Unfair call out charge?

macman

How on earth did you think a boiler service could trigger a fault in a mid pos valve that is only connected to it by a copper pipe? It's akin to having your car engine serviced, and then when the gearbox fails a few days later, accusing the garage of being responsible.
You said yourself that the system is 20 years old, so it's hardly impossible for a component to fail at any time. Unfortunate coincidence, yes, but a coincidence nonetheless.
And how you get from a valve failure to deciding to rip it all out and fit a combi is beyond me. Is the property and water pressure/flow even suitable? If no, and you go for a conventional boiler, you'll still need the valve changing anyway.
The supplier agreed to come back and assess the fault as reported. When he quite reasonably concluded that it was nothing to do with the service, he was entitled to charge a call out fee, if that is what their standard terms allow for. The bottom line is that you've wasted their time (it wasn't 10 minutes, it was 10 minutes plus a journey each way, fuel for the van etc). That could easily amount to an hour, for which £56 including VAT is not unreasonable.

unclebulgaria

sniggings I think you're getting free quote mixed up with diagnosis!
There is nothing to stop the OP from getting a friend in now to repair the faulty mid position valve for a pint so the company are well within their right to charge for a problem not linked to the boiler service. As far as the mention of a charge goes we only have the OP's word for it and I've lost count of the amount of customers who have not heard me mention a charge prior to my invoice.

Stooby2

How on earth did you think a boiler service could trigger a fault in a mid pos valve that is only connected to it by a copper pipe? It's akin to having your car engine serviced, and then when the gearbox fails a few days later, accusing the garage of being responsible.

Because he knows absolutely nothing about heating systems and just put 2 and 2 together? And read the motoring forum long enough and you'll find someone posting that their gearbox broke after an engine service and it was obviously the garage's fault and can they sue them?

I'm with Keystone on this - v poor to charge someone without informing them there could be a charge in the first place.

nickj_2

they guy has given a quote for £140 - the charge is for his time in diagnosing the fault . this is not the same as for instance giving a quote to install a new boiler etc , this will be a job that can be priced and no charge would be made for coming out to assess the job , however , what is the point in getting someone out to to diagnose a fault and then for the cutomer to get his "mate down the pub" who "knows a bit about plumbing" to come and sort it out .

macman

Stooby2 wrote: »

Because he knows absolutely nothing about heating systems and just put 2 and 2 together? And read the motoring forum long enough and you'll find someone posting that their gearbox broke after an engine service and it was obviously the garage's fault and can they sue them?

I'm with Keystone on this - v poor to charge someone without informing them there could be a charge in the first place.

I agreee that it should have been mentioned, But presumably it was not an RGI who took the call, and they would have no more idea than the OP whether the fault was service-related or not.

Phantomwheelspinner

Thanks for the additional replies. The only reason I thought the engineer may have caused the problem was because he did go upstairs to check the water cylinder, mid valve and pipes. He even admitted when he came back it could possibly have been related to his first visit. Strange he would say that if it wasn't indeed at least a remote possibility?

My idea of also considering a new boiler was again based on the advice by the engineer who commented that he felt the boiler probably wouldn't last much longer (can't grumble after more than 20 years).

I can only re-iterate there was absolutely no mention by either the office or the engineer that there was going to be any call out fee. They have a yell.com listing so I will be warning fellow customers about the fact they are not upfront with callout charges.

The irony of this is whole situation is that, once I'd made the decision, I was planning on booking them to replace the mid-valve or fit the new boiler and would probably have stuck with them for future servicing.....but not now.