Sorry it’s a long ‘un

My boiler broke down last week. A plumber came round that evening and diagnosed a probable fault, but wasn’t a Worcester Bosch expert and couldn’t work on it for a couple of days so said I may be better off getting someone else.

This was easier said than done. I had a company come round who were supposed Worcester bosch experts. Charged £150 to turn up and first hour labour.

Diagnosed fan gone (Fan was working when original plumber came round). Changed fan. Part was double cost of an online google price.

Fan now works, boiler doesn’t.

Says it’s PCB board. Fits new one. Still doesn’t work. Fits back old board.

Says it’s gas valve/ignition. Fit’s a part that looks different and has bodged it on backwards so that the cover will shut.

Boiler now fires up and we go through paper work, approve price and I pay the main office over the phone.

Boiler works but pressure is all over the place and keeps leaking small amounts of water.

I keep missing calls from the company and they’ve left a message to ring them.

I’ve gone through all the paper work and bills and I think I have been undercharged on some labour. @£150ph

Should add I have paid over £600 so far and there could be another £300!! A complete new boiler is £1K

When I do speak to them, if they do want more money, where do I stand? I’ve not been happy with their service or charges, the boiler isn’t properly fixed.

I have all the signed paperwork from the engineer. Can I tell them to do one? Where do I/they stand? They have my card details from the original payment

Any advice greatly received

MM

Step one ………Stand up straight and pull your pants back up.

£150 Per hour!!!!! 😯

Yeah your biggest issue here is that you’ve been undercharged.

£150 is for call out and 1st hr subsequent hourly rate shouldn’t be £150. Sounds like they are throwing parts at it rather than diagnosing the fault.

Phone Worcester Bosch and get them to send their own engineer. £260 and guaranteed to fix your boiler. All parts and labour included.

I assume their work is warrantied?

Given that since paying you’ve then discovered that your boiler is not in fully working order, I would be making a claim against that warranty.

If they will not refund you, I would be making a chargeback via my credit card company. If this fails, I would sue them.

In the meantime, get someone else to come and put your boiler right, and write a full report on what was wrong with it and what the original company did wrong.

Obviously I rang Worcester first and lots of other plumbers

Probs with living in London, in January with a broken boiler is that most said they could come in 4 weeks!

No good with 2 young kids in the house. I accept the high first charge but do feel they were just chucking parts at it and were on the phone to Worcester Bosch technical the whole time.

My question is do I legally have to pay them anymore as prices paperwork has all been agreed/signed.

do I legally have to pay them anymore

Tell you what, I’ll come and have a tinker with it, shall I? Then when I fail to fix it, present you with my bill anyway?

I assume that somewhere in this “agreed/signed” piece of paper there’s an expectation that they will actually fix your boiler?

The work was not carried out to your satisfaction. You don’t have to pay people for things they haven’t done.

Sounds like you’ve been fleeced. Small claims court if they won’t rectify the issues.

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act#supply-of-a-service

The rules mean that all contracts for services must do the following:

[list]
[*]The trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill.[/*]

[*]Information which is said or written is binding where the consumer relies on it.
[/*]
[*]Where the price is not agreed beforehand, the service must be provided for a reasonable price.
[/*]
[*]Unless a particular timescale for performing the service is set out or agreed, the service must be carried out in a reasonable time.[/*][/list]

If the service you’re provided doesn’t satisfy these criteria, you’re entitled to the following remedies under the Consumer Rights Act:

[list][*]The trader should either redo the element of the service which is inadequate or perform the whole service again at no extra cost to you, within a reasonable time and without causing you significant inconvenience.[/*]

[*]Or, in circumstances where the repeat performance is impossible or can’t be done within a reasonable time or without causing significant inconvenience, you can claim a price reduction. Depending on how severe the failings are, this could be up to 100% of the cost and the trader should refund you within 14 days of agreeing that you’re entitled to a refund.[/*][/list]

Ah I thought this was a Trainspotting thread, and you had pulled a schooly on a night out.

Hi, where in London are you?