Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Comments:
Hi , I am a Reactfast engineer , I am responding directly to a woman who has been on bad mouthing me, I did not swear at her down a phone, I did not phone her ,I think she has me mixed up with perhaps another plumber who she booked and then did not cancel but phoned to come and do a job for her. she got my name and engineer number directly from Reactfast as I did not phone her , so she could not have got it from me! .
I do a 100% honest job for people in as quick a time as I can as I rely on building a customer base to which I can then get repeat business and recomendations.
I do not ripp people off and I hate to say this but joe public only thinks about themselves , not the fact that unknown to them the Reactfast engineers are franchisee's with a business to run and make a profit , the overheads are quite high and I personally did advertising of over £16000 last year , van to run, public liability insurance , wages, etc etc
however I would like to point out that I have personally arrived at customers houses where they al ready have a plumber in working and when asked why they had not cancelled the job , the usuall reply was I was desprate , so I called 3 plumbers and was waiting on the first to arrive and then cancell the others , perhaps this lady was doing the same, wasting another plumbers time,fuel and effort to go to a ghost call all off which cost the plumber, I can sympathise with the plumber if he did shout at her, she deserves it for wasting his valuable money!
On Sat 6th Feb I had a burst water pipe in my kitchen,but having a contract with scottish gas for central heating, plumbing,and drains services I contacted their customer services to book a call out for the same day.I was told that although a call out would be put through, it could not be guaranteed for the same day, therefore in which case it would be Monday morning.Feeling negative about getting the repair done that day, I contacted React Fast Solutions to enquire if they could provide the service on the same day.I was told they had a plumbing engineer available in my area, and that he would call me prior to his visit.I received a call within 20 minutes saying "this is the plumber and I'll be at your house in 15 minutes", however when he arrived I was really surprised because he was the plumber from Scottish Gas.I invited him into my home to carry out the repair, and I was about to phone React Fast Solutions to cancel their service when their plumbing engineer phoned me. I told him I was about to cancel his call out, and before I could explain the reason he immediatly gave me a tirade of verbal abuse.Screeching at the top of his voice " There is no way your f.....g getting away with this,I have travelled 50 miles half way to your f.....g house for you to tell me your cancelling the job, no way, no f.....g way". I told him I did'nt need to listen to his abuse, and that I was ending the call. However before I did, he shouted " who the f..k do you think you are,you will listen to me".
At that point I hung up.I had my phone on the speaker mode, and my husband and the plumber from scottish gas heard every word,both of them had just froze with shock by what they had just heard.
I phoned their head office with complaint and requested the name and I.D. number of their plumber to enable me to put my official complaint in writing. However their written response was that the plumber had categorically denied he carried out any verbal abuse, and hoped that clarified matters.Needless to say I have now written to the Financial Advisory Services Committee with all correspondance enclosed.The name of the plumber is Michael Harrower I.D. number 2670.I am writing this comment to alert others of the non professional manner in which React Fast Solutions handle customer complaints.
I called out React Fast to repair a leaking radiator. First I was told my direct debit had not been paid, so having contacted my bank & then informed React Fast that this was not the case, they said "they are aonly the rmergency hours line & could not do anything-phone back in the morning." On doing so it then took me 2 weeks to get a radiator replaced & an additional radiator which they caused to be defective. I was then quoted that I needed to spen £450 on a system clean. Having got a second opinion this was not the case at all, and the matter (2 weeeks later) was finally rectified. Having made a complaint about this & the number of calls which were not returned, the resonse was that they were not at fault and the were totally disinterested.
This company is an absolute joke, called them because we had been having problems with our boiler and needed an engineer to come out asap. It was only after waiting around for 5 days after they had promised an engineer would be sent out the same day, that i decided to look on review sites such as this. Thankfully i found this website in time and after reading some of the comments i'm extremely thankful that i managed to cancel and that i haven't been ripped off to the same extent that some of the other poor customers of Reactfast have.
