfied customers there are to balance things out as most people only contribute when not happy and all businesses have things go wrong to some extent. I’m hoping these are just teething problems caused by the success of the service, which may have overloaded them with calls.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#7. June 26th, 2009, at 5:31 PM.


In addition to my last comment, I forgot to add that leaving the freezer unplugged for at least 5 hours is often necessary for modern frost free fridges and freezers if they have become caked in iced inside. If this is not adhered to the fault will usually reoccur.

In my experience many customers didn’t follow this instruction because it’s too inconvenient, and the fault reoccurred. I don’t know if this is the case in your situation but it is essential to allow the unit to properly defrost if advised to.

L A WIlson L A WIlson
#8. June 26th, 2009, at 6:16 PM.


Thanks Washerhelp

Re ‘I’m not sure what you mean about only being able to make an appointment several days on, as most people would want immediate appointments or within a few days’.

I can see the ambiguity in my comment, sorry. I was trying to say that available appointments were quite a few days in the future. As you say your need is almost immediate.

We did leave the freezer nearly 8 hours before switching it on. Hey ,after two weeks with it, whats a few hours?

I have now been contacted by a senior customer service person (after I advised them I was going to give negative feedback.)

Whilst the person who rang was very pleasant, we haven’t moved on at all.

They have a process…which I know off by heart as it has been explained to me repeatedly. That process can’t be changed.

What they are missing is that a good operation always needs processes but that when the process falters, service recovery must always be the priority over process.

Many companies make mistakes, its the ones that are flexible enough to recover well from failure that typically the customer remembers and recommends.

All I want is my freezer fixed…..

Regards

Laurie

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#9. June 26th, 2009, at 6:50 PM.


Thanks Laurie: My attititude has always been that no company is immune from cockups and things going wrong so I agree that the sign of a good company is not defined by whether things go wrong or not but how they deal with inevitable problems.

The only thing I can say in their defence at the moment is that although they’ve done half a million repairs so far they’ve only just launched the service to the public, whereas they’ve previously carried out repairs for insurance companies. I suspect they are currently experiencing a big surge in demand.

Tomski Tomski
#10. July 6th, 2009, at 5:27 PM.


Too good to be true…………cost £120……..chap turns up within a 12hr time frame only to say he has to order a part for the cooker (should only be a couple of days hes says) ….. its now the second week (third of not having a cooker) and still no part! Call centre just says dont know when part will be in!

L A WIlson L A WIlson
#11. July 8th, 2009, at 10:29 AM.


An update…

It’s now just under 4 weeks since I engaged (and paid) Repaircare to fix my fridge/freezer.

The engineer had to return for a 3rd visit (now 4 days off work due to an initial ‘no show’).

He said that I had a big leak in the system and that the fridge/freezer was toast.

I know nothing about refrigeration but I questioned the logic of a big leak causing the unit to fail so quickly after his previous (unsuccessful) repair when he didn’t detect a leak. Also why was the fridge section working OK?

Anyway, he reluctantly tested the system pressure and it was as he left it fully pressurised i.e. there was no leak.

He thought that it was now the compressor and he would contact Repaircare for authorisation to order a new one.

I received an email from Repaircare saying ‘I cannot see that there will be a problem at this end and this engineer will order the compressor for you and once received will contact to make another appointment for you.’

10 days on I had heard nothing so I contacted the call centre to be told that it had been referred to the Technical Section, but ‘he’ had been off for a week or so. I should be patient and they will get back to me when they have discussed it with the engineer.

Four weeks since I started and my fridge/reezer is no further on towards repair.

I’m adjusting my advice from ‘not worth the hassle’ to ‘Avoid’.

Laurie

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#12. July 10th, 2009, at 4:43 PM.


L A Wilson: thanks for the update. It is sad to see a few people having problems. I understand RepairCare are getting a hell of a lot of jobs coming through and I think they are the victims of their own success at the moment.

Without wishing to be seen as an apologist for repaircare I do believe it’s fair to say that most of the problems described in these comments are typical problems that you can commonly experience with many repair companies or repairmen.

Engineers not turning up occasionally, misdiagnosing faults, not having the parts, and when ordered parts taking ages to come are all sadly common issues experienced by customers of many repair companies because companies have to repair too many products and too many different brands. People commonly expect engineers to turn up with the right parts but this just doesn’t happen very often when engineers are expected to repair almost every make of appliance and every type of appliance. They’d need to drive around in a transit lorry to carry them all.

I’m pretty sure if I wrote a general article on repair companies and repairmen and left it open to comments we would get many people relaying the same issues with Comet, Curry’s, each manufacturer, and all the other repair companies as well as independent repairmen. I think that needs putting in perspective.

Having tried to put things into a proper and fair perspective RepairCare need to clearly deal with complaints better and get on top of things quickly.

Fedupwaiting Fedupwaiting
#13. July 22nd, 2009, at 4:25 PM.


Please dont use this company. Waited in all day for the engineers ect could nt repair costs more than quoted ect…

Seems a under lying trend in this company poor service and over charging. Spend your money some where else.

L A WIlson L A WIlson
#14. July 22nd, 2009, at 5:07 PM.


Just to give the final installment on this saga….

After chasing by phone and email I was eventually telephoned and advised that the part (the compressor) was no longer available for my model. They refunded my £125 less £40 for call out charges. (Which meant I had paid them £40 NOTto fix my fridge/freezer!)

I telephoned Miele the following day and they were pretty annoyed at the information given to me as the part was readily available for immediate dispatch. They even gave me the part number and contact details.

I emailed the customer services supervisor who had taken ownership of my case. She replied promising to look into it. That was 10 days ago.

Suspicion is that the part was substantially more than the payment they had taken from me and they just decided not to tell the truth.

Their ‘fixed price repair’ promise hasn’t worked for me.

I have given up on them.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#15. July 22nd, 2009, at 5:15 PM.


Fedupwaiting: Thanks for the feedback. What do you mean by waited in all day? If they turned up on day booked that’s not an issue is it? Many people have to wait in all day for many repair companies.

What was wrong with your appliance? If it’s beyond economical repair then it’s not worth repairing by anyone’s book. They do say they reserve the right to tell you it’s not worth repairing if that’s the case. All repair companies would do that. The only difference is that as they advertise “fixed repairs” there is a natural expectation that no matter what is wrong they will do it for this price. That’s a weakness in their business model IMO but they do make this issue clear in their terms and conditions at time of booking -

8. We reserve the right to cancel a repair if on inspection or during the repair of the product it is deemed beyond economical repair, or when parts are ordered from a supplier and they are unable to fulfil the order. In such instances we will refund (to your credit card) any monies you have paid less a callout charge of £40.00 (inc VAT).

I do quote the above caveat in the review we are commenting on.

# If we cannot repair the product
# 6. At the time of the service visit, we reserve the right not to carry out the repair work if the product or fault are not as described at the time the service request was booked. If we decline the work for any reason we will refund (to your credit card) any monies taken less a call out charge of £40.00 (inc VAT).

So you should have been charged £40, did they charge more?

RepairCare advertise fixed price repairs but unfortunately the truth is they do not fix every appliance for the price initially quoted and cover themselves against really expensive repairs by the terms and conditions quoted above. I must admit I’m uneasy with that because they advertise something but effectively say well only in most cases when it comes down to it.

I still expect most people would get good value for money from the deal and many will get repairs done for around £90 – £100 that would cost much more from the manufacturer or even places like Comet and Currys.

However, it’s clear that if you have a very expensive fault you will be told it’s not worth repairing. Any other company would just quote you a very high price and you would decide for yourself it isn’t worth repairing. Virtually all companies (unless you are using a local independent who may offer free estimates) will charge at least £40 – £60 if the appliance isn’t worth repairing. The main issue here is if you don’t read the terms and conditions you may be surprised and disappointed if this happens.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#16. July 22nd, 2009, at 7:02 PM.


L A WIlson: Can’t think of any balanced point to put forward on their behalf there. I will put your experience to someone high up at RepairCare.

Jenny Jenny
#17. August 3rd, 2009, at 12:29 AM.


I paid repaircare £116 to fix my washer-dryer over three weeks ago and it is still not fixed. I found their customer service extremely unresponsive. I called three times and the customer service reps never called me back when they said they would; and one lady simply brushed off my complaints by telling me to email them via the website. I sent them the written complaint about 2 weeks ago and still haven’t heard back. It’s like once you have paid, this company will completely ignore you even though they haven’t delivered the service.

In my case, when the engineer turned up, he refused to pull the washing machine out from underneaththe kitchen counter (which is not a massive job), saying that it’s not in his contract to do so. However, repaircare.com only stipulates that the machine CAN BE REMOVED, never is there one word on the service agreement that says the customer needs to remove it.

Repaircare is the biggest rip-off ever and to this date, I am still not sure if I’ll ever get a refund or my washer-dryer fixed by this company.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#18. August 5th, 2009, at 3:09 PM.


Jenny: This does happen with all major repair companies and manufacturers as well as many independent engineers. If the appliance can’t be lifted out to repair without risking damage to the flooring or even to the engineers back they will tend to refuse to do it.

We can’t know of course the exact situation and whether he was justified or not. I know you say it (quote – “can be removed”) but if an engineer believes it was particularly difficult they usually refuse. It’s always possible he was wrong in his decision but without seeing it none of us can judge.

