Supplied with faulty immersion - what to do?

[Stanios]

Hi fellas, I've replaced an immersion in April fitted a Screwfix "titanium" one. Got called back yesterday, opened the cover the pre-soldered live was totally burned to a crisp..

Totally not impressed with this pile of titanium poop supplied by Screwfix. I am pretty sure I can get a free replacement but whats £20 when fitting it will take 2 hours and I have cancel other jobs to get this sorted as emergency as a free job. What are my chances of getting more compensation or to have them replace the faulty heater?

Not the first time this happened either, granted it was an independant merchant who supplied me with a pinholed kitchen mixer when I told him I just wasted near two hours fitting it taking it off and driving back and forth he didnt think much of it.

Is this the general attitude or have you guys had any better luck getting properly compensated?

 

[mfgs]

I cant imagine you will get anything other than the free immersion. The mark up you should be adding on the materials supplied should cover the costs of any warranty call backs throughout the year.

 

[Riley]

It's an interesting one i'm of the opinion it's a pain but I don't think weve got a leg to stand on

 

[mfgs]

Its a massive pain. I had a bloody 6 month old kitchen tap cause me issues recently by leaking, its incredibly annoying. It always seems to happen when I am rushed off my feet, ended up having to free up some time so remove the faulty tap take it back to the suppliers and get another one and then go back and fit it. All for free, its just the joys of working for yourself and running a business. If you are adding 10-20% on all the materials you supply, that covers the call backs and should still leave you with profit, that's how I look at it anyway.

 

[Stanios]

Also Im sure at £20 it has absolutely no titanium in it..

 

[SimonG]

Strip out burnt wire and solder new piece in position. Might get a sparks to take a look in the meantime to check the circuit is fine as well.

 

[kozak1968]

Send the invoice to screwfix...... You might get some vouchers.....

 

[Paulplumb]

Had a few of them screwfix immersions fail some years back. I just installed one of those screwfix titanium ones the other week thinking the more expensive one would be ok lol. Perhaps not.

 

[turnpin]

has it got brand stamp on it i.e Backer sunvic ....maybe contact them and see if they can help maybe from a dodgy batch.....good luck regards Turnpin:yesnod:

 

[Phil]

Sometimes you've just got to eat a **** sandwich, I've eaten about 5 this year.

 

[Subby]

Buy cheap buy twice. Stop fitting cheap S[*[

 

[Stanios]

Just been on the phone, best I got was send an email to their generic address.. doesn't look good. Sent an email anyway hopefully get at least something back I'l drop an update later on. What immersions do you guys fit? This wasn't cheapest, £70 for heatre sadia titanium seems over the top obviously in hindsight I would have fitted the 70 quid one :disappointed:

 

[Last Plumber]

Just been on the phone, best I got was send an email to their generic address.. doesn't look good. Sent an email anyway hopefully get at least something back I'l drop an update later on. What immersions do you guys fit? This wasn't cheapest, £70 for heatre sadia titanium seems over the top obviously in hindsight I would have fitted the 70 quid one :disappointed:

Just been on the phone, best I got was send an email to their generic address.. doesn't look good. Sent an email anyway hopefully get at least something back I'l drop an update later on. What immersions do you guys fit? This wasn't cheapest, £70 for heatre sadia titanium seems over the top obviously in hindsight I would have fitted the 70 quid one :disappointed:

The " sale of goods act 1979"
Goods purchased should be, in satisfactory condition, last a reasonable amount of time and be fit for purpose. The responsibility for this lies with the supplier of the product. I would start with them. They may pass you onto the manufacturer but between the two, you should be reimbursed for your time replacing faulty goods. I have done this on numerous occasions and been reasonably successful. The best to date was a replacement Commercial boiler and My labour for changing it. That boiler was over 5 years old. The latest was a well known pump manufacturer who reimbursed me by sending two new pumps which once sold, more than covered my time involved in replacing a faulty one . I would try at least, there is no better way to prevent manufacturers from making garbage than upsetting them for selling it. On top of all that and obviously most important is the prevention of house fires and the like caused by dodgy materials etc.

 

[Stanios]

The " sale of goods act 1979"
Goods purchased should be, in satisfactory condition, last a reasonable amount of time and be fit for purpose. The responsibility for this lies with the supplier of the product. I would start with them. They may pass you onto the manufacturer but between the two, you should be reimbursed for your time replacing faulty goods. I have done this on numerous occasions and been reasonably successful. The best to date was a replacement Commercial boiler and My labour for changing it. That boiler was over 5 years old. The latest was a well known pump manufacturer who reimbursed me by sending two new pumps which once sold, more than covered my time involved in replacing a faulty one . I would try at least, there is no better way to prevent manufacturers from making garbage than upsetting them for selling it. On top of all that and obviously most important is the prevention of house fires and the like caused by dodgy materials etc.

