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Comments:
Avoid like the plague. They are NOT a reputable central heating company and thank heaven for a place to spread the news. They don't fix boilers, they sell them (BTW at huge premiums). I have dealt with them 3 times and each time they have tried to say that the PCB needs replacing before they can even test the boiler. They then charge for the PCB then it fails (surprise) then they say you need a new boiler.
Last week (Jan 22nd) their guy went through this routine and I challenged him. I asked for a Corgi number (now a Gas Safety Register) and though the guy said yes, it's in the van, he soon made excuses, said there was no charge and left. A proper engineer from British Gas correctly identified the symptoms as a faulty pump and nothing to do with the boiler. Total cost to replace pump - less than £100.
I know about the PCB because I fell for it in another property I own. Ended up paying out £4200 in labour and a new boiler. God knows how long it will last. Also they will not give you a VAT invoice (against law?) and they charge annually via a credit card which means it's hard to stop them taking your annual fee.
Reactfast are a very bad company, avoid at all cost.
In our house hold, live 2 pensioners, and 2 disabled people, we had been having problems with our boiler, they had sent different engineers our, until finally on said, the boiler was too dangerous to use, he put a sticker on it saying so, for one week, they left us without heating and water, by the way, this was when the weather was colder, after numerous phone calls to them, they sent out Worcester, the company who made our boiler, as their own engineers could not fix it, the engineer from Worcester was excellent, within minutes, he knew what was wrong, he also told us the boiler was not dangerous to use, and told us to use it, over the weekend, until he came back on Monday, we did, so we spent a week struggling being disabled as I am without heating and water for nothing, because of their cowboy engineer.
Recently they made an appointment with us, to have the annual check on the boiler, I telephoned them, and canceled this appointment, but the engineer turns up, he was told it had been canceled, he was persisting on doing it, when refused, he eventually called us Fuc#i#g idiots, what sort of company are they, when they send people out like this? You decide.
When one telephones and complains, they don’t deal with it, one said to me, regarding the last complaint I just mentioned, he said, what do you want me to do about it.
Very unhappy customer of theirs, and will no go with them anymore.
This company is an absolute joke and I concur with the experiences of other users. The reason why they have 98% positive feedback is because YOU CAN'T LEAVE FEEDBACK on their site if you don't have a completed job with a job number.
My experience was to have a job booked for 0900-1100 on a Saturday. At 1130 I phoned in to be given another (pay) number to contact. I did that and was informed that the engineer was running a bit late due to a previous job and that they'd phone when he was on the way. Around 1330hrs I got the call saying the engineer was clearing up at a previous job and would be with me very soon. 2 hours later, a phone call from the call centre advised me that the engineer could not call due to a "family emergency". What a coincidence given that it's now 3.30 pm on a Saturday and the football internationals are about to kick off! Reactfast engineers must have very unlucky families given the regular negative feedback on this site for failing to turn up at all! I was given the option of having a call the FOLLOWING weekend or at a later date. What an absolute joke.
No problems recommending REACTFAST if you want to wait in for hours on end for an engineer NOT to call.
The perfect company if you want to be lied to over the phone.
And the company have a strange notion about what a 24 hour service means. Because once they’ve diagnosed the problem, taken your money and need to come back to finish the job, their 24 hour clock seems only to run between 8am and 6pm.
And I must mention the stunning piece of advice I was given by a supervisor in the Birmingham office. He told me that if I wasn’t happy with their service I could cancel the job. No refund obviously, but good to know they had no objection to me getting the job finished by another company.
You might also try finding a firm that will charge you more… You’ll need to search long and hard.
ReactFast Solutions Ltd is one of the UK’s largest one stop emergency maintenance providers and completes over 110,000 emergency jobs per year with an average response time of two hours. The company has grown considerably in the last seven years from a turnover of £3.2 million to £15 million providing genuine emergency response service to our customers.
The satisfaction level from our customer base is over 98% and thousands of testimonials have been submitted confirming this from commercial clients and domestic customers.
We pride ourselves on being able to draw upon the resources of over 450 qualified fully vetted engineers covering a vast skill set. Our 120 strong operations team are able to provide a fast, cost effective and stress free solution to the emergency maintenance problems.
We recognise delays can occur due to the nature of the industry and the volume of work has also been substantial in our organisation; thus to help the demand for plumbers, locksmiths, and electricians we have also developed a training centre in Birmingham and Manchester which are currently training hundreds of contractors to meet the demand for the industry thus reducing the time delays further.
