Boiler Repair Work - Fair Enough or Rip Off?

[edgers]

Hello,

I'm hoping for some advice from the experts to see if this gas boiler repair bill is fair enough or a rip off.


I had to call out my local gas engineer to repair my boiler (Vaillant turbomax, about 10 yrs old) as the hot water was working intermittently. He came out, [this detail is from his jobsheet] saw the differential switch was sticking so replaced that. He also saw the water flow switch was not activating the micro switch so went and bought and replaced the 'guts' to the water flow switch. This got the hot water to work so he left. 4 hours charged at £65 an hour (exc VAT) and £50 materials.

Unfortunately this didnt seem to solve the problem. So I had to call him back. This time he checked his work, found no fault with what he'd changed, was about to leave when it failed again. After speaking to the manufacturer he was told to replace the diverter water press switch because it was likely that the internal bore was worn. He went off to buy a new complete divertor press switch and returned a fit it. again 4 hours at £65 an hour (exc VAT) but with £125 materials.

It seems to be solved now, but £840 seems a heck of a lot to pay. I'm no expert so was wondering if any of the responsibility lies with the engineer's initial false diagnosis of the problem. If he keeps diagnosing the wrong problem and replacing parts it could go on forever! But if he did what he could and it was through no fault of his own that it didnt get sorted first time around then I'll pay the full amount.

To the layperson it's all a bit baffling so an informed opinion on the work done would be very much appreciated,

cheers

Edgers

 

[GQuigley67]

ouccch thats a dear repair !!!!!!

 

[P J F PLUMBING]

wow that's proper expensive

 

[dontknowitall]

A much fairer price would have been £65 for first hour and £35 per hour after that.

Even better would be no charge for the second call out and only the price for the diverter charged.

Some people have no shame and apart from those who don't install things to regulations these types of people give plumbers a bad name. Most of us are reasonable and honest workers and don't charge the earth for fixes like this. Some of us don't even charge those amounts to install new boilers.

 

[Barry98]

Where you live Buckingham palace

 

[Alpha man]

The £840 repair bill says it all really, thats new boiler money!!

 

[PlumbBobBob]

that's why he's charging vat he's over the £60000 threshold at those prices!

 

[unguided1]

sounds like he may well be gas safe but has no idea about boiler maintenance, and just keeps changing parts unilt its fixed, so obviously still learning

At £800 he could have bought you a complete new turbomax and just swopped all the parts over and left you with the rest of the spares!!!!!

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

?????????????how much???????????????

 

[Barry98]

wtf?????????????how much???????????????

rrrr the good old Yorkshire motto

 

[cjg]

WELL COME ON LADS THATS A FAIR PRICE!!!!!!!!!!


it is all gold plated, and don"t forget petrols up in price the rolls is just going to have to go, lol have to use the lamba

 

[gaspastemania]

In this economic climate there is nothing wrong with that haha
when a boiler is over 10 years old i push for a new install instead of flogging a dead horse .

 

[Blackcatgas]

oh dear oh dear ,very, very expensive, at the very least the "recall" should have been free as he was fixing somthing that hed already been paid to fix a few hours earlier.

 

[GQuigley67]

to pay that much to repair a 10 year old boiler, is a joke you would have been better off getting a new boiler to be honest for a couple of hundred pounds more, you could of had a brand new energy efficient vaillant installed.

 

[royston]

Flipping eck !!! I dont know how some people sleep at night. Thats an absolute joke.

 

[Gray0689]

to pay that much to repair a 10 year old boiler, is a joke you would have been better off getting a new boiler to be honest for a couple of hundred pounds more, you could of had a brand new energy efficient vaillant installed.

I totally agree madness

 

[Puddle]

I would ring him up and ask him what his game is!!! and I feel confident ,as soon as he gets back from his long weekend in New York that you just treat him two,he will be able to explain....... what a great time he has had,am sure that will make you feel better knowing that although you have wasted your money he didn't


You pay for a job that is not done,have to get them back and then pay again for them to ring manufacturers to find real fault and eventually repair correctly,think a slight miss trade has occurred.

