Homeserve Share Discussion Threads

[sanks] 15/11/2011 16:22

Can't see any reason why this should not drip down below £1
Awful customer service + under-hand tactics = Bad Business!

I have an initial level 4 target of around 12p-45p
Hope it helps

[kristini2] 15/11/2011 16:20

interesting price action here, fairly tight range

these classic short sell opps come up about once every 9 -12 months I find

last Sept it was connaught that was the no brainer short. That was almost straight down from £4 plus, this one could be a tougher trade

watch for 4 pm on friday afternoon rns's, they usually come with situations like this. i sold carter and carter on such an rns, and cnt also if i recall attemted to bury a bad news rns late on a friday

[nasprey] 15/11/2011 16:02

nasprey- i doubt that the average homeserve customer reviews anything in advance of buying cover

True, Maybe its just because it's a local company (to me) but every man and his cat around here seems to know about Homeserve's dodgy dealings. Even my dentist bought it up as I mentioned on here last week! It was big news in the local papers here, and word of mouth spreads fast. My point is that people won't even need to read the bad reviews, they have heard it all anyway and when they inevitably receive that cold call and hear the mention of 'Homeserve' I expect even more 'instant hang-ups' that usual.

I particularly like how the CEO is now referred to as 'Chopper' Harpin... It doesn't help the mis-selling scandal, the 48,000 unanswered complaints and the customers out of pocket during a recession when the CEO commutes to work by private helicopter twice a week.

[kristini2] 15/11/2011 15:34

nasprey- i doubt that the average homeserve customer reviews anything in advance of buying cover

what about all those people that were messed around last year, hardly likely to renew are they?

i am trying to assess the share price action for clues.

Best strategy would be to sell and keep increasing stops on any price rise, takes nerve and discipline

i'm £73 pp short to march and a bit wary of selling harder at this point, this could take months and months to play out

[nasprey] 15/11/2011 15:26

My only thoughts are now it will be much harder for these guys to sell their products to new customers. Customers will surely go to one of the other companies that aren't being investigated for mis-selling fraud and that have some positive reviews instead of pages and pages of awful ones.

The 'Homeserve' brand will carry this stigma for quite some time.

And if they are re-writing their scripts and reducing the high pressure sales tactics that have previously served them very well, what are they going to do? Just ask nicely?...

[mj19] 15/11/2011 15:23

anyone's guess what will happen from here

[kristini2] 15/11/2011 15:17

to sell hard in advance?

I guess thay are likely to report good figures, risky selling hard in advance, any thoughts?

[nasprey] 15/11/2011 15:11

kristini:

HomeServe will announce its interim results for the six months to the end of September on 22 November.

[kristini2] 15/11/2011 15:05

i have sold hsv, however the fall in price could take a while to play out and the price could easily move higher in the short term

i thought i read somewhere that the company is due to report something 22nd Nov?

[nasprey] 15/11/2011 15:01

The reason for the sudden interest is of course the sudden roller-coaster share price, the daily news headlines, the volume of trades in the last 2 weeks, the mis-selling scandal, the FSA investigation etc etc.

Not to mention that pretty much everyone on this thread I'm sure annoyingly receives weekly phone calls and mail-shots from this company scaremongering us into believing our water pipes may burst any minute and warning us of "expensive repairs" to our boilers unless we take out cover with Homeserve.

The company is also local to me and as I said before, having friends that have worked there for many years, I know the company well and it is of interest to me. That is why I post here. I have had both long and short positions on Homeserve.

[longtermholder111] 15/11/2011 14:53

graham, 48,000 complaints along with more information coming out regarding them miss selling in the US. We're not talking one complaint, we're talking failures on an institutional level. I'm short. When I short a company I provide reasons why, when I go long I do the same.

[kristini2] 15/11/2011 14:18

and your point??

