Local Heroes
Reviews and Complaints

Local Heroes are scammers! Be warned: Do not 'Accept Quote' as that will allow for a "hero" (more like a crook!) to charge you whatever they want (even though they'd not yet seen the job), and when you dispute this with Local Heroes customer care (ignorant customer service that frankly has no place in today's services world) you will be told that if you cancel the job you have to pay for whatever the "hero" states as "surcharge for cancelling or returned parts".

Why is this relevant?

The website tells you that you will be able to cancel or not proceed with a job right up until the point of job being done and that the "hero" can return parts to suppliers - THIS IS LIE. You will be charged, and they will take the side with their "hero" and believe whatever they say is the amount they're "owed", so before you press "Accept" button, I'd say do yourself a favour and book through a different platform as this one does not have your interest at heart. This "powered by British Gas" tagline is mean to build trust and reassure customers, but I'd say it gives them the permission to scam customers.

Before the engineer comes to my house the drops from the boiler was stopped. When the engineer came to my house he didn't checked the problem and opened the boiler case. He told the boiler was completely dry but opened and closed some pipes and constantly was blowing to the pipes. Then the Taps water was stopped and the heaters went off as well. He told we didn't have water In the taps but actually we had before and he made it stops. We told him so but he didn't accepted. Finally he couldn't find any problem or bring back the water and told Us somebody else should come and fix it for you and was just leaving us without any heat or water. Then all at once my husband opened the taps and then the the boiler started working again and water run through the pipes again. The engineer thought that he fixed it for us but actually he didn't since we had water before. Our problem was just temperature of the water. He had gave us a quote £130 to fix the leak and see what's the problem with temperature when booking and I had accepted that since I had thought maybe there is some serious matter with the leak. On the other hand in the website has been mentioned that all the discounts will be given at the time of payment and I'd assumed that if there were not any serious matter he'll give us a discount. Anyway, the engineer left the house and then sent the invoice of £130 to me to be paid!
He doesn't want to accept that this money is far too much for his job and forgot he wanted to leave us without any heater or water!
I'm not satisfied with this price since it's far too much and my problem was that we should just turn the temperature of the boiler higher than what it was before. That's it. He didn't use or change any parts but still wants to charge me £130 by force since I had accepted to pay it when I was booking and I didn't have any other option!
Now could you please help me in this matter and tell me what can I do not to pay this money by force? Since local hero sent me a letter that if I don't pay this money to them they just get legal action and get their money back by debt collectors!
Please help me not to by this much money since it's not fair at all!

Booked local heroes to fix a humming sound from my boiler. The engineer was late, leaned against my kitchen counter, never inspected my boiler, said he didn't know what the problem was, left after 6 minutes to sit in his van in front of my house for 35 minutes. I was billed £60. I complained to local heroes who said I had to pay because the engineer said the work was completed. I kept complaining. They finally got the engineer company to come back out. Still just talking in my kitchen and guessing what the problem was. Still being told I had to lay because the first engineer was at my house 40 minutes (in his van) and the work was done. But my boiler still huns because no one took it apart as I expected. Have been complaining to local heroes for 10 days do far but they won't listen to me, they keep repeating what the company says when they talk to the girl in the office. Local heroes choose which emails they reply to and they refuse to provide their full complaints procedure. I'm trying to complain about them as well as the lack of service I had to pay for. I want them to be aware, to care, to understand that no work was done but there was still a charge. The company who came to my house did not leave any contact details and yet local heroes told me to contact the company. I even asked local heroes for the contact details abc they didn't provide them but they then talked to the company's office girl who said the Dirk was done. I repeat: I paid hit an opinion x 2 not any work. I want to escalate my complaint about how local heroes has handled my complaint about a charge for nothing but they won't tell me the complaint procedure. Because of the way the engineer sent to me handled my job, I ejected to not use that company further and have decided to look elsewhere. Local heroes are telling me I need to prove the fault still exists when no work was done to fix the fault. I can't prove it because I don't know what the fault is. The main thing I am upset about is the way Local Heroes has treated me. This has been ongoing for 10 days so far.