Trouble is jobs done,old parts disappeared and not much proof of what went on



imho

 

[obseen16]

major rip off, surely he told you how much it would have cost before you let him carry on? second thought if he had told you it was gonna cost you £800+ i dont think you would be asking advice on here lol.

i always give an estimate before i do the repairs for this very reason.
sorry to hear you got ripped off, give your engineer a call and try and arrange a "fair" Price on the labour.

 

[moony]

the old breakdowns can be tricky to quote for but come on 800 plus for a breakdown like that is ridiculous! he should of swallowede the second call out out of shame really

 

[REDSAW]

well good pay day that one.
i would not have charged anymore than £700 for that, especially having a 2 hour kip on the job, its taking the biscuit out of your hospitality.imo.

 

[edgers]

Thanks for your advice.

I live in south London, a bit rough round the edges so these prices are a shocker!

He did tell me that the repair was 'very unlucky' because nothing he tried worked out - but then shouldnt he be taking some responsibility for that?!

I'll give him a call and try to negotiate down. I'll start with saying that the 2nd job should be free because he was resolving issues that should have been sorted in the 1st job and I'll update this thread with how it goes. He's on email so I can direct him to your replies on this forum!

Good point re:the VAT, think you have to be turning over £73k nowadays to have to claim it? not bad for some.

Thanks again for your replies, as a layperson these jobsheets and explanations can be a bit bewildering. £800+ just didnt seem right.

Egders

 

[dontknowitall]

Thanks for the feedback Edgers and good luck with lowering the bill. Trading Standards will be on your side if you need to take this avenue. Sometimes just mentioning it puts tradesmen on to the defensive and offering to come to a better agreement.

If he tries to bluff his way with jargon feel free to return here to ask what he's on about.

 

[steosman]

Bit tricky that one. He must not get a lot of referral work if he's charging two call outs and a total of 8 hours to repair a boiler. It should be two to three hours max but no way 8 hours. he must spend a lot on advertising and charge over the norm to cover over heads. Always choose someone from a recommendation. 80% of my work is referral and the reason for that is i'm fair with prices and i'll always discuss costs with customer before going ahead with work. I'd give vallaint a call and describe original fault and what they would recommend as repair then compare both. You should ring the manufacturer in future as their service engineers know their boilers best.

 

[tackleburger]

Similar things have happened to all of us but in my experience it is usually one part that has failed never several, the fact he had to ring vaillant says it all really, I mean what else could it really be after he changed out the other parts which were probably fine. If it happens I would return and only charge for the part.

 

[edgers]

Well, I gave my gas engineer a call about the £840 bill. I said to him that the bill was a bit of a shock and that I'd asked advice from other gas engineers. My brother is one and he said his company wouldnt have charged labour for the 2nd visit. I mentioned that I'd sought advice on this forum and the general consensus was again that the labour on the second callout should have not been charged. He wasnt best pleased because he didnt think he'd done anything wrong in his visits. He offered to charge me 2 hours for the second visit rather than 4 so thats a potential £150 saved there, so thanks people here for that. My question now is whether to pay that £690, or go for no labour on the 2nd callout and pay £540.

I called Trading Standards and they said that if no price was agreed beforehand (it wasnt) then he was legally bound to carry out all works to a reasonable standard and charge a reasonable rate. His rate seems expensive to me but checking other contractors in the area it is typical. So the question then is was his work to a reasonable standard. I called Vaillant technical support and although they wouldnt comment on the quality of a 3rd party's work (he isnt one of their engineers) the bloke seemed to think that the steps taken were reasonable. He did get the hot water working again after the 1st callout, but then it was only failing intermittently anyway.

£540 still seems like a lot of money to me anyway for the work but I can accept that much. Would that be fair enough or does he deserve more?

cheers

edgers