You should be charged just the £40 call out charge in your situation.

Here’s the relevant TOC

10. Some repairs require the product to be fully accessible and able to be moved from under a work surface, customers should be aware that if the product cannot be safely moved to facilitate a repair we may have to cancel the repair request. In such instances we will refund (to your credit card) any monies you have paid less a callout charge of £40.00 (inc VAT).

There’s no excuse for your money not being refunded (minus the £40) prompty but it’s not a rip off. There’s no doubt you will only be charged £40. As I’ve said before they are currently extremely busy and adjusting to dealing directly with the customer after dealing before with insurance companies -

“We have been conducting repairs on household appliances since 2002 and have complete over 1 million repairs. Originally focused on completing repairs on behalf of leading manufacturers, retailers and insurance company, we launched the home repair service in early 2009 to offer an alternative to replacing broken appliances not covered by a warranty.”

I will bring your complaint to the attention of the company as I have with the others. I don’t have anything to do with them as such but as my site is carrying their ads it’s the least I can do.

BrokenCloud BrokenCloud
#19. August 11th, 2009, at 3:45 PM.


Avoid repaircare.co.uk.

First engineer (from one subcontracted company) arrived, and then left to order parts. One week later second engineer arrived (from another subcontracted company). Had no knowledge of first engineer, so he had to start again, and left to order parts.
One week later, phoned up and was told parts were on order. Then a few days later got a voicemail saying I was being refunded £70 due to B.E.R. She did not say what this was. Had to go to website order number to see that it meant “Beyond Economical Repair”.

So after 2 weeks I am still with a broken washing machine.

What a rip off. They offer a flat rate to fix the applicance, they refuse to do it if they can’t make a profit on it. They want to cherry pick, make a good profit from those breakdowns that are easy, and run a mile on difficult jobs.

Communications was very poor. Engineers did not phone before appointment.

repair care cares repair care cares
#20. August 19th, 2009, at 2:55 PM.


Felt I needed to comment as all reports so far on repaircare are poor. My washing machine packed up on Monday morning; booked repaircare online Monday afternoon; They phoned me on Tuesday to confirm a visit on Wednesday; arrived by Wednesday lunch time and fixed my machine within 1 hour. I paid the origional fixed price of £104 and am a happy customer.

worried consumer worried consumer
#21. August 20th, 2009, at 2:45 PM.


My Smeg dishwasher is broken. Repaircare engineer came today as scheduled to fix my machine, but as he has ‘very little knowledge about dishwashers’ he felt he wasn’t qualified to fix it at my house and needed to take it to his base. I have never experienced such a thing before and was surprised and dubious. Even worse, he had no paper work to give me to say he is taking the machine, but he already had my money so what could I do? I have no idea when -or if -this stranger will repair or bring back my machine and feel like I’ve been a complete mug. He was amazed that I should want a receipt for my dishwasher or any written agreement as to when I would have it back. Apparently I’m the only person ever to ask for this! Even if I get it back and it’s fixed, shouldn’t a bona fide company have paperwork for a client? Whenever I’ve called a repair man in the past they’ve had the knowledge and parts to fix it immediately….

Q Q
#22. August 20th, 2009, at 6:09 PM.


I think you really need to question your impartiality in this matter. You quite clearly state that they shouldn’t be able to get the parts for the price in your review.

Given that they need some margin and the engineer wants to get paid this leaves around £50 of the fee for parts. Not many spares of substance under that figure I bet.

My own experience is of the engineer coming a day early, he did call, so not a complete loss. He came through on his way home from a ‘busy day’. Didn’t bother to bring any tools in with him. Opened the washing machine door and said it’s broken badly, they (RepairCare) won’t pay to fix that when I tell them what parts it needs.

7 minutes on site £40 thank you very much. I had the sense that I was just topping up his days income. He may have decades of experience and know what parts he will need (although I doubt it) but I was at least hoping he would have a look, if just to stop me getting suspicious.

It’s going to cost me £400 to replace this and all I have is a weary engineer’s gut instinct. I would love to see the ReapirCare statistics on how many they fix as opposed to write off. Maybe that’s hope they do it so cheap, they rarely fit any parts?

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#23. August 21st, 2009, at 12:44 PM.


Q: “I think you really need to question your impartiality in this matter. You quite clearly state that they shouldn’t be able to get the parts for the price in your review.”

Hello Q. I don’t understand your point as I’ve tried to remain very impartial which means I try to look at things from both points of view. If I wasn’t impartial I wouldn’t even allow any critical comments and I wouldn’t acknowledge anyone’s criticisms.

I don’t recognise the words you attribute to me in my review. My review says, “Repaircare have access to very cheap parts because of their massive power as part of the UK’s largest spares distributor 4Ourhouse. When calculating the cost of parts they use the trade cost of parts and not the retail cost which everyone else uses. The price difference can be substantial and this gives them quite a bit of leeway.”

The retail cost of a part can be £150 but the cost to manufacturer will be substantially lower. As a major spare distributor they may have access to such a part for £40. Also they are quoting a lot more than £90 for some makes and some products.

I said the viability of the service is theoretically possible because of their access to very cheap parts and because the majority of repairs don’t even need any parts or only need minor parts.

John John
#24. September 8th, 2009, at 2:28 PM.


Is RepairCare a scam?

It gives every appearance of being one.

DON’T EVER USE THESE PEOPLE

On 16/08/09 I booked for a repair man to to come out and fix my fridge/freezer (Job Ref: C1135924) and was given a date of 20/08/09.
He didn’t turn up and nobody contacted me. When I called repaircare I was given the excuse of a problem with the booking on the computer.

I was given another appointment date of 01/09/09. The repair man turned up. He stayed about 5 minutes undid 3 screws and removed a panel, looked at the inside and said that it needed a new PCB. He didn’t test anything at all. He said that he’d order the part and that someone would phone in a couple of days to let me know when it would be installed. By the end of the week nobody had called me so I called Repaircare to be told that the part was no longer available (FOR A FRIDGE FREEZER THAT WAS LESS THAT 5 YEARS OLD ???) and that they weren’t going to do the repair. I was also told that my refund of the original payment less £40 would be done in 7 – 10 days (strange that they can take the payment instantly but it takes them up to two weeks to refund it).

Late on Saturday night I ordered a part from Currys Partmaster (So much for Repaircare’s claim that the part was no longer available).

The part arrived promptly this morning (Tuesday). I popped the front panel off the fridge and repaced the PCB myself in 2 minutes and the fridge is working perfectly now.

I would appear that Repaircare are not interested in doing repairs when replacement parts are involved and that they are quite happy to make as much money as possible by eaning interest on refunds that they hold on too as long as the can.

I repeat.

DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#25. September 8th, 2009, at 2:55 PM.


John: One of your criticisms is that the engineer, “undid 3 screws and removed a panel, looked at the inside and said that it needed a new PCB. He didn’t test anything at all.” yet you later say you went and bought a new PCB, fitted it and, “the fridge is working perfectly now”.

You can’t criticise the engineer for not testing anything and appearing to arrive at a diagnosis very quickly but then go on to confirm he was 100% right in his diagnosis.

Your other complaint about being told the part is not available when it was is much more serious and not the first time I’ve heard it.

Can you email me with your details so I can get a Repaircare manager to look into this please? Contact me

John John
#26. September 8th, 2009, at 4:22 PM.


Just a quick followup.

More comments about Repaircare can be found on :-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=23611819

and

http://www.fscked.co.uk/index.php/2009/07/is-repaircare-a-scam/comment-page-1/#comment-7085

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#27. September 10th, 2009, at 1:17 PM.


The links above contain duplications of some of the complaints here so make sure you don’t get the impression there are more complaints than there really are. As I pointed out earlier all companies will have dissatisfied customers and some of the complaints are things that would be encountered with all repair companies due to the nature of the job.

Regarding John’s issue: I’ve had the following follow up from Repaircare’s online marketing manager -

“Our engineer did request the part that was required to repair your appliance – in turn Repaircare ordered the part from our supplier who informed us that the part was “no longer available”. When speaking to you we found that you had ordered the part direct from the supplier and received the parts.

Please accept my apologies as when checking out why we were informed that the part was “no longer available” this was an error on the suppliers side Due to the inconvenience caused I have credited you in full for £100.00 this will be in your account in the next couple of days”.

Tony Fisk Tony Fisk
#28. September 14th, 2009, at 1:48 PM.


That was me, back on June 18th……..Well, after four visits, we still have a Miele washer that, after bearing replacement, still leaks about a cupful every cycle. The original repairer is coming back again tomorrow for another shot, and they get full marks for persistence, but there has been so much head-scratching over this, I’m beginning to wonder if there is any realistic chance of returning it to its former (entirely leak-tight!) state. We may find out tomorrow.

Tony Fisk Tony Fisk
#29. September 25th, 2009, at 1:58 PM.