ReactFast will continue to strive in making sure its entire customer base is genuinely satisfied with the level of service received.
I have been equally let down by Reactfast. I had some trouble with central heating and no cover so I called them to get a quote for repairs and a year's cover. Initially they quoted £94 VAT an hour but when I expressed reservations they came up with £74 VAT almost immediately. I did some quick checking and called them back to agree and take out the cover policy.
However, having booked them to come round in two days time at 2pm they called me once just before this to say the engineer was running slightly late and then silence... I had to call them back a number of times with each time them promising to call back. At about 4pm they said the engineer 'had let them down' only for said engineer to call me 20 minutes later and claim he would around for 5.30pm. However, when I mentioned the mix-up he said he would call me back but he did not.
I eventually booked for another two days time, a saturday morning, with another no-show and no-call. When I booked again for the following Monday at 9am (I don't know why I gave them another chance but I thought it was easier than trawling around again for repairs) no engineer appeared until 7pm that evening despite numerous assurances from them that he was on his way everytime I called up. Not once did they call me to say he was delayed. When the engineer arrived I also lost my hot water for some reason, so for the next three days while the necessary parts were sourced I was without heating and hot water.
At this point I did finally complain (all too late) and was told that no compensation could be made until the repairs were completed even though once the necessary parts were found I had a pretty good idea. When the repairs were completed eventually I spoke to the same area manager who I had complained to. He refused to allow me to speak to someone who could deal with my complaint as their customer services only deal with emails. Although I had already sent an email two days previously without even an acknowledgement all I could expect was an investigation after the fact. He did offer however, to drop the hourly rate by £10 an hour which gave me a total price of £282, down from £317. When I said I would rather not pay until my complaint had been dealt with he threatened to have the new parts removed from my boiler by the engineer. I protested but he persisted in this line. Therefore, already having taken three days off work and sick of talking to these people, I paid up. I then cancelled my policy.
Two days later I received a letter saying Reactfast were now entitled to reclaim 10% of the discount on the hourly rate I had allegedly received as a result of cancelling my polcy (£22.56) despite my belief that I had got the original discount regardless of taking out the cover and the further discount was for time wasted. I rang them up about this and was told a manager would call me back, but, surprise, surprise, they never did.
I also called Consumer Direct about this and was told in no uncertain (and slightly brusque)terms that I had made a clear contract for services with Reactfast and there was no breach of trading standards and they were entitled to demand their immediate payment despite the awful customer service. Perhaps this is because I was not claiming under my policy though I find it strange that if you pay more to have specific repairs done, you have less protection. Consumer Direct were also clear about the fact that there was no legal protection for customer service.
Whatever the case, I wish I had never used this company and I would advise anyone requiring boiler or central heating repairs or cover for that matter to avoid them at all costs.
I notice also there are number of comments about Reactfast's locksmith and plumbing services on other pages, some good, mostly bad. A common gripe seems to be the unprofessional conduct of their call centre staff and their inability to deal with any complaint. We let these companies into our homes and entrust them with sorting out important technical problems as well as handing them not inconsiderable sums of money. Is it unreasonable to demand prompt service and a modicum of respect?
The mark of a good company should be how it deals with sensitive or difficult situations. On the evidence that I have seen this is emphatically not the case with Reactfast.
I am in the midst of a similar problem. I too was enticed to purchase the 12 month plan to have the piece of mind that if I had any problems with my boiler they would be handled promptly.
My boiler broke down, and I phoned this morning. I was told that someone would be with me between 2 and 3 pm. Just before 3 I phoned to be told that unfortunately they would not be able to get anyone out to fix my boiler until Monday (today is Thursday). I asked to speak to a manager, who after putting me on hold and having to phone me back said she arranged an 'outside engineer' to come do the repair(and I would not have to pay anything) and he would be with me around 6pm. At 6:50 still no engineer, I phoned again only to be passed back and forth between reactfast and home assist, ultimately to be told that the engineer they had arranged broke down in his van and was waiting for AA and would not be able to come fix my boiler. I asked when I could expect an engineer and I was told since I have an open call, they could not arrange another engineer. I was told I had to wait until tomorrow to phone and speak to someone else.
I will call them tomorrow, but I will also take the other blagger's advise and file a formal complaint. Stay far far away!!!!
