Re: How to deal with incompetent plumbers and payment
- From: "5th Horseman of the Apocalypse!" <vigilias@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 15 Sep 2006 09:36:00 -0700
louisa.king@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Brief outline as follows...
Plumbers used a year ago to re-comission combi-boiler when I bought the
house (after system having been drained down). They did this fine.
Plumbers called back a couple of weeks ago for a fault with said boiler
(intermittent hot water).
I know combi boilers so had a good idea what the problem was from
having seen it twice before.
I gave them a good detailed description of the problem over the phone,
offered part numbers for the part from the manual, etc, fully expecting
them to have the potential part with them when they arrived a few days
later. They turned up, without the part. Tested the fault, sucked
their teeth, went away to order the part, couldn't get it that day,
came back again, packed up, left. (About 2.5 hours from start to
finish).
They said the part should be in 2-3 days time. I had to chase them up
on day 4 to find out what was going on, they said should have it by
this afternoon, and they'd pop in the follow day (inconvenient for me,
so we made it the day after).
They turned up, and started dismantling the boiler to change the part,
but I was pretty convinced they were doing the wrong part. Now, I'm no
boiler engineer, but I AM an engineer, I HAVE worked on
cars/networking/IT, I'm not stupid, and I can read a manual and
understand how a boiler works, and the laws of physics. I questioned
whether it was that one, or the other one, repeatedly, and each time
was told no, no, it was this one even though it's not called the
domestic hot water switch, and even though the other one was called the
DHW switch...
So they change the diaphragm inside it, the boiler's in lockout cos
it's the WRONG thing they've just been tinkering with, they can't get
the boiler out of lockout cos the chimp doing the work hasn't read the
manual and instead of waiting 4 minutes and turning it back on, they're
taking apart the rest of the boiler, they take another bit of it off
and I have water squirting clear across the kitchen, so we have to wait
for it all to dry out. They're still unable to get the boiler out of
lockout, so they start on about the pump supposed to be running and the
fan's not running (nothing runs if the boiler's in lockout!!!) and
that's why it's still in lockout... so now they're telling me I need a
new control board for it which is around 100 quid cos there's nothing
else it could be (har bloody har) - but they consult someone else, go
to the van for a spot of lunch, come back, put it all back together
having turned it off in the mean time, and voila, it works... (another
2.5 hours)
Except I still have intermittent hot water from it, which I'm not
surprised about given they replaced the wrong thing.
So I've spoken to the manufacturer who've sent out their own guy (at my
expense) who has changed the faulty part (the one I TRIED to tell them
they should be looking at) and left me with the faulty part that you
can clearly see is duff. ANd now the hot water is working perfectly.
Every single time.
I've not yet paid the original people. They usually ask for cash or
cheque but in the past I've paid them by bank transfer (online) as I
don't have a chequebook. This has given me a day or two leeway in this
to get someone else to look at the problem.
I'm not inclined to pay these guys, and there was NO way I was letting
them at the boiler again given their lack of competence - but where do
I stand legally on this?
I think they knew they were being muppets as they've charged for 2
hours labour total for the two visits rather than 5 hours labour (50
quid each visit basically) - but that doesn't excuse the fact that they
want 108 quid out of me for a fault they haven't fixed, but didn't even
look in the right place to fix - I don't mind a fault being hard to
find, but this should have been a piece of cake for them, and they just
seemed completely incompetent throughout.
And of course I've had to pay someone else to come out and fix what
these guys SHOULD have fixed in the first place. (Which, incidentally,
took him less than half an hour from start to finish).
Any views on what my course of action should be - pay up and write it
off, refuse to pay and explain why, a.n.other option?
CHeers,
Velvet
Trading Standards.
As for doing it your self, I thought you had to be Corgi Registered to
tinker with boilers and things.
.
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