Are we doing ourselves out of work?

[gassafe]

Just a thought i had the other day,

What with all new boiler manufactures competing to give the biggest warranties out there are we gonna be losing out on alot of boiler repair / maintenance jobs??? I see Sime are offering 10 years parts and labour on one of there combis!!! It seems crazy! Most others seem to offer about 3 to 5 years now, alpha 7 years i believe?

It seems were gonna be going to jobs in years to come and walking straight back out saying, call the manufacterer "its warranty" job...?

Will customers also pass on servicing, thinking i got warranty if / when it breaks!?

 

[Resolute]

Wouldn't the warranty be void if not regularly serviced?!

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

Wouldn't the warranty be void if not regularly serviced?!

yes but manufacturers are getting greedy they want the servicing as well,TBH its just not on they want us the installers to fit their products then nick any residual servicing/repair work off us THEY SHOULD ALL BE TAKEN TO TASK

 

[Resolute]

Good point!

 

[dontknowitall]

This is something someone like the CIPHE could be getting their teeth into. That is, gain huge amounts of members to form a trading voice for the self employed (or up to say 3 employed) plumbers.

At present it's a classic David and Goliath situation with all sorts of plumbing areas (renewables especially). As a fairly large group of construction workers we are incredibly disjointed with such varying standards and different areas of work (small plumbing repairs, to bathrooms and tiling, to wet heating to oil to gas to electrics, etc, etc)

 

[AWheating]

on the other side of the coin, many manufactures make alot of profit from spare parts. Longer warrantys less spares sales.

 

[julesverne]

but have you seen how much a manufacturer charges for a service? some charge atronomical prices. If you good at talking to customers(excellent customer service skills) and send them a reminder or call them 1 month before due for a service to book there's no reason not to get the boiler service every year. it's guaranteed money.

 

[SimonJohns]

Had a job today on a zip tap. Was cheaper to call them out than to buy the parts.

What's that say????

 

[marleyco]

sime will be out of business by the time each boiler has went through its ten years! my logic on warranty is i would rather have a 2 year and no repairs and more than likely a further 2, compared with sime where you will know the engineer like a brother in 2 years

 

[AWheating]

i had a friend whos baxi combi had 4 faults, expansion vessel, board being two of them. The parts cost came to around £500 alone so i suggested a new boiler. He phoned baxi and for £150 they came out, fixed all the faults, serviced it and gave it a 1year warranty. how can you compete?

 

[marleyco]

we all want people to have a good boiler installed but not that good! or in the case above good service. you hope after your install you'l get the maintenance. not in this case

 

[tamz]

sime will be out of business by the time each boiler has went through its ten years

Don't bank on it. They have been making shyte boilers for as long as i can remember but they are still going and being fitted.

 

[marleyco]

lol, atleast we might get to replace them before warranty is up as owner's will be kinda sick!

 

[CES]

I had a chat with a Vaillant rep and said the same thing. I now use the logic that since I fitted it and I'm Vaillant accredited then its only fair that I service it each year to keep validating the warranty (well that's what i tell the customers anyway).

I don't go anywhere near sime, after 10 years the only thing not replaced will be the cable its wired with.

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

I remember seeing a study which showed MOST boilers do not develop faults within first 5 years.
Also most people do have regular services but a large % do not.
So it seems to me that the 5 year P & L warranty is good for customers (piece of mind) and good for us as guarantees servicing wk each year. Of course we won't get to service all boilers we fit - they aren't all loyal!

In all i think that combination creates more work for heating engineers.
Even though big companies offer servicing they charge more than us and they charge the customer if the customer cancels. We charge £55 for a service I think Heateam charge £75, and we don't charge them a call out if they are not home when we get there.

We often recommend people call heateam or Vaillant cos they can fix the boiler cheaper than any local indeendent heating engineer.
I think that is good because people remember you helped them out with the best advice - and they call us for quotes for other things.
Also, the truth is getting manufacturer out - with the parts on the van and 1 fixed fee is often the best thing for that person so why not do them a favour instead of hoping to make money out of everyone elses problems?

As for the big companies getting the repair work. Well they employ heating engineeers just like you. Heateam employ almost 300 of them - looking at bigger picture isn't it good they've got a job?

 

[FD Powerflow]

Boiler manufacturers will always be able to replace components cheaper, you really think an Isar PCB costs Ideal £120 more like £30, I spoke to a Vokera engineer about this time last year when we had a problem on a Linea Max and the secondary HX had pinholed, £122 from Parts Center, he brought one out as a favour he owed me and I offered to pay him for his trouble, he said it only cost him £38 from Riallo!