Repaircare are a National appliance repair company offering fixed price repairs. This review was written only several months after they began trading. Things may, or may not, be different now.
Their fixed price appliance repairs include call out, parts, labour and VAT. 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. Their website is easy to use and features 3 simple steps to get a quote. It’s incredibly simple and well designed.
How do they do fixed repairs? 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.
Repaircare advertised fixed price repairs, but unfortunately the truth is they did not fix every appliance for the price initially quoted. They covered themselves against the more expensive repairs with a clause in their terms and conditions allowing them to charge extra.
They did claim that most repairs should be covered by the amount advertised, but after a few months (of complaints) they were forced to change their terms and conditions to remove their right to charge extra for certain parts. Offering fixed price repairs is a big ask.
But Repaircare should have access to very cheap spare parts because of their massive buying power as part of the UK’s largest spares distributor 4Ourhouse. However, they don’t employ their own engineers.
They instead use a network of independent engineers, which appears to cause some problems at times where people have complained of poor customer service.
Complaints
Repaircare have been accused of washing their hands of some complaints when (presumably) a customer and the independent engineer have been telling them different things.
However, I don’t believe they can do this because a customer’s contract is with Repaircare, and not the engineer that Repaircare subcontracted to do the repair.
It sounds like Repaircare have been frustrated by different accounts from the engineer and customer and want them to sort it out between themselves. But if a customer can’t, then Repaircare must.
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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. There have been a lot of complaints in the comments of this article (and elsewhere), which is disappointing.
They may have been struggling to cope with the work load at the early stages as they had promoted themselves very heavily. It’s also fair to say that appliance repairs tend to attract a lot of dissatisfied customers due to the length of time it can sometimes take to get them repaired.
Repaircare did eventually respond 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.
If you are the type of person who takes comfort in prices being fixed and inclusive, then fixed price repairs may be attractive for you. Sadly it’s become the main way large repair companies operate now.
You can end up paying a lot more than necessary if your appliance turns out not to need any parts, or only needs inexpensive parts, (most repairs).
You can save money if it needs an expensive part but if it’s quite expensive most repair companies just tell you it’s beyond economical repair. This can make it difficult to get a “win” on these schemes.
Make sure you read and understand the terms & conditions. It will probably state that if parts are “too” expensive they can say the appliance is not worth repairing, which may still cost you a fair amount of money.
Make sure you understand how much it will cost you in that scenario.
Alternatives?
Some manufacturers also offer fixed price repairs now at rates competing with Repaircare. For example Hoover / Candy, Ariston, Indesit, Hotpoint, Creda and even the obsolete Dyson washing machine have fixed price repairs. Also, AEG, Electrolux and Zanussi have relatively low and reasonable labour charges.
Only 3 months guarantee
A mere 3 months guarantee on repairs is very poor indeed. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (previously the Sale of Goods Act), any repair should last a reasonable time, as should any new parts fitted. 3 months (90 days) is nowhere near a reasonable time for almost any repair, especially if new parts are fitted. However, that’s all you get.
So you would have to pursue your claim in the small claims court or through a consumer help body if a repair by a company offering only 3 months guarantee failed after an unreasonable time outside 3 months.
I have to be honest and say that I personally would never use any repair company that only gave a 90 day guarantee, which I consider pretty disgraceful, and a very poor show of confidence in their own work – Is a 3 month guarantee on repairs reasonable?)
More appliance repairers
There are some appliance repair companies listed on site Book washing machine (or other appliance) repair page including companies offering a much more desirable 12 month guarantee on repairs.
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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?
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.
Maria: 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 –
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 companies 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 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 –
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?
I’ve thought long and hard before writing this particular comment because my overriding concern is to be seen as fair and balanced with no bias, and not to curry favour with any particular company or even consumers, only to give my sincere opinion on any specific issue in order to try and be of use to the general public.
I suspect some of my comments may have been seen by people with complaints as unjustly defending Repaircare but at the same time Repaircare will not have liked many of my comments either. I like to think this is a sign of a balanced view as neither side is likely to be over enamoured by all of my views.