It’s that Miele again…..The original repairer eventually returned (after a long gap caused by holidays etc) and has, at last, discovered the problem – a drain pipe dislodged during the first dismantling! Everything is at last as it should be, and no further money changed hands. So – not a 100% “according to plan” job, but the required result, and strictly to Repaircare’s stated terms.

emma emma
#30. September 30th, 2009, at 11:56 PM.


hi iv had the same big problem with my fridge/freezer i payed 100
th engineer came out when stated and said i needed a compressor to be ordered i asked how long he said shouldnt be long,2wks on not heard anything so i emailed repaircare and they said that the part would be with the engineer with in a fewdays and he will contact to arrange a day n time.waited another week still not heard so i rang him direct from the tel no.provided he said or yes and said he would call out on the friday,so i was chuffed as iv a newborn n need my fridge to store his bottles.thursday teatime i got a call from him to say that he will be calling on the tuesday weekafter i say hey i was promised friday,he said who said that to you and b4 i could say he put the blame on repaircare and i said no you said it yourself and denied it,and said they’v only just given me authorisation to order your part, i said to him but i thought you already had the part as i was told in an email and by yourself he turned the convo by repeating his self so i excepted the tuesday and by this time it was 4wks since i had payed for the service,tuesday morning came and as i was on my account coz i kept getting a funny feeling that i was gonna be cancled again but i saw dx has newborn need to be 1st job on day and up and running,so i though or so deffo coming then half hour later gets a call a lady to say that the engineer wasnt coming coz no engineer had turned up for work so i was angry then so iv put in a complaint with repaircare to ask if i would be entitled to a full refund i then got an email with in 10mins to say they was sorry that this has been on-going for 4wks and wil be getting a refund infull and should be in my account in 3-4days but now isee on my account that the engineer has re-booked for 5th sep also i noticed that they have been putting down that they visted on certain days and couldnt repair applience wich is a lie because according to them they didnt have the part still even after the dates they claim to have called so i dont kknow whats going on there i read on another site with people with the exact things said to them and same treament im just so hoping i do get this refund because iv now gone and bought 1 because i was told my refund will be in my bank in a few days so im worried now

lilly lilly
#31. October 1st, 2009, at 12:13 PM.


(note change of e-mail address)
So sorry to hear of Emma’s problems, you’d think anyone with an ounce of humanity would hurry to help a young mother with a very new baby!
IMy fridge-freezer was condemned (previous postings on another thread) by my local retailer’s engineer,although less than five years old. Their manufacturers assn (AMDEA) says average life of an f/f is 16 and a half years. (That’s SIXTEEN AND A HALF)
My retailer has offered me £20 off the callout fee that I paid, PLUS an unspecified discount should I buy another f/f from them.
Have now written to ask for specific figures.
Someone has said I should take the retailer to the Small Claims Court but is that worth all the hassle?
How do we poor punters acquire “negotiating skills” ?

Louise Louise
#32. October 2nd, 2009, at 12:45 PM.


I have had a dreadful experience with repaircare customer service and their local engineer (north west london). Initially I booked a callout online to fix my Bosch dryer. The appointment was for 2 days after I made the online booking, and I took this day off work. That day I had a call from the engineer to say the first appointment he had was a week later, that repaircare couldn’t make commitments on his behalf! I had no choice but to accept. On that day, the engineer did come and although he couldn’t access the back of the dryer, said via deduction that it was a fault with the motor, he would order the part, it would take up to 7 days to arrive, then he would call me so I could arrange for access to the dryer to install the part. Two weeks after this appointment, having heard nothing in the interim, I receive a message from repaircare saying the dryer needs to be moved so the engineer can have access. I assume this is to install the new motor. I call the engineer’s number for 4 days straight and leave messages – no response. I call repaircare and get told the machine can’t be fixed (?!) and I will receive a refund, less £40 callout fee. They cannot tell me why the dryer can’t be fixed. Infuriated I asked to speak to a supervisor, who says he will leave a message with the engineer to call me back. Two more days, no response despite continued calls to the engineer, I call repaircare again. They finally tell me no part has been ordered as the engineer couldn’t diagnose the fault – he needs access to the machine to diagnose. At this stage it has been over 3 weeks since I first requested a callout. I ask why it has taken 3 weeks for them to tell me they need access when on the day of the appointment the engineer said he didn’t need access to diagnose the fault – so basically lied to me – and on subsequent calls to repaircare no-one told me about the diagnosis issue. They refused to give me a full refund, holding back the £40 callout fee – so I am currently stuck continuing with them despite having lost all faith in this particular engineer, and with their system, and having to take yet another day off next week for the engineer to finally come and supposedly diagnose the fault. I personally suspect that as this is an ‘expensive’ repair, they are trying to wriggle out of fixing it. I have no guarantee now that even if the engineer comes back, he will even fix it. The whole process has been exhausting and time consuming and I cannot recommend this service at all. I wish I had gone with an authorised Bosch repairer in the area (I have used them for other appliances such as the dishwasher and they were excellent)

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#33. October 2nd, 2009, at 3:23 PM.


Louise. If an engineer misdiagnoses the fault I don’t think you should have to pay anything, not even the call out.

Regarding the cancellation of your initial appointment. Repaircare’s Terms & Conditions say that -

“#17: If we or our service engineer has to change or cancel your selected appointment date and the alternative is unacceptable to you we will give you a full refund of the fixed price repair fee paid”.

This implies they sometimes have to cancel appointments as all repair companies do at times (eg. sometimes if an engineer calls in sick there’s no alternative but to cancel all his appointments). You could have received a refund under these conditions had you decided to try elsewhere. However, most people clearly are pretty desperate to have their appliance repaired so it’s hardly surprising you accepted another appointment. But even so, if you had booked a day off work and they cancelled on the day of the visit giving you no time to cancel your day off then I would say you should be entitled to compensation or at the very least a refund of the call out charge.

What’s good for the goose…

As with all such companies the terms & conditions say that if their engineer arrives and you are not in they will charge you the call out charge. This is fair as they shouldn’t have to suffer financial loss because you couldn’t make the appointment – even if you had a good reason. So why should things not work in reverse if a company fails to make its appointment – even if they have a good reason? When you booked the appointment you entered into a binding contract but the contract is not just one way. I wrote a brief article on my consumer advice section here, If I take time off work and their engineer doesn’t turn up can I claim compensation?

You may need to take advice from the consumer people ( I want to claim compensation from the repair company or the washing machine seller )

When you say the engineer said, “that Repaircare couldn’t make commitments on his behalf” I find that strange as if he is signed up to them as an agent then presumably they very much can, and need to make appointments on his behalf. No company can operate if contractual appointments made to their customers aren’t honoured or even accepted by their agents.

I don’t follow why he couldn’t access the back of the dryer. If he couldn’t access it then under Repaircare’s T&C’s they have the right to terminate the call and charge the call out as they can’t fix something they can’t access easily

”
#11: Whilst some repairs will require that the appliance is fully accessible (e.g. able to be moved from under a work surface without damaging the surrounding facia). If the appliance cannot be easily accessed to facilitate the repair we reserve the right to abort the repair. In such instances we will refund you the original fixed price fee paid less a call out / administration charge of £40.00 (inc VAT).”

If he guessed the part required and got it wrong you shouldn’t have to pay anything in my opinion. But if he literally couldn’t get access for some reason they have the right to abort the call and charge the call out.

Gavman, Brighton Gavman, Brighton
#34. October 8th, 2009, at 12:42 AM.


I can’t fault Repaircare, they were brilliant! The bearings on my 7 year old Hotpoint washing machine started making an awful grumbling and grinding noise. I figured the bearings had gone and booked a repair with Repaircare. I suspected they might deem it economically unviable to repair but was willing to part with £40 for the callout since I would have had to pay at least that for a local engineer to come and diagnose anyway.

I was able to book a slot on the day I wanted and an engineer duly arrived and diagnosed the bearings as shot to pieces. He said he thought it likely they would not sanction a repair since he was recommending a complete replacement of the whole drum assembly. I did query this and ask why the bearings couldn’t just be replaced and he explained it was easier and less labour to do this rather than take it all apart and remove the bearings to possibly find the housing was damaged and new bearings couldn’t be fitted for that or another reason. A new drum would then be needed so he was just bypassing the potential trouble and labour of stripping it all down in the first place. I felt this was a reasonable decision and comment and he left saying he would contact me once he had a decision from Repaircare.

Off I went onto the web looking at expensive Miele’s and resigned myself to getting a new machine.

I was delighted when the engineer rang a few days later saying the repair was authorised! He came the next day and replaced the whole drum assembly and heater as promised and I effectively now have a new washing machine! All for just £104. I think that is damned good value for what I got and have no complaints at all.

I think it is worth noting that your experience with Repaircare may well be dependent on who they sub contract out to come and do the diagnosis and repair. My engineer was excellent and very thorough.

Carlo Carlo
#35. October 11th, 2009, at 8:07 PM.


I wouldn’t recommend Repaircare to my worst enemy.

My Washer dryer broke down early July – I found the Repaircare site as it’s high up on google searches and it seemed a good deal. Appointment was booked and a local independent repair man was sent.

He spent about 5 minutes and said he needed to order parts.

3 weeks later and many calls to repaircare and also visits to the local repair shop and he came out the fit the parts (quite expensive – main pcb). Well he changed this and a few other small parts and the problem was still there. He said he had done as much as he could but would have to ask an expert (I thought that was what I was promised on the website)

Well another 2 weeks and many more calls and guess what – the same man appeared to refit the same parts ( the first words he said as he entered the kitchen was “this isn’t going to work but they’ve told me to try again”. Well it didn’t work.

