Querying electrician charge

Smudger74

Hello,
We had a situation where our consumer unit tripped and we were left without power to our porch and outside shed, even without any of the sockets being used.

We left it to see if it would resolve itself and my wife contacted a local electrician. She said is wasn't an emergency and he agreed to visit the next day (48 hours after the problem and a week day). He arrived and murphy's law the tripped switch worked. He was in the house for 10 minutes and flipped the switch. My issue is he has not found the root cause and I suspect it might go again after a heavy downpour.

We have just received a bill for £48 pounds. As galling as this is, do we have any rights to complain about the charge?

Smudger74

A quick update: after threatening to ask on Facebook what the job's cost would be he has volunteered to halve it to £24

Aylesbury_Duck

In future, best to ask what a minimum charge would be. Bear in mind that even for what was a fleeting visit, he still incurred expense getting there and back and may have put another job back to deal with yours. He also deserves to make a profit. You got a reasonable outcome in the end but best to ask up front next time.

Risteard

The charge was entirely reasonable. What did you expect?

Risteard

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

You got a reasonable outcome in the end but best to ask up front next time.

It was a reasonable outcome the first time. I would suggest that the new outcome was wholly unreasonable for the Electrician involved.

tacpot12

Risteard wrote: »

It was a reasonable outcome the first time. I would suggest that the new outcome was wholly unreasonable for the Electrician involved.

I'm not sure I would agree, and generally I do speak up on behalf of tradespeople. The electrician, according to the OP, doesn't seem to have used any of their specialist knowledge, skills or equipment to determine the cause of the fault. They have just looked to see if the fault is present and on finding that it was not, they have left, after being on site for less than 15 minutes. I expect that they were truely local and had not forsaken other work to attend this fault, so they were happy to reduce the charge to £25. Perhaps the electrician is hoping that the OP will engage him to fix the fault when it reoccurs now the OP knows him to a reasonable person.

comeandgo

tacpot12 wrote: »

I'm not sure I would agree, and generally I do speak up on behalf of tradespeople. The electrician, according to the OP, doesn't seem to have used any of their specialist knowledge, skills or equipment to determine the cause of the fault. They have just looked to see if the fault is present and on finding that it was not, they have left, after being on site for less than 15 minutes. I expect that they were truely local and had not forsaken other work to attend this fault, so they were happy to reduce the charge to £25. Perhaps the electrician is hoping that the OP will engage him to fix the fault when it reoccurs now the OP knows him to a reasonable person.

No, that electrician will put that customer on the ignore list and mention it to all his trade person friends. The first charge was very reasonable.

Grenage

£48 for a visit seems reasonable.


As to whether the guy was asked to try and find the fault or just restore power, that's another question. It's hard to fault find a fault that isn't present.

bris

tacpot12 wrote: »

, so they were happy to reduce the charge to £25.

No they weren't they were blackmailed to reduce the charge.


The £48 is reasonable. callout charges are generally between £45 and £90 the latter being from the big firms.

onomatopoeia99

£48 for a site visit is reasonable.

Threatening isn't.

-taff

Smudger74 wrote: »

She said is wasn't an emergency and he agreed to visit the next day (48 hours after the problem and a week day).

What relevance does this have?

Smudger74 wrote: »

He arrived and murphy's law the tripped switch worked. He was in the house for 10 minutes and flipped the switch. My issue is he has not found the root cause and I suspect it might go again after a heavy downpour.

So unless you actually asked him to find the root cause your issue is irrelevant.

Smudger74 wrote: »

We have just received a bill for £48 pounds. As galling as this is, do we have any rights to complain about the charge?

I don't think you did [even though you did] . You called out a professional, and that was the call out fee.

You might find, as above, your name has been added to a sh*t list now....