This article has attracted 105 comments so far and I’m concerned that new readers are likely to read the first few comments but because there are so many of them skip down to the last few and assume there have been hundreds of complaints so I’d like to put a little context in place.
Out of 105 comments there are 30 complaints, the rest are my responses, further replies from those 30, some from Repaircare, and a few positive comments from satisfied customers. Just after Repaircare launched last year they were receiving around 1,500 repairs a week. If this was maintained they could have been called out to over 50,000 repairs in the last 9 months. Clearly not every dissatisfied customer will complain on the Internet (and of course it’s rare for a satisfied customer to post anything) but 30 complaints does only represent 0.6%. That’s not to say there haven’t been some very genuine complaints but my point is all large companies will always have complaints and as Repaircare are the only repair company I have an article that people can comment on I think this could create an unfair bias against them.
A proportion of these complaints were around 9 months ago just after their launch complaining (justifiably in my opinion) about one of the terms and conditions which seemed to contradict the “fixed price” promise, where a few people were complaining they had been asked to pay extra for expensive parts. This policy was changed though within months of trading and as far as I know is no longer an issue. I’ve since seen one Repaircare agent comment that they spent £700 repairing a Miele appliance which amazed him.
Over the last 3 months or so comments have centred around more general complaints about an engineer not turning up as arranged, or parts taking a long time to arrive when ordered, and dissatisfaction with how complaints have been dealt with. I hate to appear dismissive about such complaints but I don’t want this article to slowly but surely just fill up indefinitely with the inevitable drip of complaints about general cockups and parts taking a long time to get hold of because it’s unfair to only complain about one repair company. Having said that, I feel complaints about customer service and how a company deals with things that have gone wrong are legitimate complaints.
Therefore I would ask that negative comments be restricted to Repaircare-specific complaints which you genuinely feel should be of public interest such as particular customer service or consumer issues or their specific way of working rather than complaints that all repair companies get such as about broken appointments, misdiagnosis of faults, repairs becoming long and drawn out, parts taking a long time to arrive etc. because these are things that happen everywhere in the appliance repair game.
I always strive for fair and balanced views on my sites and whist there’s no doubt there have been some legitimate complaints made here, and I’ve criticised Repaircare on certain issues myself it’s pointless advising others not to use Repaircare because their engineer failed to turn up or because it took them too long to get a particular part because these things can happen to you with virtually all large repair companies. Therefore it will be helpful to focus if further complaints are necessary only on things unique to them.
No one from Repaircare has ever contacted me to try and influence what I say on my sites. This is just how I personally feel. I could turn off comments to the article but I believe that would be seen as trying to stifle consumer comments and experience, which I would not want to do either.
I really like your site but reading these posts it seems you have lost sight of things a bit.
Do you really think it is acceptable for a firm to operate with “broken appointments, misdiagnosis of faults, repairs becoming long and drawn out, parts taking a long time to arrive etc” just “because these are things that happen everywhere in the appliance repair game”? I can’t believe you do, yet you say none of these are reason enough to complain. I mean, come on.
Hello Jaunty. Thanks for your comments. I’ve never said it’s acceptable, I’ve said as it’s something that happens everywhere so it’s unfair to lambaste one company and no one else for it. There’s nowhere on my sites to complain about all the other companies engineers that don’t turn up from time to time or occasionally make a mistake so I’m concerned about fairness that’s all.
I’ve not said don’t post complaints, just try not to post complaints about general day to day problems that all repair companies are guilty of.
I try to look at things dispassionately, purely logically and looking at all angles and points of view. It may not be always the best way but I like to think it’s why people seem to like my approach to reviews and articles. I’m sure if someone is very angry with a company or has a grievance they probably won’t take kindly to a dispassionate view but that’s what I do.
