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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I booked in and for my dishwasher to be fixed in April. The motor needed changing and then the dial was sticking. The dial was changed but the engineer broke an internal part when installing the new dial. Two months later after repeatedly chasing them and getting very little feedback, repair care have now stated that the part which the engineer broke is obsolete and the machine can no longer be fixed. They stated that they will refund my money and charge me a £40 call out fee.
What!!
Charging me £40 to come out and break a once repairable dishwasher so that it is now un-repairable is disgraceful.
I’m now trying to take this up with a senior manager but as yet am not getting much response.
Sara: Your experience of expecting an engineer, only to find someone had decided they didn’t need to call out but not actually informing you is unfortunately the 3rd or 4th time it’s cropped up here. It’s a problem they clearly need to sort out once and for all.
John: No offence meant but I do find it hard to believe any company would damage a customers’ machine and presumably leave it unusable, then try to charge them for coming out, leaving them with a damaged part that is no longer available. If so it would be pretty unacceptable. Is the part in question an essential part? Is the dishwasher working? Have they fitted the motor but only charged you for the call out (instead of the £100 or so they would have) as compensation? More details needed to get a proper idea of the situation please.
No offence taken, I would never have believed that this company would have behaved in this manner either so I’m not surprised that you’re finding it hard to believe.
The part which the engineer broke is essential as the dial simply pulls out of the machine very easily and the spins around rather than allowing you to set a cleaning cycle, we therefore cannot use the dishwasher. The motor was replaced on the first engineer visit but the machine would not work correctly upon the first use as the dial would stick. They then diagnosed that this needed replacing, at which point on attempting to change the dial they broke the other internal part.
They stated that they would charge a £40 callout and refund the remainder as they cannot fix the machine. I have however insisted that this is unacceptable as the machine was repairable on their first visit and is now beyond repair due to their actions.
I am still waiting for the manager to call me back (which they have been promising for 3 days now). I have chased several times today but the manager is never available to speak to but will ring me back shortly.
Thanks for updating John. Have you tried emailing [email protected] which is supposed to deal with problems like yours that have escalated?
I would imagine the dilemma is whether the engineer was negligent when he broke the dial or not, and that’s possibly tricky to sort out. Has the engineer conceded he is responsible for breaking it or has he said it’s just one of those things and it just broke when he tried to remove it?
Thanks I will try that as well. I’ve already sent a complaint message through their “contact us” webpage but as yet have had no reply. Verbally they have accepted that the engineer did break the part but are trying to excuse this by have saying that the part is very easy to break. I’ve still not been able to speak to a manager or engineer to confirm their actual stance, but the responses I’m getting so far from the call agents do not come across as taking full reponsibility and taking action to compensate.
John, if you are lucky enough to have the name of the manager, start writting. Write to them personally, explain the problem and the response you have had at lower levels, why you are unhappy with that response and what you expect from Repair Care now.
I am trying myself to get a name further up the tree and one name I found is Mark Depper, Director of Connect Distribution Services Ltd, so I am going to try and email him at m.depper(at)connect-distribution.co.uk
I have escalated via the email link that you gave me as I have spoken to both the engineers and the customer agents today – both are refusing to accept responsibility and state that I must take it up with the other party. Verbally the engineer accepted that the part was broken by the engineer but not deliberately, however when speaking to the customer agent the story has changed and now the part must already have been broken and therefore not their fault. I’ve paid my money to repair care and I expect them to resolve this.
John: It’s a difficult situation, it’s quite possible for something to break while trying to remove it without an engineer being negligent. If it’s known that a particular part is vulnerable though it makes sense to warn the customer before (if possible).
I always used to advise customers that I couldn’t guarantee the outcome of certain things and they always understood. Most of the time everything was fine but if something broke I’d covered myself. If I didn’t warn a customer and something broke I would have to just accept I was going to be held responsible even if technically I wasn’t. It’s similar to if you borrowed something from a friend and it broke down while you had it even though it would have broken for them if they were using it. An awkward situation.
In the situation you describe, I would have thought the damage done to a companies reputation by not compensating would be more expensive than the cost of compensating fully. In fact if an attitude of we are sorry it happened, it was one of those things, we weren’t negligent but we will put things right out of goodwill could do a lot of good for a companies reputation.
Cyanna: Yes sometimes you have to try and go higher up the command chain but if you go too soon it’s likely to just get passed back down the line. The [email protected] should be tried first as it’s specifically set up for these situations as the last line of recourse for escalated issues.
I completely agree. Had the engineer said that by replacing the item it could possibly break something else, then it’s up to me to allow them to proceed with me taking the risk. This however didn’t happen and although I’m sure it was accidental they did break the other component and gave no warning therefore they are taking the risk. The fact no warning was made makes you believe that the part is not known as being fragile. Lets hope common sense prevails and that they do consider their reputation to be more important than, what would be for them a small amount of money in compensation and refund.
Cyanna,
Thanks – If my latest escalation is a dead end Mr Depper will be receiving a letter from me also.
The ‘manager’ which I have been waiting to speak to ended up being the first engineer that came out to fix my machine and although understood my situation stated that it’s nothing to do with him as they are simply subcontracted jobs. The last few days of waiting and chasing have therefore been wasted. I have surprisingly had my escalation email picked up very quickly (not automated) and will wait to see what response I get now.