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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Spares
Spares4Appliances is a spares company run by repair engineers who understand all about spare parts for appliances.
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..
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.
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!
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.
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??
I’ve received communication from a manager at Repaircare regarding complaints.
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!
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.
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’
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.