On top of this, i would like to add that the call center staff seem to have terrible attitudes towards the customers and always fob you by telling you that an engineer will be out in the next two hours, when obviously there is no chance of this happening. Also, do not take any notice of the few positive comments about Reactfast on here, it is quite clear that they have all been submitted by the company themselves (we're not stupid).
****Please, please, please keep away from this company and if you have already booked with them, cancel straight away.****
.
Called this company to do a simple repair on a sat am...they never turned up. Kept phoning. they never showed after promising they would be there within the hr. Eventuallly cancelled and used Drain Dr - who were great...fast and efficient!
Booked this company for a standard toilet fix. Engineer arrived diagnosed problem but then didnt have the part and quoted £200 for the repair. Engineer looked for a part couldn't get one promised he would come back following morning with part. Didn't turn up and nobody rang to tell me. Called plumber he said he had handed job back to call centre. Rang call centre they promised an engineer with parts the following day between 09:00 and 11:00. Engineer did not show so terminated the arrangement. Contracted British gas who came when promised and carried stock of spare parts fitted within 30 minutes at a charge of £80.00 reasonable given the standard of service. I would suggest that you don't use Reactfast at all.
I also wish I had read this site before getting involved with this awful company. Our combi boiler broke and we called them out. They came and did some 'diagnostic' tests and informed us the main PCP and ignition board would need replacing. We paid 80 pounds for this diagnosis. As the company were charging 150 pounds EACH for them, we bought them independently for 246 for both. We then phoned them to fit the new parts. Surprise, surprise, it still didn't work. The guy who fitted them did some further testing and said he couldn't understand why we had been advised to replace these things in the first place as he thought it was the air pressure switch.
So...we paid another 130 pounds to fit that part (took 5 minutes) and the boiler worked.
However, we have been without hot water for 7 days and are 470 pounds lighter and feel as if we have been totally ripped off.
I spoke to a manager who stood his ground and refused to allow any leeway on the price.
To add insult to injury, the first engineer offered to fit the 2 parts as a foreigner on the saturday and then bottled out. When he didn't show, my husband tried to contact him on his mobile and he didn't answer and then sent us a text that he had an accident and was in hospital. We sent a text to say we hoped he was ok and waited till Monday. We phoned React fast on monday to arrange fitting and they wanted to send the alleged hospitalised engineer. He refused to come back and accused my husband of abusing his mobile. Where did they think we got his private number from!!I was disgusted with both their attitude and his.
Like someone else said, they have no integrity. I would NEVER use this company ever again.
React Fast's service is atrocious! I would urge everyone to keep away from these cowboys. They are awful! I found React Fast in the yellow pages in October 2008 and invited them to fix a fault with my boiler. For the next 9 weeks (yes over 2 months in the coldest winter in decades!) their engineer was going back and forth misdiagnosing the problem, missing and rescheduling appointments, purchasing the wrong parts (which I paid for) and generally being unhelpful. They never called me in the 9 weeks so I had to call them up each week to ask for an update on my job. After 4 months of fiddling with the boiler and getting paid for their time and the parts they insisted needed to be changed, they decided that I needed a new boiler. Meanwhile, the engineer had earlier taken away my boiler manual saying he needed it to purchase a new part but never returned it. He also left the boiler striped down but never returned to put it back together. This means that all other engineers I called to fix the boiler end up saying they cannot work on it without the manual. It is now 6 months since I first got React Fast involved in fixing my boiler and I still have no heating or hot water. So I have decided to sue them at the small claims court. One of their cover engineers told me that my experience is similar to that of many other customers he has come in touch with and this is React Fast's modus operandi. I am surprised they are allowed to continue operating in a civilised country.
I so wish I'd read this site before I called React Fast. I was initially pleasantly surprised to find I could book an actual time with the plumber, rather than have the choice of 'morning' or 'afternoon', and duly booked 11am on a Saturday. I then wasted an entire weekend tied to my home, cancelling all my weekend plans as I received phonecalls every couple of hours saying the plumber was stuck on the current job/ in my area now/ just finishing off his last job and really would be with me very soon. They have just called to cancel again, saying he'd be out first thing. Tomorrow is Monday - like most people I work Mondays and have no flexibility in taking time off work. I also work a lot of weekends and this was one of my few opportunities to get things done and chill out. I am so angry with them for wasting my precious free time, with not a true hint of any apology in their words. Utter wasters, and the more people who know how shoddy their customer service is the better.
the worst company i've ever had the misfortune to deal with
A few complaints.
