Re: How to deal with incompetent plumbers and payment

<louisa.king@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1158333263.031379.237130@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

TimB wrote:
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

Send the company management the same as you've written above in the
first instance, and tell them that you won't be paying. Since you
knew
what was wrong and what parts were needed, fix it yourself next time.

Had I known where to get hold of the part to do it, I *would* have
done
it myself - but that's not such easy information to get, especially
when you're not in the plumbing business yourself, and don't know
anyone else in the area that is either.

I went for getting the manufacturer engineer to actually fix it
(rather
than a more concerted attempt to source the part and DIY it) because,
as someone else said, who knows what else they could have bolloxed
while they were arsing around with it, and frankly, I'd rather know
they've not left any other gremlins to come out and bite me on the
arse
in a months' time.

Velvet


Or more accurately, if you HAD done it yourself, you'd prolly have
fucked it up really big time and then what would you have had to moan
about to the rest of the world? How else could you have attempted to
convince others that you were better than everyone else?



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