[grahamburn] 15/11/2011 09:27

A little perspective is needed on this thread - after all until 3 weeks ago, there was about one post a month on it, now there are dozens a week! Wonder where everyone has come from.

Though one unhappy customer is tooooooooo many, when this type of event happens to a company too much can sometimes be made of the level of customer complaints. British Gas has a large number of complaints on a daily basis, but it isn't about to go bankrupt. Even successful companies can have loads of complaints at any one time (eg Tesco).

OK, Homeserve has serious issues to address and the jury is still out and will be for quite a while, but suggest that some of the posters who have popped up on this thread recently might not be particularly tall people (ie they may just be "short"). If they are not, then one has to wonder why they are posting.

[nasprey] 15/11/2011 09:16

It seems all might not be as rosy in the USA as they made out in the investor conference. Read the user comments at the bottom.

I think they would have said anything just to stop the freefall of the shares at the time...

[nasprey] 15/11/2011 09:12

I agree Kurt:

Homeserve in US probe
SCANDAL-hit home repairs specialist HOMESERVE is being investigated in the US.

An Attorney General in Massachusetts yesterday confirmed she was reviewing a dozen complaints about the firm.

It comes after The Sun revealed HomeServe was investigating fears of a mis-selling scandal at its biggest call centre in the UK.

In the US, a number of customers in the Boston area are upset that the firm has also been using a National Grid logo in its marketing material. They claim letters soliciting business resembled an energy bill.

Separately, in Carolina last week, a watchdog criticised HomeServe for "misleading" customers by using an official South Carolina logo in its marketing material.

Attorney Generals in Ohio and Kentucky filed actions against HomeServe USA last year. HomeServe declined to comment but insiders said US complaints were very low.

The group has won a million US customers in eight years and expects to be called out on 250,000 plumbing and drains jobs next year.

[captain_kurt] 14/11/2011 21:16

This will go sub £2 very soon imo.

[nasprey] 14/11/2011 11:34

Homeserve USA complaints reviewed:



Also seems to be quite a bit of selling going on now....

[mj19] 14/11/2011 11:23

looks like we could go down for a while... thx lots of uncertainty

[longtermholder111] 14/11/2011 11:22

Good post nasprey. 48,000 customers submitted complaints but in my experience that means many more were affected - a lot of people don't bother. So that'll be 48,000+ after £500 or so worth of refunds plus compensation for any money they paid workmen. Add to that the claims for compensation and refunds from all those who were miss sold their policies. Subtract the revenues from new customers who will no longer want to touch this bunch. Remember what happened with PPI claims, perhaps every customer could claim their policy was miss sold...

[mj19] 14/11/2011 10:53

nasprey... what do you think about it going bankrupt from its claims?

[nasprey] 14/11/2011 10:51

This is all old news...

[mj19] 14/11/2011 10:36

ok read this so we think the company will "despite the recent bullishness the compensation claim will bankrupt the company..." disappear? might be fined....

Homeserve sees few contracts cancelled
Telephone keypad Customers are being contacted if their calls were not dealt with properly
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

* Homeserve probes mis-sells claim
* Firms in abandoned calls inquiry
* Fines for silent calls up to £2m

Only a few customers have cancelled their contracts with maintenance company Homeserve as fears of mis-sold policies are investigated.

An internal review, now being considered by the City watchdog, had revealed questionable sales techniques.

However, the company said only 153 out of three million UK customers had cancelled home maintenance contracts with Homeserve.

The news pushed the company's share price up by 22% in morning trade.

Homeserve was founded in 1993 by chief executive Richard Harpin as a joint venture with South Staffordshire Water and has grown rapidly in recent years. It demerged from the water company in 2004, although South Staffordshire Water still recommends Homeserve on its website.

Homeserve sells homeowners insurance to provide them with cover against against drain blockages, burst pipes, faulty boilers and electrical problems, and describes itself in adverts as "Britain's fifth emergency service".
Clarity

In an update to investors on Thursday, Mr Harpin said that outbound sales calls by 250 staff remained suspended while a retraining programme and rewriting of scripts continued. No date has been set for when they will be restarted.