1) When you sign up for a job they give you an 0870 number which earns them money for each call they receive. They answer after a few rings before putting you on hold for minimum 2 minutes
2) lack of integrity
The phone operators lied to us several times.
firstly promising a plumber by 7, then by 8. then in the next 20 minutes. then saying he'd been stuck in traffic for the last hour (the roads were clear)
The plumber never came
3 Each lie resulted in more time on hold with their lying operator earning them even more cash.
4. Looking at other comments I'm glad they didn't come. trust your local plumber
react fast is the worst company I had ever met, I really disappointed with service. we had problem with boiler on Saturday, when I called to them, the man in call centre said that they could not do anything until Monday, so they arranged appointment on Monday morning 9-12am. However they did not turn up on that time, after I chased them, they promised that someone would be there 2Pm, it was still a disappointed waiting, I called again, then I been told that engineer definitely would be there 5Pm..... still nobody turn up, one day on the phone, but actually it was nothing happened. I wasted a whole day and phone fees.
I really do not know what kind of service of react fast is provided to their customers, in my opinion, they should change the name to *react slow*
it is worst company I had ever met, I will never use react fast again and also I will tell every person I knew not to use this company. I really disappointed what they have done. "react fast" should be change name to be " react slow" ...
I got away with *only* losing £73 for the ten minutes it took the engineer to diagnose the problem.
I subsequently lost two days holiday waiting for the engineer and chasing for an update. Blaggers is absolutely the right word - from the usual - "he'll be there in an hour" to "his doctor has advised him not to work today" - I even had someone with a brummy accent claiming to be the engineer (who is a londoner). In the end, I gave up and cancelled the job.
I only wished I'd done some more investigation on the company before I made the mistake of going with them originally.
At 3pm on Saturday afternoon I managed to put a chisel through a radiator pipe - with a significant flow of water. I turned water off, drained system and worked on damage limitation. At 3.15 my wife got the yellow pages and called Reactfast who offered 24 hour service, with OAP rates. They replied promptly and said some would phone back very soon. We had to chase at 4pm, but where told someone would be with us between 5 and 7pm. In the mean time, my small local plumber did return our call (he does not do 24 hour service) and we declined his offer. Come 7pm, we called again, and were told that they had nobody, and so it would be tomorrow. (We were getting cold now). I was furious - but not threatening as the operator implied. I called the head office who appologised, but could not help.
We contacted our local plumber again, who agreed to assist (as long as I gave him a lift - he had had a glass of wine!) and all was sorted out very quickly. Reactfast claim a 24 hour service - in my experience this is rubbish.
I rang React Fast when the central heating boiler broke down on a Saturday evening.I was told that no-one could come out until Monday morning at 10.30. I agreed to this, and was told that the engineer would ring half an hour before arriving. At 12.30 when no-one had arrived I rang, to be told that the engineer was stuck in a job in Deptford and would be across at around 2.00. At 4.30 I rang to be told that the job had been cancelled. When I asked by whom, I was told that they don't have any engineers in the area and are recruitng and therefore they had cancelled the job. I asked if anyone would be coming the following day and and was told no, they don't have anyone. They had no answer when I asked if they had planned to let me know that they weren't coming.
I had cancelled a whole days work for this, and it was obvious that they didn't care at all. It was not possible to get through to a manager to complain, and in fact, to add insult to injury, you have to ring a premium number to make a complaint.
However, having read some of the other comments, perhaps I was lucky that they didn't turn up. A dreadful company.
