Boiler repair quote seems a bit steep

[Homesafe]

MJN: I was not replying to you - merely that bloke who sits on the back of a bike on bbc. You on the other hand strike me as a decent bloke.

COME ON £610 FFS.
I do'nt condone ripping anyone off, and that stinks of rippoff to me

Why? What are you comparing that to? Why your suggesting Tony can do it cheaper is either one of two things:

Your on the payroll?

Your putting him in a difficult position as neither of you have seen the job and your assuming he will be cheaper. Have you asked Tony? (The OP is in Yorkshire for gods sake).

I respectfully ask you dont suggest another forum member can do the job cheaper even if he can. Its not your place to. Tony may have seen this thread already and if his mind-set is like mine, would not appreciate your comments on his behalf.

Quote yourself, you cant be more than 70 miles away.

Mr. W.

Full moon is it?????

 

[Boxerman]

I'm sorry, due to weather conditions, my crystal ball isn't working,

WRONG SITE, THIS ISN'T PRICE COMPARISON DOT COM

Did I ever say I was looking for a price comparison......NO

I posted a genuine question looking for sensible replies which, to be fair, most of them were. It's a plumbing forum where people come to get advice, which in this case I think I did in a reasonable fashion. This time of year it's hard enough to get one plumber to come out as I know they're all very busy, getting another couple of plumbers out for quotes is going to be time consuming and, let's be honest, un-productive for anyone who doesn't get the job. Asking for a guide to prices on a quotation is not shopping around, it's just seeing if it's in the right ball park or way off the mark.

I'm happy to pay the going rate for any job and would just as likely query a price that seemed too low as too high.

In this case the replacement parts quoted are cheap yet the labour seems high, it could very well be becuse it's a time consuming job but as I mentioned, I'm not a plumber so asked the question on this forum. So, thanks to those of you who offered sensible replies!

The boiler in question is actually at my father-in-laws who lives in the Midlands, it's mounted in the loft of a bungalow which has easy access and internally i.e. good working head hight, boarded out etc. and is fitted on a gable end.The fault was picked up on the annual service and although the boiler is just 7 years old he was told he may want to consider replacing it.

[/quote]

 

[Tibbot]

Did I ever say I was looking for a price comparison......NO

However in your original post you only asked about price.

The tradespeople on this site are here to give advice to DIYers. DIYers are those who are basically competent, can display understanding and benefit from advice as they're able to put it to practice.

Someone who is clueless but wants to have a go to avoid spending money or those questioning costs of others can't always expect to get the same out of the forum.

 

[Boxerman]

Did I ever say I was looking for a price comparison......NO

However in your original post you only asked about price.

The tradespeople on this site are here to give advice to DIYers. DIYers are those who are basically competent, can display understanding and benefit from advice as they're able to put it to practice.

Someone who is clueless but wants to have a go to avoid spending money or those questioning costs of others can't always expect to get the same out of the forum.

OK I'll take that onboard, I did think that describing the parts required and boiler model would help me get an indication of price however if it came across that I was just whingeing about the price I can accept that it might upset people, it was a genuine query though that's all.

 

[Tibbot]

If they are changing a pressure (expansion) vessel this could involve taking the boiler off the wall. Also manufacturers bespoke combi parts are hideously expensive compared to off the shelf heating components. The best people to ask are the repairers as they should explain what's involved.

 

[ChrisR]

Mis-diagnosis costs people more than overquoting, I reckon.
The Diverter might only need a cheap repair kit and the pressure vessel would need pumping up, if it's never been done, and maybe that's all.

On the other hand, the diagnosis could be spot on and the job a nightmare, and the boiler dropping to bits.

So, get another quote.

 

[MJN]

I'm sorry, due to weather conditions, my crystal ball isn't working,

WRONG SITE, THIS ISN'T PRICE COMPARISON DOT COM

Did I ever say I was looking for a price comparison......NO

I posted a genuine question looking for sensible replies

Don't worry about him - he's rarely got anything constructive to say but nevertheless still wants to chip in. Unfortunately for all concerned he tends to live upto his namesake.

Mathew

 

[gasbanni]

Agile could travel up from london and beat that by a mile, it's a rippoff price if it's a 'normal repair' quote.

You on his payroll?.

Is that a question or a joke

As you can't quote without seeing the situation, we don't give quotes here.
Your quote does seem high, but there could be a number of circumstances that would justify it.

No one is quoting anything , but , COME ON £610 FFS.
I do'nt condone ripping anyone off, and that stinks of rippoff to me.

Ditto, you dont need to replace the divertor valve they can be serviced.
If pressure vessles gone fit a stand alone one somewhere else on the system.

 

[Agile]

Lets say the diverter valve can be repaired, I charge £106 for that. It sounds like an instant which will need a storage EXV costing about £85.

But the boiler has to come off the wall in most cases so thats about another £100 if the OP were strong enough to help me with the lift.