I did mention that the customer has 3 kids in the email wondering if I went too far with that..
Was it the manufacturer or merchant that you were able to get compensation from?
Cheers

 

[Last Plumber]

I did mention that the customer has 3 kids in the email wondering if I went too far with that..
Was it the manufacturer or merchant that you were able to get compensation from?
Cheers

Manufacturers in most cases.
You should be able to recover 'consequential losses' provided reasonable steps were taken to keep costs to a minimum and the costs incurred, were a direct result of the faulty component

 

[cr0ft]

It's usually very different if you run a business. Sale of Goods Act has been replaced with the Sale of Goods and Services Act now. The rights in it mostly benefit consumers although provide some protection for businesses against 'cowboy customers'.

In general most merchants specifically exclude consequential losses in their T&Cs although the better ones will help you out with the manufacturer if there is an issue.

I've had money back off future purchases from SF ref damaged radiators being delivered, their call centre are generally pretty good in this regard to be fair.

 

[Last Plumber]

It's usually very different if you run a business. Sale of Goods Act has been replaced with the Sale of Goods and Services Act now. The rights in it mostly benefit consumers although provide some protection for businesses against 'cowboy customers'.

In general most merchants specifically exclude consequential losses in their T&Cs although the better ones will help you out with the manufacturer if there is an issue.

I've had money back off future purchases from SF ref damaged radiators being delivered, their call centre are generally pretty good in this regard to be fair.

Yes, that sounds about right. I have had the parts replaced by the merchant and consequential losses from the manufacturer in general. Except the replacement boiler I mentioned, that was all from manufacturer.

 

[Deleted member 32524]

Chinese crap probably. Had loads of issues recently with Chinese crap. Also recently had a manufacturing fault on a vokera boiler. Fair enough they eventually agreed to give me a replacement but I still had to fit it, again. I am beginning to wonder why I put myself through this rubbish on the daily for the squeezed money I am on. Especially when manufacturing faults need to be covered by me and my time.

 

[Ray Stafford]

It's usually very different if you run a business. Sale of Goods Act has been replaced with the Sale of Goods and Services Act now. The rights in it mostly benefit consumers although provide some protection for businesses against 'cowboy customers'.

In general most merchants specifically exclude consequential losses in their T&Cs although the better ones will help you out with the manufacturer if there is an issue.

Nail. Head. Contact.

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

Chinese crap probably. Had loads of issues recently with Chinese crap. Also recently had a manufacturing fault on a vokera boiler. Fair enough they eventually agreed to give me a replacement but I still had to fit it, again. I am beginning to wonder why I put myself through this rubbish on the daily for the squeezed money I am on. Especially when manufacturing faults need to be covered by me and my time.

Really, I just had a 7 month old Baxi Eco Blue 30kw heat only go down and Baxi couldn't fix so removed and replaced with new one on a Saturday, Mind you my customer had to wait 2 weeks which was a stretch!!

 

[Stanios]

After some pretty agressive emailing I managed to get a £80 "goodwill" gesture which doesn't quite make up for the ballache, still better than nothing. From now on asw per your suggestions I charge about 10% more on my materials for the next time this happens

 

[ShaunCorbs]

After some pretty agressive emailing I managed to get a £80 "goodwill" gesture which doesn't quite make up for the ballache, still better than nothing. From now on asw per your suggestions I charge about 10% more on my materials for the next time this happens

We do 15% flat rate

 

[Last Plumber]

After some pretty agressive emailing I managed to get a £80 "goodwill" gesture which doesn't quite make up for the ballache, still better than nothing. From now on asw per your suggestions I charge about 10% more on my materials for the next time this happens

Nice One !

 

[Millsy 82]

I fitted 3 cheap immersions within a week and over the next 2 months replaced a stat in 1, totally replaced a burnt out one like you said and the third had 2 new stats and still ended up replacing it.

I now don't fit cheap immersions and have not had a problem since.

 

[Stanios]

I fitted 3 cheap immersions within a week and over the next 2 months replaced a stat in 1, totally replaced a burnt out one like you said and the third had 2 new stats and still ended up replacing it.

I now don't fit cheap immersions and have not had a problem since.

Which immersions do you fit now? Heatre Sadia?