Many more calls to repaircare and despite repeatedly asking for someone with more competence to be sent out this was refused. All I have been offered is a refund minus the £40 call out fee – this I have refused as why should I pay for a call out when the person coming out is not competent to do the job?

I have since called out another engineer – part of the electrolux network and he plugged in his computer and diagnosed the fault immediately and had the machine running within 20 minutes – he had to replace all the same parts as the repaircare man as he had blown them and one more part costing less than £20.

Overall the call centre staff only seem to want to give you a partial refund and don’t seem interested in helping you solve the problem.

STEER CLEAR of REPAIRCARE.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#36. October 12th, 2009, at 4:52 PM.


Thanks for your positive feedback Gavman. Unfortunately comments about any repair company will inevitably attract far more negative comments than positive because in the repairs game there’s always a minority of jobs that suffer cockups, and jobs that just go badly from the start. Satisfied customers rarely take the trouble to shout about it so it’s nice to see someone making the effort to balance things a little.

While not wanting to undermine any complaints, and some people do appear to have received poor service, it isn’t fair to assume that isolated experiences mean a company is no good and should be avoided at all costs. I’d appreciate it if people tried to describe their experiences without resorting to claiming the entire company are cowboys.

If you have a problem with an engineer it doesn’t mean all engineers operating for Repaircare are the same – that is an unreasonable assumption. Having said that, Repaircare are more accountable for the standard of their call centre and customer services section and how they deal with things when they do go wrong.

If things happened as you described Carlo I would also be expecting a full refund if they misdiagnosed or simply didn’t cure the fault and you’ve had to get it fixed elsewhere but I don’t feel it’s fair to assume and advise that all their engineers are no good because of your experience of one.

Disgruntled Disgruntled
#37. October 20th, 2009, at 11:16 AM.


Booked a service call and was charged at the same time, but after taking a day off, the engineer failed to arrive. I have received an apology but no offer of any compensation for wasting a day of my annual leave to sit at home and wait for someone who failed to turn up.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#38. October 20th, 2009, at 12:14 PM.


Hello Disgruntled: As discussed in a previous comment I have written an opinion on this topic here – If I take time off work and their engineer doesn’t turn up can I claim compensation?

This issue can affect customers of any repair company as engineers often encounter problems that can make it impossible for an engineer to make an appointment. I myself had to ring customers and apologise saying I wouldn’t be able to make an appointment many times during my many years as an engineer. It was rare of course, but something that did happen every so often.

Reasons range from getting stuck in seriously heavy traffic and becoming very behind schedule, getting stuck on one or more jobs which take considerably longer than normal causing me to run seriously behind, to employers (when I did the odd stint working for other companies) booking way too many jobs in over way too big an area making it impossible to finish unless I was prepared to work until 10 at night, and to having minor accidents and having to cancel all my calls as a result of slicing my finger on a dishwasher etc. Large organisations can have problems if an engineer is off sick or if he fails to turn up for work already booked in due to sickness.

Clearly it’s extremely annoying and inconvenient if an engineer doesn’t turn up. At the very least they should ring and apologise asap. Most people will accept the apology and explanation in my experience but if they have lost a day off work they should be entitled to compensation if that’s what they want to pursue although it’s something you are likely to have to fight for, maybe even as far as the small claims court.

Helen Barnes Helen Barnes
#39. October 21st, 2009, at 1:58 PM.


Can’t believe that you are recommending these people.

Received a visit early sept to fix the ice compartment on my Maytag American FF (4 years old) Engineer fiddled with back of fridge + eventually decided it needed new hose. 3 weeks later appeared at my door with wrongly supplied ‘washing machine’ hose. Said that he would be back with correct hose and parts (that he had broken) in due course. Had to turn water supply off to fridge as his tinkering now means that applliance now leaks.

So Maytag in worse state than when started. Apparently if this ‘engineer’ cannot fix appliance they will charge me £40 because it is deemed uneconomical to repair.

This clearly is not the case. It appears that the engineer is simply not qualified to repair this type/brand of appliance. I am expected to pay for his incompetence and mistakes.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#40. October 21st, 2009, at 6:10 PM.


Hello Helen: My review was looking at the service they offer and giving background information about the company, which was written at the same time the service was launched. In the last sentence of my review I say, “The article is independent in that I’m not so much personally recommending the service as merely pointing out its existence and what they offer.”

There were some complaints early on about people being charged extra for parts if they were over a certain limit, which contradicted the “fixed price” repairs advertised, but they decided to stop doing that some weeks in, so it shouldn’t be an issue any more.

There have been several complaints that I agreed seem justified and raised with the company myself. There have also been complaints that in all fairness, and without wishing to belittle, are typical complaints where things have just gone wrong, which I guarantee are typical to virtually all repairers. That’s not to say they aren’t genuine complaints but they need putting into perspective and are not necessarily proof that the whole company is useless.

As Repaircare carry out many thousands of repairs each week using a network of 500 independent repairers it’s inevitable there will be some that don’t go according to plan or even very badly so we need to try and work out the ones that are particular to Repaircare before branding them with words like “do not use this company” or “this company is a scam”.

This is where I have a concern for fairness and why I try to put a balanced point of view in replies. This can be mistaken for defending Repaircare but anyone reading my comments properly should see a roughly equal balance of trying to put things into perspective and agreeing with complaints.

The only thing I can say is that people experiencing genuine cock ups with individual engineers are not being fair if they say that it’s evidence the entire network of repairers are the same. There are 500 engineers and it’s unfair to say they are all incompetent on the personal experience of one or even several. I honestly believe I am a good engineer myself, but over my 30 years experience I cocked things up from time to time. I sometimes pulled a washer out a bit too fast and damaged flooring or broke hoses that were too short and I hadn’t noticed. I’ve ordered wrong parts at (rare) times too and so on and so on. Who hasn’t cocked up at work?

In my opinion, what differentiates between a good company and a bad one is not that things go wrong, because that’s a given, but how they are dealt with when they do. Unfortunately it seems many of these incidents have been compounded by customers having incidents drag on for several weeks, not being contacted quickly enough and some mistakes regarding parts and whether they are available or not. This is how they should be judged, not on incidents where a wrong part was ordered, or something got accidentally broken, or an engineer couldn’t make an appointment etc.

In Helen’s case the facts reported are vague, but if a part was broken by an engineer it’s clearly his responsibility to sort it out without charge. I think the person saying if they can’t fix it you will still be charged the £40 was possibly just repeating the company policy and not taking into account the circumstances. Please keep us informed.

BrokenCloud BrokenCloud
#41. October 21st, 2009, at 9:18 PM.


WasherHelp,

I think you are being way too generous with RepairCare.

They displayed very poor communication:
(1) depending on engineers to contact the customer when my contract is with RepairCare, so it should be upto RepairCare to inform me when the engineer has given up the job, and that a new engineer will be taking it over,
(2) also communicate with the new engineer that he is taking over the job!! (which RepairCare failed to do, much to the annoyance of the new engineer) [See my problem with RepairCare: BrokenCloud #19. August 11th, 2009, at 3:45 PM.]

Also, on their website they made inaccurate logs of visits to me which did not take place!! Who is writing these logs?

This shows RepairCare have a big problem with communications with customers and engineers. They do not have established procedures to follow, eg always phoning to update customer of status, always phoning the engineer of the previous history of a job, do not use acronyms with a customer, especially on voicemail, eg BER (beyond enconomic repair) [See my problem with RepairCare: BrokenCloud #19]

I have never received such a poor service from any service engineer in my Life!!

Mark Mark
#42. October 30th, 2009, at 6:22 PM.


Booked my fridge freezer in with repair care and was somewhat skeptical about them being able to fix it for a set price including everything, no hidden extras whatsoever i was told.. , i made sure to detail the several specific problems and list all damaged parts that were visibly broken..

The booking confirmation came through with just two bullet points.. i didn’t think anything of this until i stumbled upon this forum.. i immediately lost hope of them being able to fix this on the day as promised so just rang to cancel..

Even though it took seconds to book the call out i was put on hold to cancel, even though they instantly confirmed the booking they had to call the engineer to cancel, three minutes after my initial booking (i’m not exaggerating), who was suddenly unavailable.. now i have to wait and see if they have cancelled my call out in time to avoid the £40 charge. I wasn’t drawn to the terms and conditions on the website or run through them on the phone, this is both bad business practice and opens up a whole grey area of the Unfair Contract Terms and Conditions Act 1977. What i find particularly frustrating is there is absolutely no point in offering fixed price repairs for any problem with any appliance then hiding away a small condition that pretty much gets them out of repairing anything that’s too old or too expensive.. I’m glad i’ve cancelled, even though i could have been proved wrong on my decision it’s pretty obvious that my enormous and very expensive american style fridge freezer was going to far outweigh the call out fee, they’d have said i didn’t detail all the problems properly then shown me the two bullet points and walked away with my £40.

I’m going to contact the manufacturer directly as suggested by many people on this forum..

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#43. November 1st, 2009, at 7:52 PM.


Mark: According to the terms & conditions you should get all money refunded if you cancel any time before 4 O’ Clock on the day before the appointment.

You may cancel the fixed price repair at anytime up to 16.00 the day before the agreed appointment date and receive a full refund by calling our Customer Services Department

Sandra Sandra
#44. November 5th, 2009, at 1:40 PM.


