Ever since we became home owners 7 years ago, we have been taking out Home Insurance from Tesco for majority of those years. We have never made a claim, which explains why we’ve had them as our insurer for so long. We just didn’t know how horrible they were. An honest mistake which will not be repeated.
With Storm Atiyah, the children’s school closure for Xmas and sub –zero temperatures fast approaching, we found ourselves faced with a tiny issue with the boiler – the fan broke. It could have been a lot worse, but luckily all we needed was a replacement fan to be installed. It wasn’t so bad. Or so we thought, after Tesco told us that our policy covers for the boiler (under home emergency) for up to £1000 worth of repairs (yes, that’s one thousand pounds!). A plumber was sent to ‘look at’ the boiler. Strangely even before the plumber had made it to our house this counted as ‘an existing claim’ on the policy.
The plumber examined the boiler, and reported that the issue was due to a ‘leak in the roof’. Now, we know a leak involves a drop or two of dripping water somewhere, so he pointed to a random watermark to prove his point. (It wasn’t ever seen before he entered the house and has magically disappeared and never made an appearance shortly after he left the premises).
In short, there was no leak, the roof is just fine. He tried showing me the ‘leak’, but all I could make out was a few drops of water that could’ve ‘accidentally’ been splashed around (from the feed expansion tank located in the loft). Or it could be the WD40 that was left behind during the recent annual boiler maintenance and servicing. As a consequence, Tesco decides that the boiler is BER ‘beyond economic repair’ and refuses to get the boiler repaired.
After a week of living in a freezing house with young children, I had to then contact a locally registered plumber, who immediately sourced a fan, and fixed the boiler within a day for around £300. It’s been working fine since then.
Also co-incidentally the plumber sent by Tesco to ‘look at’ our boiler, works for MPSL Emergency (https://mpslemergency.co.uk/) a company that also does roof repairs. However, the fact hasn’t been verified yet whether they repair roofs with real or imaginary leaks. So kindly do your due diligence and research.
This story will be forwarded to BBC Watchdog and any other organisation that is willing to investigate fraud and ridiculous insurance policies. Operation ‘Boycott Tesco’ is now at work – we’re not buying anything that has the name ‘Tesco’ on it, informing every single of our friends and family about their crooked policies, and making sure this story gets posted on as many review websites as possible. Please beware of such con artists who can effortlessly attribute a broken fan to a ‘roof leak’ and conjure up a watermark in the process. Stay safe from such crooks.
Reviewed on: 20th December 2019
