Tradesman (plumber) gone AWOL - WWYD?

tom9980

So i have a plumber i have used for 4-5 years. At the end of last month our boiler gave a fan fault error, he came within a day or so then got the new fan and fitted a new one on the 1st of march. This failed the next day with the same fan fault.

He came back on the 16th after telling me he was "nervous" about the job and began replacing the PCB and another new fan, the boiler produced the same fan fault and didn't fire up, at which point he had to leave to attend a family emergency.

He promised to be back on the 23rd in a message and hasn't replied to my multiple messages since then. We are now over a month without heating and hot water, not ideal.

I am wondering what the mse collective think i should do considering he isn't responding to messages?

Le_Kirk

I would be looking for a Gas Safe (or whatever they are called this week) engineer to attend and fix my boiler. Your existing one is clearly not coming back - unless there are mitigating circumstances.


I had an instance a couple of years ago when I contacted a tradesman (well known to and friends with, my neighbour) to do some fencing and he did not reply to any phone calls or texts. I contracted someone else to do the job. Several weeks later, he turned up at my neighbour's house very apologetic; he had been out of action after falling out of a tree!

Frank99

I would get someone else in pronto!

He might be telling the truth about a family emergency or bluffing but either way when the new person comes in you will find out what the problem is.

My main plumber starting using excuses like this and was to kind to tell me he didn't want to come, if you ever get an emergency you will need someone reliable so i would make the switch or grab someone off local heroes or checkatrade.

cattie

Frank99 wrote: »

grab someone off local heroes or checkatrade.

Certainly not from sites such as checkatrade as in most cases the tradesperson pays to be featured on there. Best to ask around & try to get a recommendation or approach a local established gas safe installer company.

bris

Get a fixed price repair from the manufacture.


A multimeter would have pinpointed the problem rather than just putting in parts, something is blowing the fan.

tom9980

bris wrote: »

Get a fixed price repair from the manufacture.


A multimeter would have pinpointed the problem rather than just putting in parts, something is blowing the fan.

That makes sense the fault finding in the manual asks to check polarity before replacing the fan, something i commented on during the initial fault finding. I never once saw him use a multimeter but relied and trusted his previous good work and knowledge. Does this mean the fans have probably died/blown completely because of his mistake?

Wondering on where i stand when it comes to paying his bill now too if hes installed parts hes then ruined by his own mistake i assume i am safe to only part pay the bill for his time and any parts left working?

Giving him 24 hours now to respond before booking a baxi repair seems fair to me? then using the report produced by the baxi engineer to defend against any court claims.

Trying to balance what is reasonable and fair while getting this sorted out so we get hot water and heating back quickly.

Mike_the_Boilerman

It strikes me there are two separate issues at play here.

1) Poor business behaviour in avoiding you now the job has gone wrong. If I were you I would simply not pay the bill and wait for contact. In the meantime get someone else in to do it.

2) How to get your heat back on ASAP. What boiler is this, exactly? I'm lost in admiration for those posters on here who can diagnose the problem and proposing methods of fixing it without even this most basic information. Manufacturers' FPRs look on the face of it very good value but they vary a lot. I've suggested this route to several of my customers over the years and more often than not the customer returns to me saying they just didn't fix the problem, condemning even some surprisingly simple fixes as 'beyond economic repair'. Possibly due to cost of parts which is usually why I referred them in the first place!

My guess is you have a Potterton Promax or a Baxi Barcelona from your description of the fault. If you have, BG are generally good at fixing these as they sell absolutely tons of them, along with maintenance contracts.

tom9980

Mike_the_Boilerman wrote: »

It strikes me there are two separate issues at play here.

1) Poor business behaviour in avoiding you now the job has gone wrong. If I were you I would simply not pay the bill and wait for contact. In the meantime get someone else in to do it.

2) How to get your heat back on ASAP. What boiler is this, exactly? I'm lost in admiration for those posters on here who can diagnose the problem and proposing methods of fixing it without even this most basic information. Manufacturers' FPRs look on the face of it very good value but they vary a lot. I've suggested this route to several of my customers over the years and more often than not the customer returns to me saying they just didn't fix the problem, condemning even some surprisingly simple fixes as 'beyond economic repair'. Possibly due to cost of parts which is usually why I referred them in the first place!

My guess is you have a Potterton Promax or a Baxi Barcelona from your description of the fault. If you have, BG are generally good at fixing these as they sell absolutely tons of them, along with maintenance contracts.

Hi its a Baxi 80 HE plus

Original fault started 2 years ago during cold weather and produced a intermittent ignition lockout fault mainly during cold weather. I could reset the boiler 99 times out of 100 when this happened by turning off my thermostat and resetting the boiler. My plumber thought it was the condensate trap or maybe the probes and cleaned it but the fault returned the next winter.

Then a month ago i got the fan lockout fault as i described earlier my plumber turned up realised the fan was a sealed unit and ordered a replacement, i didn't see him use a multimeter and he simply replaced this and the probes to fix the other earlier fault. The boiler worked for a few hours that evening but the next morning it was displaying the fan fault error code and i was able to restart the boiler with the reset button. The boiler stopped again later in the afternoon and hasn't worked since.

Mike_the_Boilerman

tom9980 wrote: »

Hi its a Baxi 80 HE plus

Ok thanks. Just looked it up and it is the same boiler as a Promax/Barcelona. Baxi put many different badges on this same boiler.

So I stand by my previous comments, this is a pig of a boiler to fix, well known for being unpredictable. I've had enough similar experiences to yours/your plumbers' with this boiler to have learned never to get involved with them. I always refer people to BG, much as it pains me. Never had anyone come back saying BG let them down.

Maybe the Baxi FPR will work out fine too, but check in advance what their policy is if it packs up again a week after they've fixed it. If they will do it again under warranty then great. If not then I strongly advise signing up on a maintenance plan with BG.