I called Local Heroes to repair a valve in my shower, believing that the company is backed by British Gas, customer care would be excellent. How far from the truth that was. The engineer came to replace the valve, which had to be fitted behind the tiles in the shower wall. I truly believed that the job was done. I found out that he had make a huge error by not leaving enough space for a tiler to replace the missing tiles. i have logged a complaint with the Local Heroes complaints Department and all I got was a confirmation of the complaint on Thursday the 7th November 2019 (Case Number [protected]), but nothing since. I have been trying to call their number (0845 6561 0011) which is constantly engaged. All I will be asking for is for the company an engineer that could possible rectify the awful mistake the previous engineer made ( by not thinking to leave a space for the tiler to be able to put the hardboard and add the tiles on it. I am left with a gaping hole on the shower wall. I had to cover it with a plastic sheet to stop the water going inside the wall. He has also connected the hot water tap to the cold water inlet. I just cannot believe that a huge company like Local Heroes and backed up by British Gas can treat customers in this way, as they do state that their engineers are sully qualified engineers. Please advise me on how to contact this company as I desperately need be able to have a shower without water pouring into the hole in the wall. Thank you and looking forward to your advice concerning my complaint. I will try to send you photos please email me your email address.

Hudson agreed to do a job for my mum who has Alzheimer's. (It's a very small bathroom)
He quoted nearly £2000 for this (Mum to pay for all materials including tile adhesive and grout) and he insisted she pay him 50% up front and told her ‘cash only'. He told her he had a plumber ‘friend' who was cheap and very good.
Despite our asking several times - his plumber did not visit the job until 24hours before it was due to start - the plumber also quoted nearly £2000 (just to plumb her very small bathroom).
Thankfully, a family friend who was a plumber stepped in and did the work in two days. Hudson was clearly not happy - and it showed.
He later demanded another £400 from my Mum before he even laid a tile. She paid for all materials (on top of the extra £400).
I came home from her ‘Alzheimers respite centre' to find water pouring through her ceiling.
We called someone out as an emergency and they showed us that he had screwed through the pipe - he had used at 3" screw to fix a 1/2" board. We contacted Hudson and sent him pictures - No apology - he simply sent a message telling us the bathroom is cursed!
Accidents do happen - we know that, but just feel sad that this one could been avoided with a little bit of professionalism and ‘shorter screws'... But worst of all - there has been absolutely no apology since - that's all it takes. He's a pleasant enough young man and we've given him so many chances to simply apologise.
So naturally we asked him to leave the job (very politely). Very fairly agreed to pay 3 days for ripping out the bathroom and laying a chipboard floor - No request for damages either (more than reasonable).
He has now also refused to return the balance of Mum's money!
We're left wondering... Who advertises as a ‘Local Hero' and then takes advantage of a lady with Alzheimer's? This is not an angry review - it's written with sadness and sincerity as we really liked him to start with. Mum's very upset and still has no bathroom!

