Septic Tank Charge

rai78

I'm wondering if anyone can offer a bit of advice.
We had what looked like an overflowing septic tank so called someone to come and pump it out. For them to do this I had to pay upfront £200.
When the guy got here he refused to come to the house because of a wooden bridge along our drive. The desicion not to pump the tank was made solely by the driver.
Fortunately it turned it turned out to be just a blocked pipe so I called the firm to get back our money.
The rather unhelpful woman at the end of the phone told us that we would probably still be charged but she would call us back and let us know.
As the decision not to come up to the house was the drivers and through no fault of our own and as we never had the service nor were told that we would be charged regardless of whether the tank was emptied or not (their web site states no call out charge and fixed prices) I think we should get a full refund.
Can anyone offer me some advice on this and something to fight the decision if they come back to us saying the charge still stands?
Thank you.

Justicia

rai78 wrote: »

When the guy got here he refused to come to the house because of a wooden bridge along our drive. The desicion not to pump the tank was made solely by the driver.

Can you expand on this reason not to come to the house? Did he then leave without accessing the property at all then?

pinkshoes

If there's no call out fee, and they didn't do any work (at their own request), then they really can't charge you.

I would put it in writing to them asking for the refund, and get proof of delivery.

I presume you've had people cross the wooden bridge thing before to empty the septic tank, so it's perfectly safe?

rai78

Thank you for you're advice.
The reason the guy wouldn't come up the drive is because we have a wooden bridge which has to be traveled over to get the the house and it has caused problems in the past.
There's at least one oil supplier who won't come to us, they said it was a health and safety issue, presumably meaning that they were worried the weight of the tanker might break the bridge.
We've only been in the house six months so haven't had to have the tank pumped yet.
The septic tank man got a lift up to the house off someone who lives at the end of our quarter mile drive, in a Toyota truck. After being driven over the troublesome bridge in that he then said he didn't want to risk coming up in his tanker so although HE got to the house all the necessary equipment and his tanker were still quarter of a mile away.
I don't know if any of this makes any difference to your advice.
We're now waiting for the head office to call back after a phone call today explaining that the person we'd need to speak to was away.

mikey72

Not entirely the drivers fault he couldn't complete the job.
There are usually two elements to the charge though, the call out, and the cost per litre pumped out, so there should be a refund, but possibly it will have to be negotiated.

R0bert_Sterling

Strengthen the bridge with Logs.... sounds like you have a few to spare!!

Hintza

Has your bridge been weight tested? What size was the lorry?

We have an old stone cundy and although some large lorries have been over it, we will not be hugely surprised if it collapses sometime. Other lorries have required a lot of persuading that the edge of the track is not going to collapse.

I suspect you might struggle to get all your money back but if you can show the driver was being unreasonable you might have a better chance.

Apples2

R0bert_Sterling wrote: »

Strengthen the bridge with Logs.... sounds like you have a few to spare!!

Ha ha :T :rotfl::rotfl: :T