Boiler breakdown - should engineer have spotted this?

murmeltier

Hi,

Our condensing boiler broke down yesterday.

We got an engineer out to our property who spent about five minutes inspecting (or rather frantically browsing through the manual I provided) the boiler (after admitting he didn't know anything about our make/model) and then announced that the PCB needs replacing which seemed to me like the easy option to say.

He really seemed more interesting in getting out of the house than fixing our boiler. He then charged a ludicrous £200 which fair enough we have agreed to beforehand so had no choice but to pay.

Not convinced by this guy, today we got a second engineer from a different company who looked at the boiler for one minute before detecting that the condensation pipe had been blocked/frozen - unblocking it fixed our boiler.

Now my question - should the first guy have spotted this had he done his job properly? Do you think I should complain to his company (which seems to be one of the big London ones) because he left us another 24 hours in the cold and had we followed his advice we would have needed to throw more money after the boiler - I wonder whether we should ask for at least for some of our money back as a gesture of goodwill.

Is it worth going as far as complaining to the Gas Safety Register? I am not convinced this guy is serving the interests of his customers (oh, and he also managed to not properly hang back the boiler case)

Any views are appreciated.

Thanks

1984ReturnsForReal_2

Just ask for all your money back.

keystone

murmeltier wrote: »

He then charged a ludicrous £200 which fair enough we have agreed to beforehand so had no choice but to pay.

If you thought it ludicrous then why agree to it in the first place? Or is it only ludicrous now because he failed? Contractually was that just for turning up or was that for turning up and fixing the problem?

Not convinced by this guy, today we got a second engineer from a different company who looked at the boiler for one minute before detecting that the condensation pipe had been blocked/frozen - unblocking it fixed our boiler.

Can understand that you would now be disenchanted with the first guy. It srikes me that not only did he know nothing about your boiler but that he knew very little about condensing boilers but thats not necessarily his fault more likley the person on the end of the phone who took your call.

Now my question - should the first guy have spotted this had he done his job properly?

Yes if he had been capable / experienced. Thats not necessarily his fault.

Do you think I should complain to his company (which seems to be one of the big London ones)

Yes

............because he left us another 24 hours in the cold......

No because if it had been the PCB you would still have been another day in the cold.

and had we followed his advice we would have needed to throw more money after the boiler

It would have been better if he had said " I don't know" but perhaps his diagnosis was just a way of escaping without having to do something. Has the company followed up his visit? Did he actually leave with ajobsheet saying "PCB required"?

I wonder whether we should ask for at least for some of our money back as a gesture of goodwill.

Yes perhaps you should.

Is it worth going as far as complaining to the Gas Safety Register?

No this isn't something they would be interested in. Its not a gas issue.

I am not convinced this guy is serving the interests of his customers (oh, and he also managed to not properly hang back the boiler case)

If you swap the word "company" for "guy" then I'd agree with you.

Cheers

Canucklehead

Hi

If this is one of the big yellow book companies then you have ,what is known as, been had.;)

Kick up a fuss and you might get some money back. You did agree to the charge though.


GSR.

Marsdendean

He should have known. As we only fit Worcester Bosch boilers, we have had 10 calls Christmas eve regarding this problem.

Most boilers now (condensing) throw up fault codes, or when the pipe freezes certain things happen.

If it was the PCB, the fan wouldn't spin to begin with, it wouldn't light, it would just sit there.

Frozen condensate pipe just needs some hot water over the pipe - it should be 32MM pipe aswell


GAS SAFE are only there to make sure people are working on gas are competent and gas safe registered. They don't care if he charged you £400 for a PCB that was not needed

murmeltier

Thanks everyone for their comments. We only went with this big yellow pages company because it was Boxing Day and we couldn't get hold of any of the local plumbers. I should have known better ...

We agreed to the charge and paid for it - what was agreed over the phone was that an engineer would turn up, diagnose the problem and attempt to fix it. The minimum charge agreed was 1 hours work excluding parts which amounts to roughly £200.

Had the guy spent 5 mins (or even 60 mins) diagnosing the frozen pipe and unblocked it I would have had no issue with the amount agreed. I have a problem though with the guy spending 5 mins on the problem and then washing his hands saying needs a new PCB sorry I can't do this for you.

Given that he left with the job sheet saying "New PCB required" when in fact it was not (he also claimed that no power was going from PCB to the fan which I thought was a bit of rubbish but didn't want to challenge due to my lack of knowledge) I will now kick up a fuss with the company to see whether I can get some of my money back.

The company didn't do a follow up but I'm not sure I want one as there was another complication later - the guy originally charged £100 but was then sent back later by head office to charge another £100 because that's what's been agreed over the phone at which point I already kicked up a bit of a fuss but didn't really have anything to argue with since the £200 had indeed been agreed.

Anyway - I'll write them a strong letter and maybe they will have some sympathy.

Thanks.

keystone

murmeltier wrote: »

The minimum charge agreed was 1 hours work excluding parts which amounts to roughly £200.

In my book thats tantamount to theft - even on Boxing Day!

Cheers

murmeltier

Just to let everyone know - after writing a complaint letter to the company in question they have apologised for their incompetent engineer and refunded all charges without arguing ...