Went online only for a quote, as my upstairs sockets did not work, did not press a date wanted to contact them myself if I wanted to use them. As I rent I also contacted my landlord who advised me he was sending the electrician the next day.
So when I recieved a call the next morning I assumed it was the electrician my landlord was sending. The phone line was really bad and did not hear the electrician properly, I advised no one was home as I was at work and someone would be home by 14:30. He said he had to pick up his child from school. I then said 2pm should be fine.
He attended the property, my daughter called to say he was there, he did not ask to speak to me, so I told my daughter to put me on loud speaker. He then said the whole circuit board needed to be changed as it was burnt out, I am not an electrician but even I knew it was just a burnt RCD! He advised he would have to turn the electric off! I said no, that I needed electric, so he said he would make safe by isolating the issue, turning off the shower and putting the electrics on 1 circuit, I said fine ( all along thinking he was the landlords electrician) he then said he would send me a quote for the works, I said no send it to my landlord, he said ok?! He obviously knew I had not used the forum before, Knowing full well this is not how it works! And that any info would be sent to me . I then received a call from the proper electrician saying he was on his way? To my surprise! Called back the electrician who said he told me he was from local heros (he did not) he said he was the electrician, and that the charge was £75! For what? Switching a switch up? That is ridiculous, I did not have the money so I borrowed it! All I wanted was a quote, was not expecting him to turn up, I thought I was the one to call him, was expecting at least 3 quotes! He obviously knew I was a single woman, not to clued up on the forum, and he took advantage of this knowledge! So now I am £75 down for 10mins! I have no intentions of using LOCAL HEROS AGAIN
I would like my money back or even half! It's not fair that this can happen, it feels that people can charge what they want for nothing! I was matched to this person and I feel he was not vetted properly! My mistake was speaking to him and allowing him to enter my home.

I had work carried out last September 2018, to which was a great job. 5 months later the tile began to crack and then cracked down into another tile, which has been seen my the local hero who fitted and stated it was to do with the concrete under the tile which had cracked the tiles. I have numerous times to find that no one has come to fix this job. I have bought tiles and grout for the job to be fixed. However, I am still under warranty and have not broke the tile as even my hero would agree.

Having used Local Heroes (LH) before and received a good service I decided to use again when I had a water leak on Christmas Day. I made contact and LH allocated me a hero (Alrino) on 26th Dec and booked a time of 2pm to 6pm on 27th. When the hero had not contacted me I gave him a call and he said that he wasn't working on 27th and LH should have been aware of that. However, he did agree to rebook for 9am on Saturday 29th and suggested a fee of about £60, subject to viewing. He eventually turned up at 10:15 without any prior call and left after about 30 mins.

He completed the work but never revised the quote after seeing the job, he sealed a white bath with black sealant which I was not overly happy about but needed the leak resolved.

Having finished the job he went to his van to complete the paperwork and came back and insisted that if I paid via the website the cost would be £140 as LH had sent him further that he would normally travel (not that is any concern to me as he didn't have to accept the job and I shouldn't have to pay over the odds for travelling time/costs). As an alternative he said if I could pay £90 in cash he would pay £35 to LH and LH would then issue the 12 month British Gas backed guarantee by post. On leaving my house he then cancelled the job off the system.

The guarantee never arrived and I phoned customer services today (4th Jan) to find out where my guarantee was. That is when customer services confirmed that I would not be covered by the 12 month guarantee and that the Hero had effectively pocketed the full £90, had paid LH no commission whatsoever and had lied about the receipt and guarantee being sent through in the post.

Having now read your code of conduct I believe that he has broken all but one code.

- he certainly hasn't been honest and I don't believe that I have paid a fair price
- he did not require before starting the work
- he did not keep to the 9am appointment time and never contacted me to update me on his whereabouts
- he did not call before he arrived
- he did not keep me informed throughout the job other than to tell me he didn't have any white sealant for a white bath!
- he lied and said cash payments were ok and could be settled with LH. I believe he tried to sway me to pay cash by quoting a fictitious website price of £140
- he also make no attempt/offer to replace the bath panel before leaving and I had to struggle for 30 minutes to get it re-fitted, albeit that it is no longer sealed which I feel he should have ensured.