Following a suspension, inbound calls were being taken again in some regions, with other areas being phased in. A total of 250 staff work in this area.

The company was also reviewing its mail marketing campaign.

Meanwhile, a review of 48,000 customer calls was continuing. Anyone whose call was not dealt with properly was being contacted by phone or mail, Mr Harpin said.

Homeserve's internal review raised questions over how clear the price of packages of cover was to customers.

Earlier this year Homeserve and another company, Npower, were investigated by Ofcom after it was suggested call centre staff were ringing homes and then abandoning the calls before speaking, leaving customers with silence.

[longtermholder111] 13/11/2011 23:38

Despite the recent bullishness the compensation claim will bankrupt the company...

The emergency repairs group HomeServe faces compensation claims from thousands of customers it let down during last winter's cold snap after a whistleblower told the Financial Services Authority (FSA) that it had ignored their complaints.

This week, HomeServe shocked investors and customers when it suspended its entire sales workforce amid fears that they had been mis-selling its products. The West Midlands-based firm, which insures three million people in the UK against burst pipes, broken gas boilers and electrical problems, informed the stock market that it had suspended its sales operation, with outbound calls halted for six weeks. It said it was retraining 500 call-centre staff voluntarily.

However, the Guardian understands that a complete internal review at the firm was prompted by a member of HomeServe's customer services team who had contacted the FSA to warn that customers who complained to the company after receiving poor service last winter may have simply been ignored.

An internal document sent to HomeServe staff in September reveals that the company is reviewing 48,000 complaints from last winter. The review will be overseen at HomeServe's cost by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The document also shows that FSA staff were due to visit the company's Walsall head office on 24-26 October. Three days later the firm announced it was suspending its entire sales operation, although HomeServe is adamant that the decision was entirely coincidental and unrelated.

News of the problems will not surprise anyone who tried to get the firm to fix their boiler last winter. Several weeks of sub-zero temperatures in many parts of the country led to a huge number of call outs, and the company was unable to cope.

In January the Guardian reported on the case of Stephen and Margaret Rayner, who were left without heating for two weeks over Christmas, despite paying HomeServe more than £500 a year for its home emergency services.

At the time the company apologised after many customers were forced to follow the Rayner's example and find a local plumber to carry out the work. It was the number of complaints to the company, and the lack of action, that prompted the whistleblower to act.

The person blamed a culture in the firm that rewarded staff for "productivity rather than quality".

News of the whistleblower's intervention will be a further setback to a company that has been a star of the FTSE. Much of its success has been built on its ability to persuade existing customers to take out add-on policies, aided by its slick sales operation. The controversy could not have come at a worse time, as such lucrative boiler cover policies are usually bought when the weather turns colder.

The company told the stock market that its sales-generating business would be up and running within six weeks. However, the Guardian understands staff were told that sales activities could cease "for up to three months". Morale at the firm is said to be very low.

A spokeswoman for HomeServe admitted that the company had experienced problems but said it was now doing everything it could to resolve them "to put the customer first".

She said the company had seen unprecedented levels of call outs last winter – 40,000 in one week – which had caused the problems. "We are re-examining every complaint that was handled last winter, and where any complaint was not handled adequately we are re-contacting the customer. As always, if we did not meet our high standards we will, of course, offer appropriate redress in line with our policies. We are treating the matter very seriously," she said.

The FSA refused to comment this week on HomeServe's difficulties as it does not discuss individual firms. It did reveal, however, that it received 12,652 complaints about HomeServe in the six months to 31 April.

[mj19] 11/11/2011 11:39

I will tuck these away and look in 6 months.... it doesnt sound as bad as people first thought but the share price did half from 485 so damage is factored in. FT says FSA investigation still possible. Nobody buying but me...lol