£120 labour for fitting a £13 part...fair?

cheapskate101

I should give it up as a bad job once it costs you over £200 ..and get one of the ones that were recommended to me by the Plumb Centre - Vaillant or failing that Baxi. You pay more upfront but have less hassle for a better brand.

Angilion wrote:

Sounds like an obvious "no", but there's a bit more to it and I am not sure.

I have a Vokera Maxin 24 combi boiler, nine years old.

Background information
First off, I noticed that the water was periodically running lukewarm for about 15 seconds at a time, every few minutes, while I was having a shower. My shower is one of the combo tap/shower things in my bath (a lever redirects the water that would normally come out the taps into the shower hose) so I don't have a shower unit to go faulty. I called someone out to see to the boiler, which needed servicing anyway. They said I needed a new PCB, at a cost of £105+VAT...and I heard nothing more from them. They ignored my phone calls and I decided not to bother. They eventually sent me a bill for £60, which I paid (the engineer had serviced the boiler, and £60 is a fair price for that).

Main information
I then noticed that while hot water was being run, my boiler would ignite, burn for about 15 seconds, go out, immediately try to re-ignite and fail (although there was the click-whoosh sound and what appears to be the usual burning is visible through the little window for a couple of seconds), try to re-ignite again and succeed, burn for about 15 seconds...repeat until I stop running hot water.

This might well be what was causing the periodic large drop in water temperature during showering.

So I called Powergen, and got e-on, which I presume is either Powergen's service section or a company Powergen uses for servicing.

An engineer came out and spent about 2 and a half hours failing to find the problem. He then left, saying he'd phone Vokera. He could have phoned them from my phone or his mobile, since I'd given him the boiler's service manual, which contained the relevant phone number. I had queried the time and he assured me that I wasn't being charged after the first hour.

The next day, he left a message saying that he'd spoken to Vokera and a part might not be needed. So I arranged another visit.

That time, he was here for about 4 hours, again failing to find the problem. He blew down some tubes. After that visit, I decided to learn something about gas boilers myself - I think he was checking/trying to clear the venturi. It didn't work, anyway. This time, he took the service manual with him to read. I had queried the time again: "the clock stopped long ago".

A couple of days later, I came home from work to find a message from Powergen about having a quote for the repair and my authorisation being needed to order a part. I phoned them and found that the quote was for £132.71, of which £12.71 was for a sensor (they didn't know what kind of sensor - they just answered phones).

The minimum charge is £70, which covers callout and one hour of the engineer. Subsequent engineer time is charged at £12.50 per 15 minutes. So I am being charged for the callout+hour, one additional hour and the part itself. I've actually had about 5 additional hours...but I am not convinced that it should have taken even one additional hour to sort the problem out.

I'm currently thinking that it's easiest to just pay for that extra hour (on top of the callout+one hour charge), but I'm just balking at the idea of paying £120 labour costs to fit a £13 part that, as far as I can tell from my looking around the web, takes little time to fit.

beanieandme

£90 would have been more realistic with free call outs if they didn't fix it right the first time.

Angilion

Follow-up...

A second Powergen/E-on engineer came out and followed the handy fault-finding flowchart in the service manual. He diagnosed the fault in under half an hour. While burning for water for the central heating, the voltage accross...bah, I forget which part...remains above 11V. While burning for hot water, it dips below 11V, which causes the boiler to cut out, then goes back over 11V...repeat. The flowchart points to...the PCB. Which makes sense. The component itself is fine, as shown by it working perfectly for central heating (when central heating is turned on, the boiler burns for far longer than it does before the cut-out/re-ignite/repeat problem with hot water).

The bad news...Powergen quoted me £190.10 for the PCB and a total of £325 for the repair. I spoke with a helpful person in the spares department at Vokera, who told me that the full retail price for that part is £140 and it's usually cheaper. They gave me the details for a Vokera-approved supplier, who sell it retail for £126 (inc. VAT). It's available online for under £90.

I queried it with Powregen, who fobbed me off by telling me they pay £190.10 for this part for which the full retail price is £140. So I've paid £70 to them (call-out charge) for wasting my time and trying to rip me off with part prices.

If it wasn't for the insurance, I'd fit the part myself. It's only electrical, and I'm OK with that work.

British Gas have an explicit statement that they will not charge more than £156 for boiler repairs. I'm going to phone them and find out where the catch is.

robnye

as for the manual, have you tried the makers website or searching the internet. or even give the makers a call

Angilion

I have the manual - it was returned by the engineer.

Tom_Jones

Sorry Angilion but you've called out the 'big boys' so you have to pay the big boy prices, next time get a trusted local plumber.

robnye

Tom_Jones wrote:

Sorry Angilion but you've called out the 'big boys' so you have to pay the big boy prices, next time get a trusted local plumber.

hear hear - but they are blooming hard to find.........

adolf

Vokera maxin 24e

Im looking for a circuit diagram for the main board..needs a repair as modulator voltage is less than 50% of what is required and causing me some problems.