Avanti Gas engineering charge

iTraxx

Does anyone know my rights and or options dealing with an incorrect engineering charge?
We had a problem towards the end of last year when our gas repeatedly shut off. The fault proved to be with the regulator on the tank, which Avanti changed 3 times before getting one that worked.
Their customer service representative clearly told us "If an engineer visits the site and no fault is found with AvantiGas equipment there will be a charge of £94 + 5%VAT"
This was not the case as the regulator on the tank is their equipment however they have invoiced us and are refusing to issue a refund.
Many thanks.

MattMattMattUK

iTraxx said:

Does anyone know my rights and or options dealing with an incorrect engineering charge?
We had a problem towards the end of last year when our gas repeatedly shut off. The fault proved to be with the regulator on the tank, which Avanti changed 3 times before getting one that worked.
Their customer service representative clearly told us "If an engineer visits the site and no fault is found with AvantiGas equipment there will be a charge of £94 + 5%VAT"
This was not the case as the regulator on the tank is their equipment however they have invoiced us and are refusing to issue a refund.
Many thanks.

On what basis have they refused? 

iTraxx

They are saying that it was the second stage regulator that was changed and that falls under our responsibility.
The fact is that it was a Clesse APZ400/BP2203 Combined regulator that was fitted, so 1 piece, therefore impossible not to be their equipment.

MattMattMattUK

iTraxx said:

They are saying that it was the second stage regulator that was changed and that falls under our responsibility.
The fact is that it was a Clesse APZ400/BP2203 Combined regulator that was fitted, so 1 piece, therefore impossible not to be their equipment.

Is that what was previously in place, or what they have replaced it with? Eg. have they replaced two regulators with one combined regulator? 

iTraxx

Copy of email from Avanti, the system was ultimately returned to its original configuration but with what they said was a "better" regulator.

Please note the sentence about "The fault was caused by an increase in customer usage, causing the regulators to fail." 

There has been absolutely no change in customer usage over 10 years and no previous problems:

 

Please see the break down from your account.

 

11/10/22 –  replaced the existing tank regulator (I’m unsure of the type of existing regulator) with a Reca 782 combined 1st/2nd stage UPSO OPSO 75mbar.

24/10/22 – J H replaced the high pressure manifold and fitted a preconditioning regulator upstream of the 782 regulator.

14/12/22 – R M removed the preconditioning regulator and replaced the 782 with a Clesse APZ400/BP2203 combined 1st/2nd stage UPSO OPSO 75mbar.

The fault was caused by an increase in customer usage, causing the regulators to fail.

 

The charge of £1796.40 is chargeable for the work carried out and I am unbale to remove this as this has been confirmed by the engineering team.

 

I am sorry nothing further can be done.

MattMattMattUK

The comment about increased usage would be an odd comment regardless of if usage had increased or not, the regulator should be to specification for a domestic supply, so unless you were running a commercial premises it would not matter if your usage had increased. 

There could be an argument that one of those visits was required and the replacement part is your responsibility, depending on specifics in the contract etc. but the fact that the first engineer potentially fitted an incorrect part, the second then attempted to fix that by fitting another incorrect part and the third engineer finally fixed it by removing the previous incorrect work and fitting the correct regulator would indicate that only one of those visits and works should be chargeable, if they are indeed chargeable. 

I cannot find the spec of the Reca 782 part online but the Clesse part looks fairly standard. Do you know what the pressure of your tank is?

iTraxx

I do not, sorry. All i know is i was told there would be no charge if the fault was with their equipment which it clearly was. 

Sorting_Hat

As a guide the tank is the property of the supplying firm but the regulators and pipework are the property of the customer.

nsm1

Recently had a similar experience with Avanti.
They sent an Engineer to change a  Psv relief valve (theirs) and when he had left we had no gas!  The 2nd stage regulator had developed a fault and needed changing at my cost.
According to Avanti this was purely coincidental and had nothing to do with their Engineers visit earlier that day !