The company advertises a 2 hour response time 24 hours a day 365 days a year, also the boiler breakdown cover states in clause: 5.11 The Supplier’s engineers are available every day of the year.
This enticed me into purchasing a 12 month maintenance contract with them.
However their claims are simply not true after reporting a full breakdown of my boiler (no hot water or heating) they were unable to send out an engineer for at least 38 hours. Neither an emergency response nor as stated within the contract are their engineers available every day of the year. I had to spend time finding a local engineer myself and pay for my breakdown to be fixed, The maintenance contract and the companies claims and targets are a sham and falsely advertised.
After liaising with Consumerdirect and the Office of Fair Trading, Reactfast are in clear breach of contract. I suggest if you have encountered similar problems please log a complaint with www.consumerdirect.gov.uk on 08454 040506 and gain their advice.
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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:
Last week (Jan 22nd) their guy went through this routine and I challenged him. I asked for a Corgi number (now a Gas Safety Register) and though the guy said yes, it's in the van, he soon made excuses, said there was no charge and left. A proper engineer from British Gas correctly identified the symptoms as a faulty pump and nothing to do with the boiler. Total cost to replace pump - less than £100.
I know about the PCB because I fell for it in another property I own. Ended up paying out £4200 in labour and a new boiler. God knows how long it will last. Also they will not give you a VAT invoice (against law?) and they charge annually via a credit card which means it's hard to stop them taking your annual fee.
Beware Beware Beware.
In our house hold, live 2 pensioners, and 2 disabled people, we had been having problems with our boiler, they had sent different engineers our, until finally on said, the boiler was too dangerous to use, he put a sticker on it saying so, for one week, they left us without heating and water, by the way, this was when the weather was colder, after numerous phone calls to them, they sent out Worcester, the company who made our boiler, as their own engineers could not fix it, the engineer from Worcester was excellent, within minutes, he knew what was wrong, he also told us the boiler was not dangerous to use, and told us to use it, over the weekend, until he came back on Monday, we did, so we spent a week struggling being disabled as I am without heating and water for nothing, because of their cowboy engineer.
Recently they made an appointment with us, to have the annual check on the boiler, I telephoned them, and canceled this appointment, but the engineer turns up, he was told it had been canceled, he was persisting on doing it, when refused, he eventually called us Fuc#i#g idiots, what sort of company are they, when they send people out like this? You decide.
When one telephones and complains, they don’t deal with it, one said to me, regarding the last complaint I just mentioned, he said, what do you want me to do about it.
Very unhappy customer of theirs, and will no go with them anymore.
My experience was to have a job booked for 0900-1100 on a Saturday. At 1130 I phoned in to be given another (pay) number to contact. I did that and was informed that the engineer was running a bit late due to a previous job and that they'd phone when he was on the way. Around 1330hrs I got the call saying the engineer was clearing up at a previous job and would be with me very soon. 2 hours later, a phone call from the call centre advised me that the engineer could not call due to a "family emergency". What a coincidence given that it's now 3.30 pm on a Saturday and the football internationals are about to kick off! Reactfast engineers must have very unlucky families given the regular negative feedback on this site for failing to turn up at all! I was given the option of having a call the FOLLOWING weekend or at a later date. What an absolute joke.
The perfect company if you want to be lied to over the phone.
And the company have a strange notion about what a 24 hour service means. Because once they’ve diagnosed the problem, taken your money and need to come back to finish the job, their 24 hour clock seems only to run between 8am and 6pm.
And I must mention the stunning piece of advice I was given by a supervisor in the Birmingham office. He told me that if I wasn’t happy with their service I could cancel the job. No refund obviously, but good to know they had no objection to me getting the job finished by another company.
You might also try finding a firm that will charge you more… You’ll need to search long and hard.
The satisfaction level from our customer base is over 98% and thousands of testimonials have been submitted confirming this from commercial clients and domestic customers.
We pride ourselves on being able to draw upon the resources of over 450 qualified fully vetted engineers covering a vast skill set. Our 120 strong operations team are able to provide a fast, cost effective and stress free solution to the emergency maintenance problems.
We recognise delays can occur due to the nature of the industry and the volume of work has also been substantial in our organisation; thus to help the demand for plumbers, locksmiths, and electricians we have also developed a training centre in Birmingham and Manchester which are currently training hundreds of contractors to meet the demand for the industry thus reducing the time delays further.
ReactFast will continue to strive in making sure its entire customer base is genuinely satisfied with the level of service received.
