After looking at various websites I decided that Home assist - ReactFast boiler and heating insurance looked the best value for money. However I have been very much let down.

To allow for the policy to become active a routine inspection of the boiler and heating systems in your property has to take place. I therefore made the appointment for a morning 9am - 12.00. After waiting in no-one turned up and no apologetic phone call was received. When I phoned them I was told there was a "high volume of work" being a busy time of year - December - I appreciated this, moaned to them about them not contacting me and booked another appointment.

This time when no-one turned up I was told there were no engineers avaliable and that "hopefully" someone would turn up. Again, I only found this out by contacting them. I was also told that someone had rang me and I wasn't in! After checking the number it was evident that no call had been made as I had not left the house at all that morning. In the same conversation I was then told there were no engineers in the area, and then finally that "no-one would be avaliable until the new year".

Losing patience I made one final appointment. I rang them as the office opened at around 8.00am to confirm my appointment. I was told no engineers were avaliable- evidently, in my opinion they had no intention of sending anyone out, to know this at this time in the morning. I was then told that the engineer in my area was ill and that no-one was avaliable. At this point I said I would have to cancel my policy- "ok" the customer service man replied! How not to feel valued as a customer ! I will be looking elsewhere......

Reactfast are putting most of their efforts in to retraining the unemployed to become plumbers, electricians etc due to constantly rising numbers of unemployed and more and more government money being given to similar traing providers.

Much as it grieves me to say it, I doubt you'll do much better than British Gas when it comes to Boiler/Heating breakdown as competitors simply don't have the resources to back up a nationwide maintenance system. Plenty of takers out there for contracts but when you need them...well you've already experienced it.

I think describing React Fast's service as poor is the greatest understatement ever! They are atrocious! I would urge everyone to keep away from these cowboys. They are awful, awful, awful! I found React Fast in the yellow pages in October 2008 and invited them to fix a fault with my boiler. For the next 9 weeks (yes over 2 months in the coldest winter in decades!) their engineer was going back and forth misdiagnosing the problem, missing and rescheduling appointments, purchasing the wrong parts (which I paid for) and generally being unhelpful. Like N. Gray's experience, they never called me in the 9 weeks so I had to call them up each week to ask for an update on my job. After 4 months of fiddling with the boiler and getting paid for their time and the parts they insisted needed to be changed, they decided that I needed a new boiler. The engineer took away my boiler manual saying he needed it to purchase a new part but never returned it. He also left the boiler striped down but never returned to put it back together. This means that all other engineers I called to fix the boiler end up saying they cannot work on it without the manual. It is now 6 months since I first got React Fast involved in fixing my boiler and I have decided to sue them at the small claims court. One of their cover engineers told me that my experience is similar to that of many other customers he has come in touch with and this is React Fast's modus operandi. I am surprised that moneysupermarket.com would even endorse or profile a company as dreadful as React Fast!!