I used Repaicare when my hob broke and was intially impressed with the speed in which an engineer could come out. He went away saying that he needed a part to repair it. 6 WEEKS later after being told repeatedly the part was being shipped I get told actually its beyond economic repair. The hob is a stoves induction so will cost more than £700 to replace and is only a few years old so it is worth repairing but it will cost more than the ‘fixed’ fee they charged me. Really not impressed, especially after having to cater for a family of 5 for 6 weeks without a hob!

Helen Barnes Helen Barnes
#45. November 10th, 2009, at 4:34 PM.


Still awaiting a resolution for the repair of my american fridge freezer. Since you imply my previous entry was in some way sketchy here ie the full story.
The water was slow to the ice compartment which was failing to make ice. Paid £164 for a repair/visit. F/F is 4 yrs old.
Sept 11th the engineer visited, spent nearly 2 hours and appeared to not really know what was wrong. He used rather hefty tools for the job (I had previously been able to disconnect hose from F/F using normal finger pressure). He concluded that maybe a new water hose was needed. He would order one and try that first. He then asked me to turn water off to the F/F because it was now leaking at the connection. This was not the case before his visit.

Sept 30th engineer appeared on my doorstep. Wrong part had been ordered/sent to him by repaircare. (he was brandishing a normal washing machine hose) He would go back, speak to repaircare, reorder etc. He mentioned that he had the other bits to resolve the leak – washers?
Mid Oct I wondered what was going on! Looked up job online. Appeared that job complete and that engineer had fitted new pat, had had a marketing call that day to find out if I was happy with repaircare and my completed repair!

21 oct – in response to my call the job was re raised with the addition of ‘THE CUSTOMER IS STATING THAT THE APPLIANCE HAS BEEN LEAKING SINCE THE ENG ATTENDED IF FAULT IS NOT RELATED TO PREVIOUS REPAIR WE WILL NEED TO CHARGE AGAIN’ on the fault description. The telephone operator told me that the job had always been open – the date disputes this. I since been told that the engineer re raised job in response to my call – perhaps reminding him that it was not complete??

Engineer said he would ensure part identified properly and ordered. It is only the hose for a maytag F/F of 4 years old, how difficult can this be? With regard top the leak – the engineer told me that I was confusing everyone by mentioning it. He said that these things did leak when moved about. I have moved house with the F/F twice and it has been perfectly happy! I refer back to the rather large wrench used to undo the hose. I am afraid that at this point my main concern was the way in which the customer care lady had cleverly seen the opportunity of gettig more money out of me. I had been quite clear that the F/F had not leaked before the visit.
31st October I checked to see if job progressing on new number!! it was closed. Not to despair apparently could not make an order on that number so another had been set up….

However, good news! I was told that the part had just arrived and that the engineer would be contacting me re a date to fit.
Sadly not such good news, in the middle of the next week told by text that part still on order.
Have phoned today as the customer service lady who is supposed to have called me some 6 or so days ago has still not materialised.
I would like to demand a return of ALL monies and to go elsewhere. However, my F/F is now less healthy than prior to the engineers visit – as a direct result of his intervention, so I will still be out of pocket. The engineers are not – I believe up to the job (not familiar with maytag at all etc) And despite supplying full details of F/f serial number etc we seem to be no nearer getting a part. Finally – If that part does not fix problem I will probably be told that F/F is not economical to repair.

Helen Helen
#46. November 11th, 2009, at 11:47 AM.


Following yesterdays long telephone call, I looked at my job details this morning. I was surprised to see that an engineer called yesterday but that he could not fix my F/F. Not surprising as he did not enter my house….. I also spoke to Maytag who were able to identify part in about 30seconds. It would cost me just £41 but since my maytag now broken by engineer and not sure this was the problem anyway not sure this really helps.
Have given part number to Repaircare (Do I get discount for doing their job?) and still await communication from customer service lady who shall not be named.
Does any one know where can I go for help with this??

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#47. November 11th, 2009, at 4:47 PM.


I’ve received communication from a manager at Repaircare regarding complaints.

“Really sorry to hear about these problems you have been having, obviously we would like to get things sorted out as quickly as possible for you.

Can I please ask you to email us with your Job details (and include the REF: ‘JAMES’ in your message text) at contact Repaircare

I will make sure somebody calls you straight away.

Helen Helen
#48. November 12th, 2009, at 4:54 PM.


I tried to do the above.However, repaircare system not working so you can’t send messages (call centre are aware of this). My last job no was C1190864. On talking to people at the call centre, they are unable to give me names of managers to write to, no supervisors are able to speak, it appears that there is no customer services department and ‘James’ is an apparition!

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#49. November 12th, 2009, at 5:36 PM.


Hello Helen, it appears to be OK now. I can vouch for James being a real person. It’s quite possible the call centre staff don’t know of him because he isn’t in their department.

Darren Darren
#50. November 17th, 2009, at 10:32 AM.


I was seriously looking at this company for a washing machine repair but I think not now :(

You can’t beat independant engineers by ‘word of mouth’

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#51. November 17th, 2009, at 4:31 PM.


Darren. The hundreds of engineers doing work for Repaircare are local engineers. As with any nationwide network of engineers there will be some variance in quality, just as there naturally is if you pick a local engineer from a directory yourself.

Word of mouth is good though.

doran doran
#52. November 17th, 2009, at 6:53 PM.


I am having a very difficult time with this company. They are a complete nightmare to deal with and in my opinion seem to have very little concern for their customers.

I originally had an engineer booked for the 10th Nov to fix my dishwasher, I called the engineer on the day and was told they were based 60 miles away and didnt cover my area. When I contacted repaircare they told me there was a mix up with the booking and they rescheduled the booking for yesterday 16th Nov, once again the engineer didnt show up and no-one contacted me.

Repaircare now claim that the engineer has ordered parts for my dishwasher (without even having seen it) and the parts arent in stock and they are having to get them from the manufacturer which wont be here for another month. (a familiar story on this thread).

Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated. My job number is c1198756.

James James
#53. November 18th, 2009, at 10:16 AM.


Hello Helen,

We are desperately sorry for these problems you have experienced regarding this job. We take every single problem and complaint seriously, and investigate each one internally to try and ensure the same problems don’t keep occurring.

I am aware that you have been talking to our Client Support Manager Stephanie over the past few days to get this problem resolved. Stephanie will keep you informed of her progress and you can rest assured she will do her absolute up most to bring these problems to a conclusion as soon as possible.

Kind Regards

James

James James
#54. November 18th, 2009, at 10:17 AM.


….oh and I’m not an ‘apparition’, very real in fact :)

James James
#55. November 18th, 2009, at 10:20 AM.


Hi Doran,

A member of our client support team will call you today to discuss this problem further and hopefully get it resolved.

Kind Regards

James

doran doran
#56. November 19th, 2009, at 6:14 AM.


Thanks James,

Stephanie from Repaircare contacted me today to try and resolve the issues, it was good to talkto someone who sympathised with the problems Im having and she has gone some way to reassure me that I will get my dishwasher fixed!

We will see…..

doran

James James
#57. November 19th, 2009, at 2:03 PM.


Hi Doran,

Stephanie informs me that she has spoken with you and explained the situation regarding us awaiting delivery of the parts into the UK.

She will keep you fully informed of the job progress.

Any problems feel free to give me a shout

Kind Regards

James

William William
#58. November 25th, 2009, at 4:21 PM.


Very disappointed with repaircare. Washer-dryer appliance went on the blink in late September. Booked repaircare for £110. Repaircare sent around engineer, he replaced one part. Didn’t work. Sent around engineer again. He replaced another part. Still didn’t work. Engineer said he would have to go off and research job on the net… never heard from him again. Eventually after 6 weeks of having washerdryer clutter up my kitchen and not being able to do any washing, got the hump and ordered new appliance from John Lewis. Asked repaircare for standard refund (job cost less GBP 40) Repaircare refuse £70 refund claiming they have to send an engineer! Have spoken to credit card company who will do something on my behalf, but I am not impressed and will not use or recommend repaircare ever.

James James
#59. November 26th, 2009, at 9:35 AM.


Hi William,

Sorry to hear you have experienced some problems with our service. This is definatley not acceptable. Would you mind emailing me your job number to escalations@repaircare.co.uk so I can get somebody looking into your job more closely.

Kind Regards

James

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#60. November 26th, 2009, at 12:00 PM.


The comments on this article so far have provided a useful service to customers frustrated by problems they couldn’t get resolved at Repaircare. I’m glad Repaircare are now more proactively dealing with these issues, and by providing a method of escalating serious issues I think it’s fair to say most people would be better trying these avenues before adding further comments.

I’m sure the email address provided is not meant for all complaints but if you find the normal methods aren’t working the “escalations” email is there to use.

I won’t close the article to comments as people are free to add their experiences as long as they are a reasonable description of what happened. As I’ve said before, it’s not unusual for things to go wrong with any company so it’s how they are dealt with that defines them and James is clearly doing his best to deal with them.

Carlo Carlo
#61. November 26th, 2009, at 8:37 PM.


Quick update on my previous post which was no 35:

Have spent last few months attempting to get refund – fobbed off repeatedly by promises. apparently they have now finally refunded me – I will believe it when it hits my account! It’s now the end of November and my initial booking was in July – these people really do not care about their customers they seem to just hope you go away! Would not recommend to my worst enemy – in fact I am proactively telling as many people as I can how poor they are!

