plumber stress

bongandleroy

We have a bathroom towel heater that doesn't work. We hired a plumber to come and fix it.
He said it needed flushing and if we wanted to we could also change the valves at the same time. We asked what the benefit of changing the valves would be and he said 'its very common to change while its drained, they can be a pain once they have been touched, by all means you can leave them'
So we arranged to just have the radiator flushed, fully expecting to pay the extra to change the valves if flushing it wasn't enough and it did need new valves. He flushed it and said it should be working and dashed off with his money. Well at this point alarm bells started going off. I turned on the heating and sure enough it wasn't working. I phoned him up and told him. He said 'it'll be the valves need changing, you said you didnt want them doing'. I was angry at him, I was yelling. I said we aren't to know what the problem with the radiator is, we've hired you to fix it. You didn't even stay to check it was working.' He agreed in the end to come back in a few days and do the valves. I was of course expecting to pay the extra £40 he originally quoted to do this.
The arranged day came and he didn't come at the arranged time. I eventually phoned and asked if he was still coming, he said he'd be another couple of hours. He never came.
Today I have phoned again, he is not answering to us now. I sent a text saying 'as you don't want to finish the job you were hired for I would like my money back. If this isn't returned we will begin proceeding to take you to court.
He replied 'come back and finish the job? I told you 2 prices, you went for the cheap option so you paid for it flushed out, you declined the valves changing while drained down so now you will have to pay to redrain the system all again just to change the valves.'
Do I have a case to take to court? I feel like he's getting out of being responsible on the technicality that he asked us (the customers) what he should do to fix it...and didn't even fully explain the reasons and hows of changing the valves

I hope all the... i said, he said, then I said made sense.

JJ_Egan

<fully expecting to pay the extra to change the valves if flushing it wasn't enough and it did need new valves.>
But as he said that would need draining down again .

bongandleroy

<But as he said that would need draining down again >..Yes, but I didn't know that until he said as such in his text today. I know nothing about plumbing.
When we asked about it before the work was done he said 'its very common to change while its drained, they can be a pain once they have been touched, by all means you can leave them'

scd3scd4

He flushed a system for £40??

Is this also electric??

You paid him to fix it, if the values were necessary to do that then it was not an option.

A lesson there....should be working??...........lets wait and see its working I normally say, while not paying anything.

Its annoying but not worth wasting your time for £40 is it??

bongandleroy

No, Sorry. I mustn't have made myself clear. The £40 was extra if we wanted the valves doing at the same time.

My partner gave him the money when he said it should be working. I'm trying very hard not to blame him though.

BorisThomson

The plumber recommended the valves needed changing. You, despite knowing nothing about plumbing, ignored his advice. You paid him to flush the radiator, he has done this. You now need to pay for the valve replacement.

Any chance of goodwill from the plumber was lost when you yelled at him. A very silly thing to do.

scd3scd4

bongandleroy wrote: »

No, Sorry. I mustn't have made myself clear. The £40 was extra if we wanted the valves doing at the same time.

My partner gave him the money when he said it should be working. I'm trying very hard not to blame him though.

Ok, so he charged £X and fixed nothing.

You asked for the radiator to be fixed. Again if fixing it needed the values changing then why would he ask. You did not ask for the rad to be flushed and not fixed. He should have told you what needed to be done or it was very likely he could not guarantee a fix without changing the values.


As my dad use to say......."Anyone can charge and not fix anything!" ;-]

I would be tempted to get him back to fix it..............then pay him nothing and let him take me/you to court. Or get him back and pay nothing until you confirm its working.

firefox1956

Sounds to me like the 'plumber' is talking a right load of cr*p.
Are you quite sure the valves are not just turned off ??
Are the pipes below the valves hot when the heating is turned on ??
HTH

bongandleroy

i disagree that we went against his advice. When we asked what the benefit was he said 'its very common to change while its drained, they can be a pain once they have been touched, by all means you can leave them'
He said it was common to do...not he recommended it and thought it was the cause of the problem. Why ask someone with no knowledge of plumbing what he should do to fix it?

bongandleroy

<I would be tempted to get him back to fix it..............then pay him nothing and let him take me/you to court. Or get him back and pay nothing until you confirm its working>
We tried to get him back. But he did not turn up, no phone call to say anything. And then he started ignoring our calls.

warehouse

He's taking you for a ride. Get another, (recommended), plumber in asap and take his advice re plumber 1.