Phoned react fast at about 8.30am about boiler breakdown. They said an engineer would be out between 12.00 and 2.00pm. They also tried very hard to sell boiler insurance , being very pushy about asking for bank details or credit card details. I refused to give this info. No engineer arrived . I phoned and they said within the next hour, they again tried to sell insurance. Said I would get 10% discount on bill if I took the insurance before plumber arrived,but not after! I refused. This continued numerous times until about 5.00pm. This time they said the engineer would call in the morning. Some 24 hr plumbers this lot are. I asked for compensation but was basically told tough luck. They would not pass me to a manager but gave me an 0870 number to ring some local depot or other. They obviously have no control over any plumbers and probably just ring a local plumber themselves. They were rude, ignorant and incompetent. A whole day wasted on these people. Next day a local guy fixed it. Glad I didn't take insurance off these fixers, I doubt if they would turn up in the future anyway.
On Fri 16 Nov my gas boiler stopped working. I rang around a few companies and got quotes and timings. React Fast were competitive and stated that they could have an engineer around in a couple of hours. An appointment slot was made for 12pm-1pm. At 1.30pm, React Fast Operations called to say the engineer was running late. Another appointment was made for 3.30pm-4pm. At 3.30pm React Fast Operations phoned to say the engineer was on their way. It took until 7pm for the engineer to arrive.
To give the engineer credit, he diagnosed and identified the problem in 15mins. For this I had to pay £81.07. The engineer said that he would return as soon as he had the part. The engineer phoned on Staurday to say that the part had been ordered and would be ready to fit on Monday. On Monday, at the appointed time the engineer returned, fitted and got the boiler working.
React Fast charged an extra hours labour (an additional £81.07) for the 20mins for the engineer's work, and an extra £177(!) for a simple part. On investigation I found the part only cost between £80-105 (depending on supplier). This is a minimum 2/3 mark-up (although React Fast wont disclose their mark up to me).
When the call centre were confronted with the arguments regarding 2hrs labour cahrge for 35mins work, and an extortionate mark-up, I was told to pay up or have a debt collector sent round for the money (very menacing).
In all, the engineer was very helpful but the call centre and Operations centre were mis-leading, rude, insincere and threatening.
My advice is find a local plumber (hopefully on a recommendation) and use them.
I am very grateful to the engineer who attended a fault with my Bolier this morning. This was the second time this particular engineer has attended my house for work on my boiler .
This fault today (not related to his previous visit) proved to be particulary tricky in solving as the engineer, and indeed the Ideal Bolier techincal helpdesk had not heard of it before. However the engineer worked methodically in working out what the problem was and rectified the fault within 2hours, which included getting a replacement part..
Being in a field service role myself , I am well aware that engineers such as the one who visited me do not get enough praise in the way they carry out their work .
It was refreshing to see someone who was proffesional, courteous , very helpful and actually knew what they were doing and was also willing to answer all of the questions I put to him.
I was highly dissappointed with the service from react fast. We contacted them to fix our central heating and after waiting in all of Saturday and all of Sunday, and after a myriad of calls claiming they were on their way, the repair man arrived at the only time we had said that we would be out the house.
I can't understand how they continue to do business when they seem to be uncapably of any scheduling.
If you want a fast reaction, I strongly suggest you go elsewhere.
On three different occasions, they promised to call at my house. each time i was left waiting for hours, even though they kept saying that the plumber was on his way. i took many hours off work to wait for them and they lied to me. no apology offered and only vague apology offered in response to my letter of complaint.
do not use these plumbers
Watch out when using the locksmith side of the business as they will fit their more expensive locks after being specifically asked to fit their cheapest. The after sales service in relation to such a dispute is awful. I would never use them again.
I am still waiting for my boiler to be fixed 2 days after the engineer first turned up and they dont know whether I will be able to claim any of the money back I paid £102.22!!!!
Been fobbed off so many times about when the engineer will be coming out, 9.00am Wed, then 3.30pm Wed, then 5.30pm Wed, then Thurs 1.00pm.
I wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy never mind a friend!!
I have just moved into a new house that has several challenges and I discovered the need for a qualified CORGI engineer, I thought lets try your service out.