As I have already said, I have raised these concerns in a telephone call this morning but I am so annoyed about the service I have received I felt the need to put something in writing. I used LH solely for the guarantee, which I don't have through no fault of my own, I believe that I have been over-charged to cover his travel costs and not the job in hand. I would therefore like this complaint to be taken seriously given the breaches of your code of conduct and would appreciate a quick response to address my concerns. As it stands, I will certainly think twice before using LH again and also about recommending LH to others, which is a shame when you are let down by rogue traders

Regards

Stephen Smallwood
51, Malvern Road
The Forelands
Bromsgrove
Worcestershire
B61 7HE

Mobile: [protected]

Reference - job date 23/8/2018. 23a Springfield Road, harrow, HA11QF- Anupa shah

I had a powerflush carried out by one of your engineers and After the powerflush there have been problems with the boiler. I have tried to contact the engineer who did the job for some time now and and have had no response. Could you please send another engineer to repair the boiler under my 12 month guarantee. Just to be more clear and specific, it is after the powerflush that my boiler is having problems where by when switching on the hot water the radiators come on and in addition problems with the hot water and radiator leaking. As I have a cover with British gas I called them out and british gas engineer has clearly stated that my boiler is having these issues after the powerflush and so I should contact local heroes who did the job as you will be responsible under the 12 month cover.i have tried to get in touch with yourselves and finding it difficult to resolve. I would appreciate if someone could call me on [protected] urgently as we are left without hot water and leaks for a long time.

Further due to this I had the local heroes engineer to come check the boiler and he is asking for a fee which should be covered under the 12mth guarantee, so please look into this).

Called BGAS to book a plumber to install radiator and towel rail. Plumber took two days. Did not know how to fix radiator to dry wall and so put wooden strips behind radiator. He fitted the strips vertical so you could see them at the bottom of the radiator instead of fitting them across ways, so they were hidden behind the radiator. It was a simple job, as Hep 20 connections were being used with copper. He then could not work out how to avoid joists, so I had to show him what a qualified gas engineer had done previously. He said the plasterboard was too thin and the radiator would fall off and that is why he did it. There were joists behind the wall and tried to explain to him dry wall fixings should be used. He was not a hero to me, but a bit of a nightmare to the point at the end of the day he decided to go home and asked me to plug off the radiators, and refill system. He was not qualified or just qualified. He was asking me questions and could of worked out what was what if he just looked at where the feed in was. I am a women and know more than he did about fitting radiators and other structural matters. GGas are sending in barely qualified contractors and putting homeowners lives at risk. I will have to rip the rad off the wall and do the work myself. He then tried to do the same withe the towel rail and again I had to explain there was a radiator there before and no way is he putting up wooden strip in a bathroom when the previous plumber managed to fit a towel rail without dreadful pieces of wood . Do not use BGAS LOCAL HEROES.

2nd June 2018
Tradesperson contracted by Local Heroes - Boiler Servicing 24-7

I had initially booked a consultation for a faulty shower unit on 2nd June and was advised following the visit that I would need a new shower replacement. During the consultation I was given assurances by the plumber that he would recommend a new shower unit and that he would inform the office of this choice who would subsequently contact me.

On 4th June I received a quote for 2 hours labour that I would need to pay for the plumber to install a new shower unit however no separate quote or information on the shower unit itself. I accepted the quote thinking following this payment Local Heroes would send me information on the shower unit chosen by the plumber however I still haven't received anything as at 13th June. I contacted them on 13th June to see where they were at with the process to find out no recommendation has been made. The tradesperson contracted by Local Heroes sent me an email stating I would need to choose this myself when I had specifically asked them to choose one and had been assured that they would.

I have now been 2 weeks without a functioning shower and made a payment for 2 hours labour without the plumber having any intention to complete the job. I have been misled and forced into falsely making a payment on the pretence that I had to in order to complete the process for the plumber to complete the job. It wasn't until I called that they actually responded and in doing so took the easy option of making me do the work behind choosing a new shower when I had asked them to do this.

This is deemed misleading the consumer when payment was made for labour and they seemingly never intended to carry out the job. especially when I've made a payment.

I live in Windsor, Berkshire where their company is based.
I urgently needed a plumber and used their website to find one.
Answered all the questions, filled the form in and it said that there was no hero around. Tried it the next day, got the same result. I placed a request but no one called me back. Very nice. Had to look for another service.
What's the point of Local Heroes service then if there's no one to do their job? Is this service not popular at all?