Domestic & General Insurance Plc 11 Worple Road, London SW19 4JS

"Horrific Experience - AVOID THIS COMPANY Having waited 2 months to get my washing machine fixed they now tell me the engineer is unwell and wont be coming. Last time it was because his van broke down. I was promised a replacement machine by the call centre but then they refused to honour it. Avoid this company at all costs. When they respond saying sorry, please contact us via facebook ets. They are lying. They absolutely don't care. I will now have to buy a new machine."

"Having to spend over 3hrs accumulative ,trying for a replacement washing machine, because there is no communication between departments and also being called a liar when I've got text messages from them verifying my statements"

"Firstly, I must apologise for the length of this review and explain that this is the first time I have ever left a critical review about a company. I am in business and understand the negative impact of such actions but I have never encountered such appalling service from a company. I purchased a Nespresso coffee machine for my son in December 2021 from John Lewis and took out the extended warranty offered with Domestic and General. In August (aged 8 months) it developed a slow leak in the water tank. My son contacted John Lewis who asked him to get in touch with D&G. He sent images of the damaged water tank to D&G and suggested that a new tank could simply be posted to him. However, D&G refused to replace the water tank and insisted on the whole machine, with all accessories, being returned to them. 

Collection was arranged by D&G for 1st September. No one arrived to collect the machine. This was followed by several failed collection bookings. It was eventually collected from his address in London on 12th September and then bizarrely returned on the 6th October to my address, 200 miles away in Yorkshire. 

Upon receipt of the package I photographed it because I was dismayed at the state of the box and the inadequate packaging. Upon removing the machine from the flimsy, damaged box there was a dent on the front. I photographed the damage and then repackaged the machine in a far more suitable packaging, it was collected and re delivered to my son. 

He finally received the dented machine and upon plugging it in discovered that it now did not work at all. He also pointed out that it had been returned to him without the cleaning tool and milk jug that D&G insisted had to be included. 

In an attempt to try and help my son resolve this situation I called D&G (a call that lasted 51 minutes) and when I pointed out to the very unhelpful telephone assistant that he had been without the use of the coffee machine for several weeks. His response was ”well, can’t he put the kettle on”! Fortunately, I recorded this extremely long and frustrating conversation. I asked if I could speak to a manager or someone in the technical department and after a long wait I was told that they wouldn’t speak to me because I was ‘rude to them last time I called’. This was my first telephone call to D&G, I have never spoken to anybody in the technical department and I would never be rude to anybody on the telephone. I asked for proof of the existence of this conversation and to speak to the person wrongly accusing me of such behaviour - he refused to transfer me to anybody else within the company and told me to speak to South West Appliance Repairs. I then spoke to this company and they agreed the machine needed to be replaced but it was the responsibility of D&G to do so. 

On the 24th October, in desperation, I contacted John Lewis. Their member of staff was polite and sympathetic to my situation but yet again I was forwarded to D&G who said that the machine needed to be returned to them again. I pointed out that even if they could get the machine working again this would not resolve the problem of the missing accessories and the dent on the front. D&G told me that if they could get the machine working it was not their problem if any cosmetic damage had been done whilst in their care. He said if I was not satisfied with his response I had to take it up with the complaints department - the complaints department do not accept calls! I have now received a letter from D& G customer care team stating that my complaint cannot be upheld and if I am not happy I need to contact the financial ombudsman. Every detail in this letter is incorrect and I am seriously doubting it refers to my case. I am utterly dismayed that a company can provide such an appalling service, damage a customers goods to the point were they are unusable and then claim they have no responsibility to rectify the situation. Do they seriously think I am going to accept that they have broken a £400 machine that is only 8 months old to a point were it is now useless."

"I would give them ZERO and I would advise to avoid. They do not replace, they continue you repair, repair, repair the same issue. When they send out an engineer they do not note down the issue that you discussed with the call handler. This is so it is not down on the system as after the 3rd call about the same issue they are supposed to replace the item. This is how they get away with not honoring the replacement. I've had them come out 4 times for the same issue, all they do is say the washing machine needs to be levelled which is not the case as it already is. I have been paying for many many years. The amount of money I've spent with domestic and general I could've bought 2 high quality washing machine. The waiting time is also absolutely ridiculous, I waited 40 mins to speak to a member of staff and still not get the issue resolved."

"After being a customer of appliance insurance for many years and never making a claim, i contacted them when my dishwasher was not functioning in August. Now in November and having to wait each time 2 weeks for an engineer and then a further 2 weeks for the part which then does not repair the dishwasher. I requested that they replace my dishwasher as my insurance states but they have declined and insist on sending yet another engineer. I now want to cancel my expensive annual insurance....1- could not get through by phone after waiting 30minutes. 2-Tried to make an account online and this site also isn't working. I am very disappointed and frustrated with the poor service. Am still trying to cancel the next annual policy and still waiting to see if they can repair the dishwasher!"