failed dishwasher repair

robkeep

Hi all - I recently got a company to come and fix my dishwasher. It had stopped working and was displaying a fault code ( 4 beeps). It was out of warranty. The company charged a flat call out fee, £78, and said that if they couldn't fix it, they would order the parts, which I would pay for, and then come back and fix it. The engineer came, said it needed a new part, £48.77, which I paid for. He came back a week or so later and fitted the part, and although it was still beeping, he said it would settle down. It still didn't work properly, so I phoned the company, and the engineer came back again, and said it now needed a new control panel now, at a cost of £210.65. I phoned the company again, and they said that they were closing the job as 'completed', as I didn't want to pay for the new part. I pointed out that we had an agreement to fix it for the original quoted price, but they said if I didn't pay for. the 'new' parts, then they wouldn't do anything.
My query is is this covered by the consumer rights act - I am still where I was weeks ago, and wearing Marigolds,  but £126 poorer. - Thanks for any advice.

Aylesbury_Duck

robkeep said:

Hi all - I recently got a company to come and fix my dishwasher. It had stopped working and was displaying a fault code ( 4 beeps). It was out of warranty. The company charged a flat call out fee, £78, and said that if they couldn't fix it, they would order the parts, which I would pay for, and then come back and fix it. The engineer came, said it needed a new part, £48.77, which I paid for. He came back a week or so later and fitted the part, and although it was still beeping, he said it would settle down. It still didn't work properly, so I phoned the company, and the engineer came back again, and said it now needed a new control panel now, at a cost of £210.65. I phoned the company again, and they said that they were closing the job as 'completed', as I didn't want to pay for the new part. I pointed out that we had an agreement to fix it for the original quoted price, but they said if I didn't pay for. the 'new' parts, then they wouldn't do anything.
My query is is this covered by the consumer rights act - I am still where I was weeks ago, and wearing Marigolds,  but £126 poorer. - Thanks for any advice.

Are you sure that's correct?  It might be accurate for the originally diagnosed fault, but it's perfectly possible that the control panel is a consequential fault and also needs replacing.  I deduce from your description that the £78 is the fixed part of the bill (labour), and you are responsible for the (variable) cost of parts.  I can't see how they're responsible for a potentially unlimited parts bill, so if you won't buy the parts, they can't fix it.

Where you may have a complaint is that the first diagnosis was incorrect and the £48.77 part wasn't needed. In that case, you could ask them to return and replace the old corresponding part but you'll still need the £210 part - they're not going to provide that free of charge.

Diamandis

You had an agreement to replace part a for £48.77. This was done, you don't now get part b replaced for this price unless you have a contract that says that is the case. The part would cost the company more than you've paid. 

oldagetraveller1

"if they couldn't fix it, they would order the parts, which I would pay for, and then come back and fix it."

Which they have done. It requires more parts covered by their original statement you must have agreed to.

It does appear they are just chucking parts at it though, until one of them fixes the issue, rather than an initial proper full diagnosis.

DiddyDavies

oldagetraveller1 said:

It does appear they are just chucking parts at it though, until one of them fixes the issue, rather than an initial proper full diagnosis.

That seems to be the way that many companies operate nowadays.
Last year the Bosch extractor hood in my kitchen failed so I arranged for a Bosch service visit. This was charged at £95 and the figure was fixed irrespective of what parts or how many visits were needed.
When the engineer came, he told me that it was always the fan than failed so he spent 30 minutes replacing this only to find that it still didn't work.
He then replaced the control panel which again didn't help.
Finally he put in a new circuit board which fixed the problem. After this, he then had to refit the original fan and control panel.

It was only because he had all the required spares in his van that he was able to complete the repair in one visit but if I called out an independent repairer, I wonder how many times he would have needed to return before finally fixing the hood.

JJ_Egan

Unusual to say we will fix something for XX£ when they don't know the problem .

DiddyDavies

JJ_Egan said:

Unusual to say we will fix something for XX£ when they don't know the problem .

You're right.
I've just checked and it was £95 call out and labour charges which was a fixed amount irrespective of the time required or number of visits plus the price of the parts.

robkeep

This was £78 call out and labour, 15-20 minutes each visit. There was a dilema about whether to fix it or scrap it; the original cost was just about viable, but the 'extra' £210 is not. 

robkeep

Diamandis said:

You had an agreement to replace part a for £48.77. This was done, you don't now get part b replaced for this price unless you have a contract that says that is the case. The part would cost the company more than you've paid. 

My point was that they agreed to fix the dishwasher with a part they said was the problem, for the price they had stated,  then subsequently they 'discovered' a new fault. If I had known that this would be the case, I wouldn't have agreed to it. On this basis there would be nothing from stopping them finding yet another problem later on. I am also assuming that I would have been asked to pay a further £78 call out charge is they have said this new problem is a different one.