Able Group failed to fix my boiler - now possibly refusing to give refund

pmartin86

FashionHeart wrote: »

My boiler broke down after over 10 years and I had no choice but to call Able because of their emergency call out service.

They sent who I thought was a decent and friendly Indian guy with his 'colleague'.
The initial call out and inspection came to a whopping total of £121 including VAT.
Furthermore, he gave me his business card; meaning he was exploiting the company for his own business gain as they hired him as a subcontractor.

He came to the property again the next day to try and fix the boiler privately through his business to make it cheaper for me but when he got there, he claimed that he had found 'extra' faults - expansion vessel, electrode and the gas valve all needed replacing. Yes this meant he wanted to increase the price of the original quote of £270 to include servicing the boiler!

But then things started to get extremely suspicious since then because as he was installing the electrode, he realised he got the wrong expansion vessel size and admitted that he didn't check it before collecting it from the 'warehouse' - I mean you would've thought as a professional, he would know this!
This obviously delayed things which understandably got me annoyed and extremely frustrated and wasted my time.
Anyway he left and said would come back 2 days later because he was busy with another customer.

But I was impatient being extremely cold with no heating and no hot water and with the wintery weather not being a great help either - I thought I needed to get someone else to resolve the problem...
However that's when he began to text me continuously demanding payment which I obviously refused because he didn't fix the problem; meaning that I was back at square one - and now I'm scared he may go to my property and vandalise it.

The eventual happy ending - I called British Gas and luckily got a last minute appointment, where their engineer advised me that there was only one fault which was the gas valve. Basically Able's engineer wanted to charge me for the 'multiple' parts that didn't actually need replacing - therefore trying to waste my money.
Also what was really surprising in a way, the British Gas engineer had found that the boiler was in such a state that he had to mark the appliance as unsafe and even questioned me about the engineer's professionalism!

Yes as expected, the British Gas engineer fixed it!

Now in the middle of complaining to Able about this whole disaster - compiling all the evidence against this cowboy 'engineer', forwarding all of the texts he has sent to me along with all of the British Gas reports sand findings.

Hopefully a refund will be on it's way to my bank account where it rightfully belongs...

Anyway, I have broken this into a timeline to make things easier:

Day 1; 16th January 2018
* Through Able Group job, he had found 2 faults in the boiler - expansion vessel and electrodes needed replacing.
He claims that Able Group quote will be expensive and suggests to do it through his private job.

Day 2; 17th January 2018
* Received text messages liaising with engineer through his own business (Safe Response Gas & Plumbing Ltd - 34 Highfield Road, Dudley, DY2 7QD) - quoted a slightly lower price than Able Group would've provided as he still claimed.
He fitted electrodes but found another fault - gas valve also needed replacing.
Increases quote. Engineer told me he wouldn't be able to visit again on Thursday 18th January 2018 due to another customer's request.
Felt impatient, I contacted British Gas for an appointment, a second opinion and to resolve the problem once and for all. Appointment booked for 18th January 2018.

Day 3; 18th January 2018
* British Gas engineer arrived and inspected the boiler. Found the mechanics and wirings in such a dangerous state and marks the boiler as unsafe, At Risk (AR) and places Safety Warning label on appliance.
Also gives a Safety Checklist Report to me along with the main diagnosis. British Gas Engineer asked my mother's permission to do so and questions Able Group's engineer's professionalism due to this.
British Gas Engineer has also informed me that only the gas valve needed replacing and nothing else was required.

Day 4; 19th January 2018
* British Gas engineer arrived again with the gas valve part and resolved the problem.

I have made a complaint to Able Group and sent all of the evidence (including screenshots of the text messages from their engineer) and Service Reports from the British Gas engineer who inspected the boiler's safety and resolved the problem.
Able Group has responded swiftly and informs me that they will review all of the evidence I have sent to them.

Does anyone have any advice on what else I should do to receive a refund??

So, in summary|:

- You called able because your boiler broke down
- you had an engineer who convinced you to go though him to save you money instead of the comapny that contracted him
- you got stuung by the obviously dubious engineer
- *section missing*
- its now abels fault because your a !!!!ing idiot?

ic

FashionHeart wrote: »

Hopefully a refund will be on it's way to my bank account where it rightfully belongs...
...
Does anyone have any advice on what else I should do to receive a refund??

So they haven't refused to give a refund, as per your misleading title?

shaun_from_Africa

FashionHeart wrote: »

Well I was obviously misled/tricked wasn't I by the engineer because he actually told me it would be cheaper if I went through his own accord.

He told you that you could save money by bypassing the company you had a contract with (Able group) and you agreed to this.
If this person couldn't be trusted to honour his contract with Able, why would you think him trustworthy enough not to try to rip his customers off?

Hermione_Granger

pmartin86 wrote: »

So, in summary|:

- You called able because your boiler broke down
- you had an engineer who convinced you to go though him to save you money instead of the comapny that contracted him
- you got stuung by the obviously dubious engineer
- *section missing*
- its now abels fault because your a !!!!ing idiot?

Poor spelling, missing apostrophe and multiple missing capitalisation and full stops yet you refer to the OP as an idiot?

Aylesbury_Duck

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

He told you that you could save money by bypassing the company you had a contract with (Able group) and you agreed to this.
If this person couldn't be trusted to honour his contract with Able, why would you think him trustworthy enough not to try to rip his customers off?

Exactly this. No one “tricked” or “misled” the OP. The OP was just too keen to chase the lowest price, despite the obviously dodgy circumstances, and it’s come back and bitten him.

pmartin86

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

Poor spelling, missing apostrophe and multiple missing capitalisation and full stops yet you refer to the OP as an idiot?

Oh look, a grammer nazi...Perhaps we should comment on the rambling scentence length used? Poor SPAG doesn't mean the meaning of my post is incorrect.

Hermione_Granger

pmartin86 wrote: »

Oh look, a grammer nazi....

Surely you meant grammar Nazi.

Alex1983

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

Surely you meant grammar Nazi.

How tragic that you feel the need to correct someone’s grammar on the internet.

Hermione_Granger

Alex1983 wrote: »

How tragic that you feel the need to correct someone’s grammar on the internet.

If you read my earlier post, you will see that the only reason I pointed out the poor grammar and spelling was because the poster concerned referred to another poster as a "!!!!ing idiot"

If they had written a post with spelling and grammatical mistakes without trying to insult another person, I wouldn't have felt the need to point out their errors.

macman

Able Group don't appear to have any engineers themselves, they are simply a web based referral service passing jobs on to sub contractors-How else could they offer a nationwide service? You then got a cowboy RGI (or at least I hope he was registered-you did check his GSR status I trust?).
Next time use a local independent GSR RGI, not the first name (A-b) that comes up in yell-these cowboys choose names for a reason.
PS: a £10 convector from Argos etc would have provided you with temporary heating for a couple of days,
If you examine clause 11 in their T&C's, you'll see that all liability is exclusively retained by their unfortunate subcontractors:
'Our engineers operate under their own registration, and are solely responsible for any work and subsequent liability'