Boiler been looked at 5 times - still not fixed

Noospheric

Hi,

My Grandmother's boiler broke down about 2 weeks ago. She got a local company to come out and the repair man left happy that is was working.

I wasn't there at the time so I left a note to the repairman saying it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I wanted him to know that so he didn't leave thinking it was fixed when it might just be being temperamental.

When I got to her house it wasn't working. She called the company again and they sent out a different repairman. To cut a long story short, this repairman came out 4 times and has provided 3 different parts. He left yesterday and when I got there I noticed straight away it was not working.

I'm going to ring the company today and tell them we will go with another company. After the second visit, the company sent out an invoice for around £80 and I expect they will want to charge more now they've been out several more times with extra parts.

I'd like to know where I stand with this please. I'd rather just not pay them at all and go with a different company.

gas4you

What is the make/model of boiler and the fault?

My customers only pay when I fix it and only for the part that fixes it, if I am stupid enough to get it wrong first time.

Noospheric

It's a Valiant boiler. I'm not at my gran's house now so can't say the model or give the correct technical terms but the boiler doesn't light.

When the hot water is turned on the boiler will attempt to light, there's a period where you have to wait then the ignition flame should come on but instead a red light comes on saying it wasn't able to do that.

It's happened in the past and all I've done is adjusted the water pressure to what is recommended in the manual then reset the ignition light and it works. It's sort of hit and miss if this works now though and it'll only last a day or two after doing that anyway.

The company said they will only charge the initial invoice of £80 but then I said what about all the parts you've tried and they said the manager will have to call me back about that.

macman

What are the 3 parts that he has already changed?

Noospheric

I haven't been there whilst he's been doing the work so the only one I can say he has changed (because he left the old one on the side) is the pressure safeguard.

macman

If you have been billed, it should say on there what has been changed. If not call them and ask.You really ought to get it documented, as you don't even have any evidence than the other parts have been changed. If you have to get another company out eventually (as this one seems to think that fixing a boiler is just randomly changing parts until you strike lucky) they will need to know what has already been done if they are not to repeat the same things again at your expense.

Noospheric

I've rang the company and they said they will send another repairman out tomorrow. He needs to asses what work has been done before the company can determine what they will charge us. Sounds messy already.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll make sure they specify what has and hasn't been fitted.