So that would make my price about £300 in our local area. Add a rail fare and hotel and that might be another £160 but I should be paid for the travelling time so it would be pushing £600 if I was to come from London to do the job. To cut much off that price I would have to consider it as part of a weekend away which I sometimes will do.

But the whole problem in this case is that the OP has acted like a cowboy customer and called out three people to each diagnose the problem free of charge when only one will ever get the job. Thats why I always charge for diagnosing faults!

Tony Glazier

 

[MJN]

But the whole problem in this case is that the OP has acted like a cowboy customer and called out three people to each diagnose the problem free of charge when only one will ever get the job.

That's an interesting perspective Tony, genuinely. Are you saying that customers ought only to get one person out to quote and go with them regardless?

With that strategy it's not like we can even come on here and get independent validity of a ballpark quote as we get shouted down for doing so! The term rock and a hard place springs to mind!

If the quote seems acceptable to the customer then of course they may wish to accept it but if they are uncertain, perhaps because it seems way over what they had ever anticipated, then I think customers are perfectly entitled to get two or three quotes without any guilt whatsoever. I do appreciate that for the pros this means they won't always get the job but that's business and should be factored into operating as one (and amortised over the overall running costs).

Perhaps I've misunderstood your position?

Mathew

 

[DP]

MJN, It is adviseable to get stipulated three quotes. I am sure everyone and his dog is in agreement with this.

What you might not get is competance to do the work correctly. An example of this is when you ask several people to supply and fit a boiler for you. You will get all sorts of figures and quotes. The correct method would be to invite installers to quote to a given spec. By doing this, everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet so now you can safely pick a fitter.

In reply to your starting post, ask friends and family for recomendation of a heating engineer with a good solid trackrecord. Invite him to look at your boiler. Thus you do not need to get every Tom, Dick and Harry gas engineer to give you their version of what they would have to do to fix your boiler.

On the face of it, I would suggest the problem with your boiler is not as expensive as it is being made out to be.

I recently attended a boiler that had a PCB and a gas valve replaced needlessly

 

[MJN]

MJN, It is adviseable to get stipulated three quotes. I am sure everyone and his dog is in agreement with this.

I would've thought so too but Tony seems to have said something different. I'm not meaning to pick on Tony here - I have utmost respect for him from other posts hence why I questioned his reasoning behind not going for multiple quotes.

What you might not get is competance to do the work correctly. An example of this is when you ask several people to supply and fit a boiler for you. You will get all sorts of figures and quotes. The correct method would be to invite installers to quote to a given spec.

Even if I do say it myself, as a knowledgeable and clued up customer that'd be fine with me - and indeed the approach I would take - however that's not a viable option for everyone they may not know what they need. Their mercy is therefore in the hands of the installer hence the need for comparative quotes to weed out the incompetent/dishonest.

Mathew

 

[DP]

Their mercy is in the hands of the installer hence the need for comparative quotes to weed out the incompetent/dishonest.

That is why friends and family recomendations are effective. Infact a good tradesperson will quite often be spoken for by several members of a particular group.

 

[Agile]

Some of the views being expressed here are in my opinion unworkable. Let me try to prove my case.

I charge £84 to diagnose faults and that includes fixing if its something simple. 50% of the calls I go to do not need parts and only need adjusting or just cleaning or unjamming something.

1. So based on the OP principle of free visits to "quote" I would go to 10 calls to "quote" but would find 5 are the 50% which dont need a part so would end up fixing it for free.

2. For the remaining 50% which do need a part I would be competing for "quotes" with two others so on average I would only get one job in three. In that case I would have to charge £252 labour per job which I win. I guess thats what your guy is doing in quoting such a high figure but I have to say that you are bringing that upon yourself by expecting three people to visit for one repair for which I would have charged £291.

Of the jobs I go to which do need a part the usual cost of the part averages about £100. Usually I have that with me and quickly complete the job for £184. If I had to wait for two others to visit I would have to make a return visit which would increase the costs even further.

Once I have been paid to diagnose a fault its up to the customer to choose how he gets it fixed. He can do it himself or call anyone else he chooses. Most get me to do it for them as I usually have the part with me and even if not then I dont charge for a return visit.

If you are having installation work costing over a few hundred pounds that by all means ask for quotes and if you have a specification then I would do that over the phone as I dont do free visits for "quote collectors" who want me to come to specify the system free so they can choose a cheap unregistered person to do the work.

Tony Glazier

 

[MJN]

1. So based on the OP principle of free visits to "quote" I would go to 10 calls to "quote" but would find 5 are the 50% which dont need a part so would end up fixing it for free.

That's entirely your choice. Just because you don't require any parts doesn't mean you cannot charge! Your knowledge and labour are chargeable items, and indeed what we expect to pay for when getting a professional in.

At the end of the day I dare say the root of the problem is a general lack of trust, attributable in blame to parties on both sides I'm sure. Sadly, the net result is that everyone concerned gets tarred with the same brush and we end up in a stalemate.

Mathew