Plumber not Finished Job

Wyrmbald

Forwandert said:

Wyrmbald said:

which is why I'm surprised that he hasn't returned or communicated with me why he can't... 

Didn't you say he was sick? If its not the installers company and they are sick as an employee, they would have no reason to be contacting you.

Obviously it's easy for misunderstanding to arise when typing brief messages into a forum, but just to be clear the engineer said he'd be back the next day and then on Saturday and only called in sick on the Monday. As I mentioned above, if either he or the office had communicated with me on the Thursday this whole situation would likely have been fine. Anyway, I'm more and more confident that these guys are a good bunch who were put out by an unfortunate set of circumstances, and I'll wait to see how things develop.

cmthephoenix

Wyrmbald said:

Hi, I agree that he did a good job, but the work left doesn't feel that minor considering that we have a hole in the wall of a bedroom in our house during this cold spell. I've tried stuffing it to the best of my ability, but I'm not exactly a DIY master which is why I hired someone to do it. I also agree that he's right to prioritise people that might be in a worse situation, but if he would communicate with me perhaps we could get that all sorted. I'm not sure about going away this weekend to visit my wife's family, and leaving the boiler switched off in the cold weather. Couldn't that possibly lead to damage to the pipes? Anyway, I appreciate your perspective and largely agree with it. One of the reasons I came on here was to figure out how to respond to the situation. I don't think that engineer who visited us was upset with me and we left on very good terms, which is why I'm surprised that he hasn't returned or communicated with me why he can't... 

You sound very level headed in your responses. I've been trying to think what I would have done as the plumber in the circumstances (I'm in no way plumbing qualified - I can empty a radiator of sludge and change a diverter valve on a boiler but that's about it). Was he stood outside your property in the cold for 2-3 hours because presumably his work vehicle keys were inside the property aswell? I don't know that I could have continued the job - I would have just wanted to escape just because 2-3 hours of freezing my !!!!!! off without pay would have been a mental hard knock to take. So well done for him for continuing the job. As I said you sound very level headed, honestly count your blessings you've got heating when you could be without and don't pay in full until the job is complete.

Edit - I also want to say I understand about the lack of communication from your standpoint, It's the lack of communication that upsets us all and there can be many reasons for it, from downright rudeness to embarassment. As I say in his position I'd be feeling upset (yes I'd probably be pointing the finger of blame because this is what we do as humans but ultimately I'd know the only reason the door locked is because I let it do so) and so communication could be hard.