001ReactFast at 26th Nov 2008, 08:52AM
However, having booked them to come round in two days time at 2pm they called me once just before this to say the engineer was running slightly late and then silence... I had to call them back a number of times with each time them promising to call back. At about 4pm they said the engineer 'had let them down' only for said engineer to call me 20 minutes later and claim he would around for 5.30pm. However, when I mentioned the mix-up he said he would call me back but he did not.
I eventually booked for another two days time, a saturday morning, with another no-show and no-call. When I booked again for the following Monday at 9am (I don't know why I gave them another chance but I thought it was easier than trawling around again for repairs) no engineer appeared until 7pm that evening despite numerous assurances from them that he was on his way everytime I called up. Not once did they call me to say he was delayed. When the engineer arrived I also lost my hot water for some reason, so for the next three days while the necessary parts were sourced I was without heating and hot water.
At this point I did finally complain (all too late) and was told that no compensation could be made until the repairs were completed even though once the necessary parts were found I had a pretty good idea. When the repairs were completed eventually I spoke to the same area manager who I had complained to. He refused to allow me to speak to someone who could deal with my complaint as their customer services only deal with emails. Although I had already sent an email two days previously without even an acknowledgement all I could expect was an investigation after the fact. He did offer however, to drop the hourly rate by £10 an hour which gave me a total price of £282, down from £317. When I said I would rather not pay until my complaint had been dealt with he threatened to have the new parts removed from my boiler by the engineer. I protested but he persisted in this line. Therefore, already having taken three days off work and sick of talking to these people, I paid up. I then cancelled my policy.
Two days later I received a letter saying Reactfast were now entitled to reclaim 10% of the discount on the hourly rate I had allegedly received as a result of cancelling my polcy (£22.56) despite my belief that I had got the original discount regardless of taking out the cover and the further discount was for time wasted. I rang them up about this and was told a manager would call me back, but, surprise, surprise, they never did.
I also called Consumer Direct about this and was told in no uncertain (and slightly brusque)terms that I had made a clear contract for services with Reactfast and there was no breach of trading standards and they were entitled to demand their immediate payment despite the awful customer service. Perhaps this is because I was not claiming under my policy though I find it strange that if you pay more to have specific repairs done, you have less protection. Consumer Direct were also clear about the fact that there was no legal protection for customer service.
Whatever the case, I wish I had never used this company and I would advise anyone requiring boiler or central heating repairs or cover for that matter to avoid them at all costs.
I notice also there are number of comments about Reactfast's locksmith and plumbing services on other pages, some good, mostly bad. A common gripe seems to be the unprofessional conduct of their call centre staff and their inability to deal with any complaint. We let these companies into our homes and entrust them with sorting out important technical problems as well as handing them not inconsiderable sums of money. Is it unreasonable to demand prompt service and a modicum of respect?
The mark of a good company should be how it deals with sensitive or difficult situations. On the evidence that I have seen this is emphatically not the case with Reactfast.
My boiler broke down, and I phoned this morning. I was told that someone would be with me between 2 and 3 pm. Just before 3 I phoned to be told that unfortunately they would not be able to get anyone out to fix my boiler until Monday (today is Thursday). I asked to speak to a manager, who after putting me on hold and having to phone me back said she arranged an 'outside engineer' to come do the repair(and I would not have to pay anything) and he would be with me around 6pm. At 6:50 still no engineer, I phoned again only to be passed back and forth between reactfast and home assist, ultimately to be told that the engineer they had arranged broke down in his van and was waiting for AA and would not be able to come fix my boiler. I asked when I could expect an engineer and I was told since I have an open call, they could not arrange another engineer. I was told I had to wait until tomorrow to phone and speak to someone else.
I will call them tomorrow, but I will also take the other blagger's advise and file a formal complaint. Stay far far away!!!!
This enticed me into purchasing a 12 month maintenance contract with them.
However their claims are simply not true after reporting a full breakdown of my boiler (no hot water or heating) they were unable to send out an engineer for at least 38 hours. Neither an emergency response nor as stated within the contract are their engineers available every day of the year. I had to spend time finding a local engineer myself and pay for my breakdown to be fixed, The maintenance contract and the companies claims and targets are a sham and falsely advertised.
After liaising with Consumerdirect and the Office of Fair Trading, Reactfast are in clear breach of contract. I suggest if you have encountered similar problems please log a complaint with www.consumerdirect.gov.uk on 08454 040506 and gain their advice.
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