Gas leak caused by incompetant cooker installation

bulletproof_1979

Hi all - wonder if any of you compensation wizards could help?

I bought a gas cooker from AO.com and had it installed yesterday. We woke up this morning with headaches and a smell of gas in the house.

We called British Gas out and they found that the cooker was unsafely fitted due to laziness and had been leaking gas since it was installed. They classified the cooker as being "Immediately Dangerous" and said they have to report the installers. They told us AO would need to have it installed properly.(The blokes who put it did seem in a rush and were actually joking about getting to go home early once they had done their installations for the day!)

So I've called AO and they've apologised and agreed to pay for it to be installed correctly and refunded the delivery/installation charge. They also offered £35 "for the inconvenience" - I thanked the guy on the phone but said I'd be in touch with customer services in more detail at this point (as I don't really feel that sufficiently covers the fact that they could have killed us or the time it will take to resolve - including finding installers, waiting in for installation etc. etc).

The cooker cost £400 - what do people think is a fair amount to expect refunded? (My initial reaction was the full cost, but perhaps that's unreasonable?) And what do you think is the best way to proceed from here?

tomtontom

What are your losses?

£35 sounds like a fair offer. £400 is ridiculous.

unholyangel

By law all you are entitled to is them covering the costs involved with having the installation done properly.

Yes it was dangerous but thankfully no harm actually came to you or your family and unfortunately, you can't sue someone for what might have happened, only what did happen.

bulletproof_1979

Actual losses, I suppose, are me and my partners time since 8 this morning, and the need for me to be in the house for the rest of the day today to arrange and wait for someone to install.

Less tangible "loss" is the risk we were exposed to in sleeping a house filled with gas last night.

wealdroam

bulletproof_1979 wrote: »

Actual losses, I suppose, are me and my partners time since 8 this morning, and the need for me to be in the house for the rest of the day today to arrange and wait for someone to install.

Less tangible "loss" is the risk we were exposed to in sleeping a house filled with gas last night.

OK, then what money making activities would you and your partner otherwise have been up to?
Can you show that you actually lost anything?

If this ever got as far as court, you would be expected to demonstrate real losses.

shaun_from_Africa

bulletproof_1979 wrote: »

Actual losses, I suppose, are me and my partners time since 8 this morning, and the need for me to be in the house for the rest of the day today to arrange and wait for someone to install.

Those would only be classed as actual losses if you lost money due to having to stay in the house waiting (if for example you were self employed and could prove that you lost money due to having to wait in).

bulletproof_1979

wealdroam wrote: »

OK, then what money making activities would you and your partner otherwise have been up to?
Can you show that you actually lost anything?

No, wouldn't claim that I would have be doing any "money making activities", but I'd have been free to spend my time as I choose, rather than forced to spend it clearing up AO's mess. Is that time valueless?

HappyMJ

bulletproof_1979 wrote: »

No, wouldn't claim that I would have be doing any "money making activities", but I'd have been free to spent my time as I choose, rather than forced to spend it clearing up AO's mess. Is that time valueless?

Technically...yes. You didn't suffer a financial loss and the offer they have made is fair. You could ask for more but I doubt they will offer much more so you need to take them to court if you have suffered a financial loss...which you haven't.

tomtontom

In the time you've been posting on here you could have arranged an alternative installer. Give a Gas Safe engineer a call, arrange an appt time and then the rest of the day will be yours to do with as you wish.

unholyangel

bulletproof_1979 wrote: »

No, wouldn't claim that I would have be doing any "money making activities", but I'd have been free to spent my time as I choose, rather than forced to spend it clearing up AO's mess. Is that time valueless?

Pretty much.

However it appears ao.com realise there has been some disruption for you and were refunding the delivery charge & offering a goodwill gesture on top of that to account for the inconvenience.

bulletproof_1979

tomtontom wrote: »

In the time you've been posting on here you could have arranged an alternative installer. Give a Gas Safe engineer a call, arrange an appt time and then the rest of the day will be yours to do with as you wish.

Oh that's already sorted before I came on, I was very lucky to get one at all today, let alone book a precise appointment time. "This afternoon maybe", or sometime Monday was the best they could do...