James James
#62. November 30th, 2009, at 10:31 AM.


Hi Carlo,

Please email me your job number to escalations@repaircare.co.uk so I can at least look into your job and confirm that a refund has now been made.

Apologies for the problems you have experienced

Kind Regards

James

Dave Dave
#63. December 2nd, 2009, at 2:21 PM.


Just had my first dealings with Repaircare. They haven’t called out today when they were supposed to. This made me check them out and now I find pages and pages of negative comments!
I’ll keep you posted on what happens next.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#64. December 2nd, 2009, at 4:25 PM.


Hello Dave: Please do. You should hopefully be reassured though that someone at Repaircare is actively dealing with any escalated issues and has posted several times on this thread recently. Also some of the earlier complaints were about terms and conditions that have since been amended.

An engineer not turning up is always inconvenient, but it does happen from time to time with all engineers for various reasons. It’s not very good you not being informed of course but until you find out the facts we can’t know if it’s something they deserve criticism for or not.

Dave Dave
#65. December 2nd, 2009, at 5:31 PM.


Hi. Thanks for the response. By way of update, I now know what has happened. Repaircare say they never agreed to send anyone out today, whereas Beaumatic who referred the job to them on Monday, say that Repaircare had ample time to send someone out. This is no consolation to me as I took the day off work to get the cooker fixed.

On reflection, I have decided to wait the two weeks for the Beaumatic engineer, rather than use Repaircare.

Thank you and good luck to everyone with getting their problems resolved.

Mathew Mathew
#66. December 9th, 2009, at 9:34 AM.


Booked a repair about 3 weeks ago. engineer visited and identified some spares required. Spares not available so far and no ETA. Repair care cant give an estimated date. So I imagine it could be 6 months or 1 year or even more! When challenged repair care ready to give money back after deducting £40 call out charges. They wont tell me what parts are required either.

Vic Bryson Vic Bryson
#67. December 9th, 2009, at 12:13 PM.


We used RepairCare for our dishwasher. The engineer came out within a few days but it’s 2 weeks later and we’re still waiting for the parts. For all their being part of a spare parts stockist (Connect Distribution), it seems RepairCare can take a ridiculously long time to actually get the repair moving. When I contacted them, they had a ‘nothing can be done’ attitude. Not impressed, wouldn’t use them again.

Mathew Mathew
#68. December 9th, 2009, at 1:41 PM.


Same here Vic, no importance to customers whatsoever. ‘We will do what we can’ sort of attitude. No importance to customers waiting time, cant provide estimated date of repair but repair care will take money off ya even if they cant get it repaired!! I could’ve got my oven sorted even quicker if I went for a local bloke who could atleast tell me what parts are required. Its my big mistake to think Repair Care was better.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#69. December 9th, 2009, at 3:36 PM.


Mathew: To be fair spare parts are a problem for all repair companies and once a company has ordered parts from a manufacturer they often just don’t know when they are going to arrive. Sometimes a manufacturer may not even have any and have to wait for stock to come in themselves.

They don’t actually (currently) say on the FAQs what they consider is a reasonable time to wait for spare parts. They just say in most cases a spare part has to be ordered will only take 2 or 3 days but they are talking about spare parts the engineer doesn’t have on his van but they do have at their national spares depot. I would assume from the delays in yours and Vic’s cases the parts required are not in stock there and have had to be ordered directly from the manufacturer.

There’s a fair chance that it will still be quicker sticking with them if the parts have definitely been ordered as the chances are other repair companies may only have to order the parts too.

I would imagine most companies would be reluctant to describe exactly which parts are required if you are wanting to cancel the job after they’ve ordered the part for you. It might be argued the customer should get this information as they have been inconvenienced, but if Repaircare sent an engineer out and have ordered parts, and the manufacturer hasn’t supplied them in what the customer deems a reasonable time is it Repaircare’s fault?

If they refund the money it’s not necessarily an admission they’ve done anything wrong, it could equally be an acceptance you aren’t satisfied and want to cancel the repair. Should they tell you exactly which parts they ordered so you can try to source them elsewhere? It’s a difficult one that because on the one hand I can understand a repairers position which is that even hanging onto your £40 will mean they have definitely lost money on the deal, but on the other hand I believe if we pay someone to come out to look at an appliance we have a right to be told exactly what it wrong with it and which parts the engineer says we need. It’s an awkward one, but with them fixing it for a fixed price it might be argued the parts aren’t affecting the agreed repair price so we are less entitled to know which parts need fitting than with a company charging for the parts separately on top of labour.

Vic:

Any repair company trying to repair all of the tens of thousands of models made over the last 10 years or more of from all the different makes of dishwashers, washing machines, washer dryers, tumble dryers, cookers, hobs, fridges, fridge-freezers and freezers can’t carry anywhere near enough spare parts to be able to fix all faults first time so having to order parts is totally normal. The majority of repairs either don’t need any parts or only need parts carried on the van but inevitably some do need parts ordering.

Even Connect Distribution, which must be the largest UK spares company can’t carry everything even though they must have hundreds of thousands of parts because there must be millions of parts. If your appliance ends up needing a part that isn’t pretty commonly required, or your make isn’t one of the most common it’s likely that no one will have the part and it’ll have to be ordered meaning delays.

Parts for LG and Stoves spring to mind as being particularly difficult to obtain.

The only people potentially more likely to have the parts more often than all the other repairers are the manufacturer themselves but even then some of the manufacturers such as LG for example use local independent repairers the same as Repaircare. Many of the largest manufacturers still have engineers that have to fix a ridiculously diverse amount of appliances and still only carry a limited amount of parts so they still need to order parts too though in theory they should be able to get them quicker as there’s one less chain in the link. Once parts are ordered they are usually part of a large batch of orders and they have to wait for them to come in.

I don’t know how easily they can chase up individual parts but clearly with white goods appliances speed is often vital and keeping customers informed is essential to prevent them getting angry. The problem is if they really don’t know when a specific part will arrive there’s not much they can do other than say that.

William William
#70. December 11th, 2009, at 7:47 PM.


With reference to #58, I am pleased to report that repaircare have given me a full refund, which is very decent of them. It seems they are actually trying hard to deal with issues which is good to see.

Mathew Mathew
#71. December 16th, 2009, at 3:50 PM.


Totally dissapointed with Repair care now. Last week I was given ETA as 11/12/09. On 12t/12/09, ETA changed to 25th Dec……what a joke! On 14/12/09 I was promised by customer care staff that somone would look into what went wrong and get back to me. No one did!!! Today when I phoned them there is no such ETA and still couldnt guarantee if it could be done this year. Thats my christmas without an oven….fantastic….I will never forget this repair care….and hope you have a wonderful xmas with my money as well others.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#72. December 16th, 2009, at 5:31 PM.


Mathew, have you emailed James as per his last post Comment 62 ?

cyanna cyanna
#73. December 20th, 2009, at 10:38 AM.


Repair care saga: used them to repair an LG washing machine. At first visit the engineer simply confirmed what I had already informed them of: the brand of the machine and that it didn’t get any power. Concluded the electronic board needs changing, was not bothered as to why it was shortcircuited. waiting time for the part 5-10 working days.
Of course the wait was 15 working days + a few more for a new appointment. Second engineer arrived, installed the new board and all hell broke loose with sparks and smoke from underneath the machine. Took a look and showed me that some other part had been corroded by water and will need replacing. There goes another 5-10 working days which again turned into 15.
Almost 8 weeks from the first visit I take another day off work for the 3rd appointment. When the engineer informs me that the previous person had taken some parts with him so he can’t put the new one back. He was going to get in touch with his colleague and then contact me again.
10 days later I got a message from Repaircare that the machine was beyond repair and they have refunded £75.
After 10 weeks the machine is left dissasembled and with parts missing and I am 3 working days and £85 out of pocket.

Gary Gary
#74. December 22nd, 2009, at 6:50 PM.


Hi Cyanna

Please email me your job number to escalations@repaircare.co.uk so I can at least look into your job.

Kind regards,

Gary

Mathew Mathew
#75. December 25th, 2009, at 3:17 PM.


An engineer was scheduled on 23rd and we were so happy that we bought cake mix and other food to go in the oven for christmas. Engineer called in on 23rd, never knew we had problem with both ovens (double oven cooker) replaced part on one and said he sorted one out of two. After he left the flame dropped down and back to square one, both ovens out of use. A change in christmas dinner menu due to non availability of OVEN!!

Mathew Mathew
#76. December 25th, 2009, at 3:18 PM.


On Comment 62, james requested for job number from Carlo

Richard Adams Richard Adams
#77. January 5th, 2010, at 3:29 PM.


Well it’s not often I feel the need to give negative feedback.. But this lot (repaircare.co.uk) are responsible the worst service I’ve EVER had from any company.

Firstly the engineer kept turning up before 7:00am, despite the fact that the stated hours are 8-6. An appointment I still got charged for missing! When he finally arrived he was here for 10 minutes, fitted a non working part and left the machine in a worse state than when he arrived.

Despite many many calls to repaircare no one was available to take my call, no one called me back despite multiple promises to do so. I’m left out of pocket without a working washing machine.