Your engineer Stuart has attended my home today in essence to connect the gas appliances to the gas supply. Unfortunately for me I seem to have bought the house from hell and Stuart immediately picked up on several important issues with regard to the installation of the boiler, gas fires and cooker. He explained in simple terms the problems and made me aware of everything that he was doing and offered me competent advice where he could.
The reports he has provided me with are easy to understand and will allow me to pursue the individuals who have clearly done an incompetent, unprofessional and dangerous job.
Stuart is an absolute credit to your company as well as being a genuinely nice guy and if his colleagues with other skill sets are anywhere near his level you’ll have no issues in continuing to grow your business.
From a personal point of view I am happy and safe in the knowledge that when I need other work undertaken in areas that you cover I will without hesitation be calling your organisation first and I shall also recommend you to anyone that asks.
Thanks very much, please can you pass on my thanks to Stuart.
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Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Comments:
I do a 100% honest job for people in as quick a time as I can as I rely on building a customer base to which I can then get repeat business and recomendations.
I do not ripp people off and I hate to say this but joe public only thinks about themselves , not the fact that unknown to them the Reactfast engineers are franchisee's with a business to run and make a profit , the overheads are quite high and I personally did advertising of over £16000 last year , van to run, public liability insurance , wages, etc etc
however I would like to point out that I have personally arrived at customers houses where they al ready have a plumber in working and when asked why they had not cancelled the job , the usuall reply was I was desprate , so I called 3 plumbers and was waiting on the first to arrive and then cancell the others , perhaps this lady was doing the same, wasting another plumbers time,fuel and effort to go to a ghost call all off which cost the plumber, I can sympathise with the plumber if he did shout at her, she deserves it for wasting his valuable money!
At that point I hung up.I had my phone on the speaker mode, and my husband and the plumber from scottish gas heard every word,both of them had just froze with shock by what they had just heard.
I phoned their head office with complaint and requested the name and I.D. number of their plumber to enable me to put my official complaint in writing. However their written response was that the plumber had categorically denied he carried out any verbal abuse, and hoped that clarified matters.Needless to say I have now written to the Financial Advisory Services Committee with all correspondance enclosed.The name of the plumber is Michael Harrower I.D. number 2670.I am writing this comment to alert others of the non professional manner in which React Fast Solutions handle customer complaints.
On top of this, i would like to add that the call center staff seem to have terrible attitudes towards the customers and always fob you by telling you that an engineer will be out in the next two hours, when obviously there is no chance of this happening. Also, do not take any notice of the few positive comments about Reactfast on here, it is quite clear that they have all been submitted by the company themselves (we're not stupid).
****Please, please, please keep away from this company and if you have already booked with them, cancel straight away.****
.
So...we paid another 130 pounds to fit that part (took 5 minutes) and the boiler worked.
However, we have been without hot water for 7 days and are 470 pounds lighter and feel as if we have been totally ripped off.
I spoke to a manager who stood his ground and refused to allow any leeway on the price.
To add insult to injury, the first engineer offered to fit the 2 parts as a foreigner on the saturday and then bottled out. When he didn't show, my husband tried to contact him on his mobile and he didn't answer and then sent us a text that he had an accident and was in hospital. We sent a text to say we hoped he was ok and waited till Monday. We phoned React fast on monday to arrange fitting and they wanted to send the alleged hospitalised engineer. He refused to come back and accused my husband of abusing his mobile. Where did they think we got his private number from!!I was disgusted with both their attitude and his.
Like someone else said, they have no integrity. I would NEVER use this company ever again.
the worst company i've ever had the misfortune to deal with
A few complaints.
1) When you sign up for a job they give you an 0870 number which earns them money for each call they receive. They answer after a few rings before putting you on hold for minimum 2 minutes
2) lack of integrity
The phone operators lied to us several times.
firstly promising a plumber by 7, then by 8. then in the next 20 minutes. then saying he'd been stuck in traffic for the last hour (the roads were clear)
The plumber never came
3 Each lie resulted in more time on hold with their lying operator earning them even more cash.
4. Looking at other comments I'm glad they didn't come. trust your local plumber
I really do not know what kind of service of react fast is provided to their customers, in my opinion, they should change the name to *react slow*
I got away with *only* losing £73 for the ten minutes it took the engineer to diagnose the problem.
