£215 to connect a gas hob - Is that fair?

Enterprise_1701C

My OH is not a gas fitter, he is in telecoms, BUT if there is a job that he is not sure about he always does a (free) survey first then gives a quote. That way he always has the right things on the van, and that quote is stuck to and sometimes he actually charges less than the quote (he always quotes for the worst case scenario).

Telll this idiot that if he thought it would cost more than the £85 that he quoted verbally in the first place (and he has acknowledged that quote by saying it was for a simple job) then he should have told you before doing any work - he surely could have seen at a glance if it was a more complicated job.

Clive_Woody

If the same guy put in the original pipework for you new kitchen and quoted you £85 to come back and connect the hob but now wants £215 for the job I would tell him to do one.

Our resident experts have already confirmed total cost of parts is less than 10 quid and he can hardly have been surprised if he fitted the original supply too.

Buy him a cowboy hat and tell him to sod off.

southcoastrgi

yes it must have an isolation valve, called a gas c0ck

a peglar washer, oh please don't say they have put that inside the female coupler

nzjono

It was the boss of the company that gave the figure of £85 when he was around last November to run through the work they'd done installing a new boiler. Unfortunately that was only a verbal quote. It was one of his guys that did the work about 2 weeks ago. It looks like they've forgotten or not communicated internally that they'd told me the £85 standard price before invoicing for £215.

I do at least have an email from someone in the office that says £85 is for a "straight forward job" so they're not denying the £85 figure, but I haven't been able to get an explanation as to why it wasn't a straight forward job.

NVRAM

Did you get this sorted mate?

southcoastrgi

how bizarre that the OP & poster above both joined at the same time & both have the same avatar pic, ummmmmm do I smell a rat ?

NVRAM

Which poster above?
And which avatar pic?

The newbie alert one? lol

kaya

southcoastrgi wrote: »

how bizarre that the OP & poster above both joined at the same time & both have the same avatar pic, ummmmmm do I smell a rat ?

Lol, well spotted , did you use your " spam-meter"? They're clever, but not that clever :rotfl:

southcoastrgi

NVRAM wrote: »

Which poster above?
And which avatar pic?

The newbie alert one? lol

no dormouseheating or something along those lines, funny how all their posts seem to have suddenly disapeared from the forum, like they were never ever here :rotfl:

nzjono

The conclusion to this (so far);

The company was Stagg Plumbing and Heating in Hertfordshire. I wrote them a letter containing all the details, including a list showing that all the parts/materials from ScrewFix (the nearest supplier that would have had everything needed) was less than £10, and enclosed a cheque for £166 (2hrs labour + VAT + £10 parts). It's far more than they deserved, the overcharging on parts was easy to prove, the overcharging on labour by "popping out to get parts" was harder so I didn't try. I haven't heard from them since.

I've submitted a complaint to Citizens Advice who'll pass it on to Trading Standards or the appropriate body. I've also left a negative review on TrustATrader which is how I originally found them. However, from reading other posts on MSE it appears TrustATrader don't publish negative reviews.

Thanks to everyone on here for their advice