I’ve also said (no matter how well intended) it’s bad advice to advise others not to use a company because their engineer didn’t turn up when all repair companies engineers break appointments too. However, I do think it’s legitimate to criticise a company if they give very bad customer service when something has gone wrong. It’s also bad advice to say don’t use a company because they took several weeks to get a part when all companies can take several weeks to get a part, and it’s not logical to say don’t use a specific company because their engineer made a mistake or accidentally damaged your flooring because all engineers make mistakes and accidentally damage flooring from time to time, we all make mistakes. It’s the attitude of a company and how they deal with the mistakes that are fair game, not the fact that it happened. I’ve occasionally misdiagnosed faults and accidentally damaged people’s flooring, and had to break appointments during my many years as an engineer (although I always rang them to apologise as soon as I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it), I still believe I was a very good engineer and I don’t believe any engineer has never broken an appointment, or misdiagnosed a fault or not been able to get a part quickly.
My last post was just trying to put some proper perspective on a thread that I don’t want to descend into simply a place for all future dissatisfied Repaircare customers to keep adding to indefinitely unless the complaints are more specific to them. To me, the fact that any large company has some dissatisfied customers is not remotely shocking or surprising. They all do.
None of us can possibly know if their engineers break more appointments or misdiagnose more often or take longer to get some parts than other companies, and we never will know unless we know exactly how many jobs they do and what percentage go wrong and are able to compare those figures with the same figures from all other repair companies. What I do know is that if only complaints about Repaircare are featured on my sites its may well appear as though they are the only ones where those kinds of things happen.
The things I mentioned (and you quoted) are pretty much par for the course across the repair industry. There are reasons for it, which is why I’ve written a new article trying to explain it to customers, many of whom have an over optimistic expectation of how straight forward it should be getting some appliances repaired these days.
I try to explain why it’s come to this in my new article but it’s something that affects the appliance repair industry in general Why are there so many appliance repair horror stories?
These people are charletans. The guy turned up stayed for less than 2 minutes and said he’d be back. Never heard from them again and surprise surprise they just claim the £45 call out charge. Do not use this company.
James, have you sent your complaint and job number (which should be a C followed by 7 digits) to [email protected] ?
Your post is difficult to weigh up because it contains little detail and sweeping accusations. You don’t seriously think this is how they operate on purpose do you? Not sure why it’s relevant how long he was in the house as presumably he gave a reason why he couldn’t fix it there and then and needed to return, what was the reason? Was there a dispute or did he say he needed to order a part? It would be nice to see more facts, and please let us know if you get this resolved or not.
Repaircare / Sales and Service Bedford Review
Internal Leak problem logged on 04/02/2010
First engineer visit on the 08/02/2010, diagnosed a cracked tub. Advised that parts would be ordered.
I looked up on bosch website and could see that the part was available and in stock. It took Repaircare more than a month to find the part.
05/03/2010 – Service and Sales now decide they can’t fix it onsite, so needs to be taken away to their offices. (why couldn’t they have done that on the 4th Feb). Despite arranging for someone to be in all day, they don’t turn up. The excuse was that they couldn’t get me immediately on my phone. (withheld number and no voicemail).
10/03/2010- Engineer finally picks up the washing machine.
It takes them a further two weeks to actually perform the repair at their offices.
25/03/2010 – Engineer scheduled to drop it off, we are on holiday so arrange for someone to be there between the agreed hours of 9 to 5. Engineer turns up at 7:30 in the morning, leaves nothing so another day wasted waiting.
30/03/2010 – Washing machine finally delivered, appears fixed.
To summarise, I think this repair could have been completed within 2 weeks maximum at their offices. Regrettably I would advise anyone thinking of using repaircare to either buy a new machine or to use someone recommended locally..
Repair Care seem to have done a bit of a u-turn if my dishwasher repair is anything to go by. The engineer came, took a five minute look, said he needed parts and left. A month later, repair care refunded my money, less the £40 call-out charge deeming the machine as economically unrepairable. I called the NEFF people out, my dishwasher was fixed in 20 minutes for £72. In essence, repair care must make a fortune in £40 call out charges plus all the interest on the money they keep in the bank for a month.