Advice regarding service providers
You find a leak under your sink, a gust of wind breaks a window pane, the front door lock is not working anymore, you can not enter in your home. How are your going to handle this?
The first reaction is to look for a service provider phone number. Usually, the easiest way is to use service providers phone numbers that you can see in plain view in the building entrance.
We recommend to our customers to be extremely cautious if the situation forces them to contact a 24/7 service provider. They are not all dishonests but overcharge and unnecessary works are unfortunatelly common and not payed back by insurers.
Be suspicious of service providers that are telling you that your insurance will refund, to make you pay the bill easily.
The first reaction is to look for a service provider phone number. Usually, the easiest way is to use service providers phone numbers that you can see in plain view in the building entrance.
We recommend to our customers to be extremely cautious if the situation forces them to contact a 24/7 service provider. They are not all dishonests but overcharge and unnecessary works are unfortunatelly common and not payed back by insurers.
Be suspicious of service providers that are telling you that your insurance will refund, to make you pay the bill easily.
What do they know about your insurance guarantees? Certainly the minimum that will help them to play on the doubt in order to convince you more easily.
Here are 2 very common lies :
- Leak searching expenses: these are expenses needed in order to find the leak and fix it. It also includes repair costs (made in order to find the leak itself).
It presupposes to damage a wall, a floor, a mold to access to the leaking pipe. As those expenses are covered by most comprehensive home insurances, some dishonest plumbers bill this leak searching even if there is not one needed.
For example, on a recent invoice it was billed 180 euros for a leak searching even though it was on the water drain system of the kitchen sink. In other words, opening the door of the kitchen cupboard was enough to find the leak…
- « Identical » lock replacement: insurance purpose is to restore the rented home to its original state. If your lock with two locking points is broken, your insurer will refund the price of a lock with two locking points, not more.
Some dishonest locksmiths write « Identical lock replacement » on the bill even though it is not true. This way, they can bill a more expensive equipment that won’t be refund by the insurer.
Our comprehensive insurances contain an Assistance part that allows to have an intervention of various service providers (locksmith, plumber, glazier, etc.) with a contribution to expenses up to 200 euros.
Assistance information (phone number, etc.) are available in the customer area and those information are sent on the mobile phone number given in the subscription form.
Please note that the French law forces any service provider to give you a detailled quotation before any intervention. You have to sign this quotation to let the work begin. Then, an invoice will be given to you. The amount must be the same than the one on the quotation.
If the amount of the quotation is too high, limit the intervention to its minimum. For example, if you have a leak in your flat, ask them to just stop the water intake. It is better to not have any water during few hours that to loose unnecessarily
hundreds of euros. This way, you will be able to deal with the problem after, with calm.