I subsequently lost two days holiday waiting for the engineer and chasing for an update. Blaggers is absolutely the right word - from the usual - "he'll be there in an hour" to "his doctor has advised him not to work today" - I even had someone with a brummy accent claiming to be the engineer (who is a londoner). In the end, I gave up and cancelled the job.
I only wished I'd done some more investigation on the company before I made the mistake of going with them originally.
We contacted our local plumber again, who agreed to assist (as long as I gave him a lift - he had had a glass of wine!) and all was sorted out very quickly. Reactfast claim a 24 hour service - in my experience this is rubbish.
I had cancelled a whole days work for this, and it was obvious that they didn't care at all. It was not possible to get through to a manager to complain, and in fact, to add insult to injury, you have to ring a premium number to make a complaint.
However, having read some of the other comments, perhaps I was lucky that they didn't turn up. A dreadful company.
To give the engineer credit, he diagnosed and identified the problem in 15mins. For this I had to pay £81.07. The engineer said that he would return as soon as he had the part. The engineer phoned on Staurday to say that the part had been ordered and would be ready to fit on Monday. On Monday, at the appointed time the engineer returned, fitted and got the boiler working.
React Fast charged an extra hours labour (an additional £81.07) for the 20mins for the engineer's work, and an extra £177(!) for a simple part. On investigation I found the part only cost between £80-105 (depending on supplier). This is a minimum 2/3 mark-up (although React Fast wont disclose their mark up to me).
When the call centre were confronted with the arguments regarding 2hrs labour cahrge for 35mins work, and an extortionate mark-up, I was told to pay up or have a debt collector sent round for the money (very menacing).
In all, the engineer was very helpful but the call centre and Operations centre were mis-leading, rude, insincere and threatening.
My advice is find a local plumber (hopefully on a recommendation) and use them.
This fault today (not related to his previous visit) proved to be particulary tricky in solving as the engineer, and indeed the Ideal Bolier techincal helpdesk had not heard of it before. However the engineer worked methodically in working out what the problem was and rectified the fault within 2hours, which included getting a replacement part..
Being in a field service role myself , I am well aware that engineers such as the one who visited me do not get enough praise in the way they carry out their work .
It was refreshing to see someone who was proffesional, courteous , very helpful and actually knew what they were doing and was also willing to answer all of the questions I put to him.
Paul Robbins
St Albans
24/10/06
I can't understand how they continue to do business when they seem to be uncapably of any scheduling.
If you want a fast reaction, I strongly suggest you go elsewhere.
do not use these plumbers
I am still waiting for my boiler to be fixed 2 days after the engineer first turned up and they dont know whether I will be able to claim any of the money back I paid £102.22!!!!
Been fobbed off so many times about when the engineer will be coming out, 9.00am Wed, then 3.30pm Wed, then 5.30pm Wed, then Thurs 1.00pm.
I wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy never mind a friend!!
Your engineer Stuart has attended my home today in essence to connect the gas appliances to the gas supply. Unfortunately for me I seem to have bought the house from hell and Stuart immediately picked up on several important issues with regard to the installation of the boiler, gas fires and cooker. He explained in simple terms the problems and made me aware of everything that he was doing and offered me competent advice where he could.
The reports he has provided me with are easy to understand and will allow me to pursue the individuals who have clearly done an incompetent, unprofessional and dangerous job.
Stuart is an absolute credit to your company as well as being a genuinely nice guy and if his colleagues with other skill sets are anywhere near his level you’ll have no issues in continuing to grow your business.
From a personal point of view I am happy and safe in the knowledge that when I need other work undertaken in areas that you cover I will without hesitation be calling your organisation first and I shall also recommend you to anyone that asks.
Thanks very much, please can you pass on my thanks to Stuart.
B Perry - Manchester
Mrs O - Rugby
Mr G - Stockton-On-Tees
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