Heating Engineer - Unexpected Call out Charge

robcole86

I'm glad I'm not the only one with these thoughts. Thanks very much all!

unholyangel

robcole86 wrote: »

I'm glad I'm not the only one with these thoughts. Thanks very much all!

The law supports it also (not just from CCRs).

In order to have a legally binding contract, you need offer + acceptance and the consideration must be valid/something of value. You didnt agree to give consideration therefore no legally binding contract.

If they can't give you the price it will cost, they're supposed to tell you how it will be calculated (for example @ £50 per hour).

C_Mababejive

The difficulty is that there are too many people who will call someone and say can you come and quote for how much it will be to do x/y/z.

Now to me, it makes a difference if it is a quote for work when time is not of the essence i.e please come and quote for my new bathroom refurb.

For such work someone would most likely be able to make a good judgement,based on experience, as to whether it is worth their while going to quote,


A quote for something of which time is of the essence i.e my boiler is broken, please come and tell me how much to fix/quote..well you expect that if they are ringing you, they want it fixing. You do not therefore expect to expend time and resources on going along,spending time finding out what the problem is only for some joker to say ooh alright , icant afford that ,,i'll wait/i'l get someone else,someone else said it would cost x/y/z..

somethingcorporate

C_Mababejive wrote: »

The difficulty is that there are too many people who will call someone and say can you come and quote for how much it will be to do x/y/z.

Now to me, it makes a difference if it is a quote for work when time is not of the essence i.e please come and quote for my new bathroom refurb.

For such work someone would most likely be able to make a good judgement,based on experience, as to whether it is worth their while going to quote,


A quote for something of which time is of the essence i.e my boiler is broken, please come and tell me how much to fix/quote..well you expect that if they are ringing you, they want it fixing. You do not therefore expect to expend time and resources on going along,spending time finding out what the problem is only for some joker to say ooh alright , icant afford that ,,i'll wait/i'l get someone else,someone else said it would cost x/y/z..

All reasonable points but it should be up to the tradesmen to make their charging structure clear upfront.

Not discussing it and then billing for it is very unprofessional. OP should send him an invoice for staying at his house for ten minutes!

alan.t

if you asked for a quote only and he didn't tell you a fee over the phone don't pay it. Any tradesman of decent repute will have been in the situation time and again, and will know to cover himself he has to tell you he will charge a call out fee, or also knows he wont get paid for quoting.


what was the fault, have you since had it repaired, is the boiler now working again?

robcole86

I have received an email from the engineer who does now seem to understand my point and is letting it go, mind you not without a few extra comments thrown in!

The boiler is 15 years old so to reduce future pain I've decided to replace with a new one and have approached a company to come out an perform a FREE survey and quote before fitting the new system.

Thanks everyone for the assistance, greatly appreciated!

bod1467

Ask around and try to get recommendations ... not everyone offering free surveys like this will be good.

Also ... is the boiler scrapage scheme in effect where you are? (Or whatever "green" name they have for it at the moment). If yes then you may be able to get "vouchers" to cover costs for various things like the boiler, controls, etc.

cookie365

They're in breach of checkatrade's code of practice (as well as the law).

Complain direct to checkatrade, and make sure they know about the 'extra comments'.

robcole86

Thanks, yea I thought that and it states on their site that they provide free estimates haha. Good stuff

bod1467

robcole86 wrote: »

and it states on their site that they provide free estimates

Ah, but you asked for a quote .....