DON’T USE THEM. Would be my advice.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#78. January 5th, 2010, at 6:11 PM.


Richard, have you emailed the managers who have posted email addresses several times on this thread? escalations@repaircare.co.uk
Just interested to see if you get better response from them although it shouldn’t really get to that stage. An engineer just turning up before 7 AM without prior arrangement is asking for trouble.

cyanna cyanna
#79. January 5th, 2010, at 6:26 PM.


Not sure if Richard has emailed anybody, but we have. Both emailed and spoken with both repair care and the firm who was 3 times at our house.
Repair care informed us that the firm has said we have tried to repair the machine ourselves! I wonder when would we have done that? Presumably between the second visit (when the technician has left and ordered a spare part, so he believed they were going to fix the machine) and the third when the technician told us that the previous person has taken some fitting braces with him. Between these visits we were missing a part (the one that was ordered) so how or why would we have tried to repair the machine ourselves?
In any case Repaircare is not interested and told us it’s between us and the repairer. Obviously we don’t have a contract with the repairer….But we did call them as well. Afterall we have the message they left on the answering machine that the machine was irreparable. They denied they have told repaircare we have tried to repair the machine ourselves, but that the machine is irreparable because it needs to be rewired and offered to remove it from our house for us!

Er…anybody knows a reliable washing machine repair firm? We pay for travel if they are out of the area……

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#80. January 5th, 2010, at 7:31 PM.


Hello Cyanna. Your contract is with Repaircare, if they send a third party it shouldn’t change anything. Repaircare are responsible for sorting out any problems.

An alternative repairer may be the manufacturer Appliance manufacturers repair charges and contact numbers

cyanna cyanna
#81. January 5th, 2010, at 7:58 PM.


I now that, I just wish Repaircare was aware of this as well.
We’ll probably call the manufacturer, see what they think of the mess repaircare’s men have made of things.
Assuming the manufacturer can repair it, this thing has now cost us same as a brand new washing machine of same model…..

Rob Wright Rob Wright
#82. January 15th, 2010, at 3:30 PM.


Have now spent nearly as much as my oven cost on repairs to Repaircare and it still isn’t working, solely down to the poor standard of their work. If you have a problem, do yourself a favour and find someone (anyone!) else to do the work.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#83. January 16th, 2010, at 10:44 AM.


Hello Rob: Sounds like you’re frustrated, it’s a common thing to think and say if you get let down by someone or by a particular product and we all tend to do it at times. But with respect it’s not fair to say all engineers must be bad based on a personal experience with one, just as it isn’t logical to assume that if he’d been great it means all the other engineers are great too.

Repaircare are organising a network of engineers, passing on the jobs and running the whole thing so they are legitimate targets for fair criticism regarding their web site, how they organise the job, and their customer service standards – and especially how they handle complaints (where they had a dodgy record in the first few months as early comments show). But Repaircare engineers are a network of 500 independent engineers and many are members of respected trade organisations. The chances of getting a good or bad one should be little different to picking one yourself from an advert in that there is inevitably going to be variation of quality amongst them. Each one of these engineers (as far as I’m aware) also operate independently in their own areas and advertise locally, so anyone taking your advice is just as likely to get one of these engineers anyway except without the fixed price.

In theory the chances of getting a decent engineer using a company like Repaircare should be better than picking one yourself in as much as Repaircare should vet them and can exert some influence or even remove any if they caused regular problems. If you have issues and complaints with any engineer you have Repaircare to complain to, whereas using them independently means you can only complain to them.

I’m not trying to undermine your complaint or even endorse Repaircare, I’m just trying to look at everything from a balanced point of view.

Tony Fisk Tony Fisk
#84. January 21st, 2010, at 4:24 PM.


The continuing tendency of this thread to emphasise where things have gone wrong with Repaircare suggests that the problem is with their sub-contractor vetting and overall business model (costs vs pricing)
A similar thing appears to affect CityLink couriers – they obviously get a lot of business by offering their customers low prices, but the people at the receiving end (who only pay indirectly for the service, and therefore have no sway over CityLink themselves) generally get a poorer service because of it.

Paul Berry Paul Berry
#85. January 25th, 2010, at 12:50 PM.


Called Repaircare to repair ceramic hob.Told an engineer was calling the following Tuesday.Received a call from Appliance Repair to say they dont know why i was told Thursday and it would now be the following Tuesday. I cancelled everything i was doing for that day and rang the enginner first thing as asked.All i got was an answerphone asking to leave details and someone would ring me back.I never recieved that call and i rang 5/6 times during the day.Late afternoon i rang repaircare and asked where my engineer was only to be told he wasnt coming as he had ordered parts but hadnt bothered to tell me.I immediately cancelled my order and am awaiting a refund.I hope the refund department works better than the rest of the system.I certainly would not recommend this company.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#86. January 25th, 2010, at 2:09 PM.


Paul, you might want to edit your first sentence as the days don’t make sense. I think some Thursdays and Tuesdays have got mixed up. Do you mean you had a day the engineer was booked to call, but instead of coming he ordered a part but didn’t ring to let you know he wasn’t coming?

sonia dilcock sonia dilcock
#87. January 25th, 2010, at 4:58 PM.


I have tried to resolve the longstanding repair of my washing machine with Repaircare by using their escalation e-mail referenced in these messages. Despite sending 2 e-mails both with the job reference in them I have not had so much as an acknowledgement. The recurring threads in these messages about lack of customer service, poor communication etc are ones I can associate with. Appreciate engineers will vary but if the contract is with Repaircare they should be doing more to resolve issues for customers. Having lodged my fault on 7/12 /09 the machine has finally been returned today 25/1/10 only to find on first attempt to run that water now pours out from the bottom – not the problem in the first place. I would steer clear of using this company and wish that I had done so.

Howard West London Howard West London
#88. January 26th, 2010, at 4:04 PM.


Thanks for all the above contributions. I wont be using their service which may be of some solace to all those who are understandably very frustrated by this company.

Ian Ian
#89. January 31st, 2010, at 10:16 PM.


Thank God for the internet and this blog. Having problems with our smeg dishwasher, but won’t be using these

Richard L. Richard L.
#90. February 10th, 2010, at 10:03 AM.


Repaircare recognizes that due to the very nature of their fixed price repair and the high volumes of work undertaken they occasionally fail to meet their own high standards and expectations.
Unfortunately, some of these problems are out of their direct control i.e. age of appliance, obtaining certain manufacturers parts which are not available in the UK and have to be sourced from abroad. In addition to getting hold of technical information relating to the oldest or most unusual appliances.
If you have a complaint regarding your repair please email escalations@repaircare.net quoting your job number and giving details of your grievance. Repaircare will respond to you within 2 working days.

Pete Pete
#91. February 12th, 2010, at 2:16 AM.


I contacted repaircare three weeks ago when my oven stopped working (whirlpool). The engineer arrived on the arranged day and was told that the part had been ordered a few day previous. He took our mobile number and told us we will get a text when the part arrives. We waited another week and I contacted repaircare again to ask what the hold up was. We were told that the part had not arrived. I asked if they could chase it and was told that I should call the next day. We called again the next day and was told that the part had arrived and it was to be sent to the local enginner, this was to take TWO Days!!! (Don’t the post office do next day delivery???). This week I rang again ( I spoke to Thomas) and he agreed it should have been fixed. He actually tried to help and rang me back within 10 minutes , I was told the engineer was off until today ( thurs). I’ve rang again today and was told the part should be fixed next Tuesday that’s nearly 4 weeks since I flagged the fault. I asked if reparecare could arrange it to be fixed any earlier and was told they couldn’t. I am getting really frustrated – help!!!!!!!!

Richard L. Richard L.
#92. February 12th, 2010, at 5:41 PM.


Pete, in order that we can trace your repair details please can you email your full name & address and the Repaircare Job No Prefixed By a C to escalations@repaircare.net and we will look into your complaint and respond within two working days.

Sarah Sarah
#93. February 21st, 2010, at 3:20 PM.


I just contacted repaircare for quote, as know what problem is, the particular part will take 7 weeks to arrive, why?! The person on the other end of phone sounded completely disinterested. Natural instincts say no, rather pay more from company more credible (and interested)!

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#94. February 21st, 2010, at 8:30 PM.


Sarah, Companies will usually quote the maximum time it may take to get a part even if it’s usually quicker. They actually have access to probably the largest spares stock in the country but there are millions of different parts. If they don’t have the part they will have to order it from the manufacturer.

Some parts, and some makes of part in particular can take a long time to get hold of. They may need to come from over seas. Many parts will unfortunately take a long time – often unacceptably long.

There’s just no system set up anywhere to fast track parts that aren’t commonly used or are from models out of production. It’s not economically viable. This isn’t any repairer or spare parts company’s fault it’s because there’s just too many different models and makes and millions of parts.

In cases where normal independent repairers don’t have a specific part and can’t get one quick enough I would try the manufacturer. Sometimes even the manufacturer doesn’t have a part in though and has to order it in turn from whoever they get to make them.

It depends on which make and which part you need as to how quickly you can get it but it’s not necessarily Repaircare’s fault for not having it and not being able to promise one quicker.

Richard L. Richard L.
#95. February 21st, 2010, at 10:21 PM.


Sarah, the response from washerhelp is valid. However, if you email your appliance make, type, age and postcode to escalations@repaircare.net Repaircare will look into who dealt with your call and will also be able to specifically respond regarding the availability of part(s) to repair your appliance?

charles charles
#96. February 22nd, 2010, at 11:09 AM.


Booked a repair for a Hotpoint washing machine – specified exactly which lights were flashing – ie the error code. Engineer came, could not decypher the error code so spent 15 minutes on the phone to mate and then declared that as it was a Hotpoint machine, they would have to get a Hotpoint engineer in to fix it at their cost. Heard nothing so followed up …to find that it had been classified as irrepairable. I wrote to the escalation e mail address a week ago and not even an acknowledgement so far.

Why did they accept the booking – which described the error code – if they cannot mend Hotpoint machines ? Just cost me £40 to have a chap on site for 20 minutes of which 15 was on the phone to a mate. Not exactly a great experience and would not recommend them.

Pete Pete
#97. February 22nd, 2010, at 1:16 PM.


Charles/Sarah
My experience with repaircare was also a nightmare as it took nearly 4 weeks to get my oven fixed.
I would not recommend them. Go local! it would be quicker.

Richard L. Richard L.
#98. February 23rd, 2010, at 1:10 PM.


Charles (comment 96), we’ve tried to find your details but without your Job Number Prefix C followed by 7 digits this is proving difficult? Please email escalations@repaircare.net and we will answer your complaint. Thank you.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#99. February 23rd, 2010, at 4:06 PM.


Pete, the engineers working at Repaircare are local engineers. They aren’t employed by Repaircare, they are independent local engineers who get work passed onto them from the Repaircare network.

I can’t comment on your individual experience as I don’t know the facts and I have no wish to undermine your complaint but nearly 4 weeks to get an appliance fixed can happen virtually anywhere and it’s not uncommon at all I’m afraid. If parts need ordering and have to come from a manufacturer it can take a long time.

Many people may be surprised but repairs to appliances are now very complex, and there’s never been so many different types and makes of appliance and so many different parts. The days when you had a local specialist fixing a small number of appliances with a large stock of spares for them and focussed experience are long gone I’m afraid and this problem is in no way restricted to Repaircare.

I’m currently writing an article about repairs in general highlighting some of these problems, which I hope to publish soon.

Damien Damien
#100. February 28th, 2010, at 10:45 AM.


Hi Washerhelp,
I am supprised you say the repaircare engineers are local and independent. From speaking to an engineer they are given all there work by repaircare and work exclusively for them through 0800repair.com/ ?

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#101. February 28th, 2010, at 6:23 PM.


Damien: Repaircare is a division of Connect Distribution Services Limited, whose registered office is: Connect House, Talbot Way, Small Heath, Birmingham, West Midlands. (Connect Distribution Services are the UK’s largest appliance spares company (as far as I’m aware) supplying much of the trade and stocking “over 1-5 million products”). They offer, “UK coverage delivered by a local engineer ensuring a quick response whatever the locality”.

0800repair is owned by Pacifica Group Limited with registered offices in Co Durham and as far as I’m aware use engineers who work under a franchise arrangement.

Maria Maria
#102. March 4th, 2010, at 1:42 PM.


I booked a job with repaircare to repair my hob on 1st of March, was told that the overall cost was £123.00 and that an engineer would be at my house on 03rd of March. On 02nd of March I was sent a text message confirming that the engineer would visit the next day and a telephone number to contact the engineer if need be. My husband took a day off work for this, at about 12.30 pm he called the engineer to find out at what time they were visiting and they said that they had never received a job from repaircare and that they could not visit me until the 05th March. I called repaircare to complain and find out what happened, the lady I initially spoke to was very unhelpful and said that unless I wanted to make the appointment on the 05th that the only other thing was a full refund. She could not explain why the engineer had no knowledge of the job.

I then asked to speak to a manager and was passed to a gentleman called Shaun, he said that they had booked the job but it was not their fault if the engineer had not looked at his job list, that they could never guarantee that they would keep an appointment 100% because ‘accidents happen’ or traffic. However the point is that the engineer was not notified of the work in which case repaircare is lying or the that he was in which case the engineer is lying, which worries me.

Repaircare refused to compensate for the day off my husband has had to take for a no show and said that the full refund will take up to 5 days.

After looking at all these reviews I am now so glad I did not pursue the job and cancelled it altogether, as these people wash their hands off completely and cannot guarantee 100% that an engineer would visit on the next rescheduled visit.

I have now booked a local engineer who will only charge me £120 so even cheaper, he will make on the day I can make it and will make an a.m. appointment so I will only need half a day off work. Also he will call me to let me in the morning at what time he will be with me. Now that is service and customer care.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#103. March 6th, 2010, at 3:47 AM.


Maria. Your experience is frustrating but no repair company can guarantee 100% that an engineer will turn up. Even your local engineer can’t. Anything can happen from simple cock-ups to an engineer being sick or involved in an accident.

I’m afraid your lack of an offer of compensation for a wasted day off is also typical and you are likely to face the same reluctance no matter which engineer or repair company was involved.

As far as I’m aware, when you book an appointment for someone to visit your house you have entered into a legally binding contract and if it is broken and you have lost out financially you should be entitled to compensation. I think it’s wrong for companies to charge customers for broken appointments if they aren’t in when their engineer arrives, but refuse to pay anything out when they do the same to them.

When you booked an engineer to call through Repaircare your contract was with Repaircare and no one else. Therefore they are responsible if the engineer doesn’t turn up. I can see what they mean when they say they can’t be responsible if the engineer makes a mistake but I’m afraid they are because they took your money in exchange for a promise to send an engineer. The fact that they don’t directly employ the engineers is irrelevant.

As I’ve said before this isn’t a Repaircare specific issue it’s an industry-wide one. The chances are if anyone wants compensating for wasting a day off work waiting for an engineer who didn’t turn up they will probably get compensation, but only if they pursue it with a consumer advice centre or take them to the small claims court. It’s just how they’ve always done it and they’ve always got away with it, just like how retailers try to claim there’s nothing they can do about your washing machine suffering a major fault because it’s “out of guarantee”.

If I take time off work and their engineer doesn’t turn up can I claim compensation?

Maria Maria
#104. March 9th, 2010, at 12:53 PM.


Well, I contacted Repaircare at the escalation email address provided on this and other sites, to enquire about the reasons why the engineer did not turn up and also to ask for compensation for my husband’s day off wasted to a no show. A lady called Tammy Foster replied to say that they do not know why the engineer did not turn up and they will not call the engineer to find out, also that no compensation will be offered.

No wonder the number of bad reviews on this site and others, poor customer service and a shambolic company who does not even take responsibility for taking money in advance and then not turning up or phoning to advice that they were not turning up. Had it been me to be caught in traffic or had I been unable to make the appointment due to unforeseen circumstances I have no doubt that repaircare would have charged me.

I will be taking advice from the Trading Standards.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#105. March 9th, 2010, at 2:17 PM.


Maria: As I stated in my previous reply I don’t believe this issue is specific to Repaircare, I believe you would have exactly the same problem with the vast majority of repair companies you could have used. None of them want to pay compensation if their engineer doesn’t turn up but they all want to charge customers if they break the appointment.

As with most repair companies, they have a clause in their terms and conditions which says -

“If you are out when our approved service engineer calls on the agreed appointment date you will be charged a call out / administration fee of £45.00 (inc VAT) with the balance of the fee paid refunded to you.”

I personally can’t see how any company can believe it’s right and fair that they can charge if you are not in and have therefore broken the contract/appointment but when they do the same they don’t have to compensate you if you have wasted a day off work, which if true, is clearly a financial loss.

I personally believe repair companies just operate like this because they always have, and presumably are rarely challenged. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are genuinely surprised to be asked for compensation but people in these positions should try to remember they are consumers themselves, and the same thing could happen to them any time. This is a consumer issue everyone has a vested interest in.

As I say in my consumer advice section on Washerhelp If I take time off work and their engineer doesn’t turn up can I claim compensation? the ideal situation is for us to always inform a company when making an appointment that someone will be taking time off work. This is based on the old fashioned “time is of the essence” clause in contracts. I’ve just done further research and found a new consumer guide leaflet which reinforces this by saying –

What if someone breaks an appointment to come to my home?

If a service provider misses an appointment for a certain day, they have broken their agreement with you. You may be able to claim compensation if you had to take a day off work, for example. However, this would depend on whether you told the trader this when you made the appointment.

source – Problems with Goods and Services: Your legal rights (PDF file)

I’ve now updated my If I take time off work and their engineer doesn’t turn up can I claim compensation? section to reflect and comment on this. I think it’s pretty unfair and borders on being a ridiculous caveat to consumer law because how can you even prove you told them? And why should a consumer right to compensation be only given if you say the magic words when making an appointment? Why should companies only have to take care not to break appointments to the people that said the right phrase when booking? (which are probably one in a million).

On the other hand, as I also say in my consumer article, things happen which aren’t a companies or engineers fault which cause them to break appointments. They can be unavoidable incidents beyond their control or just every day genuine mistake that we all make. Should we all really be expecting compensation for every one of life’s inconveniences? However, companies expect compensation from us by charging a call out if we break an appointment so whilst any company charges for appointments broken by their customers – often through just as valid unexpected and unavoidable reasons – is it right or fair that the compensation only works one way?

 

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