front panel of combustion chamber

[Rework24]

i think imma phone a gas engineer on monday just to be doubly sure!!

Get a service done, cos they will check all the seals then

 

[Agile]

I just knew you were going to say that.
As long as he hasn't disturbed the polar bear he's got nuffink to worry about.

It was a seal and not a polar bear!

 

[Agile]

Its a shame i was forced to carry out the repair myself, unless you know a trained plumber you get ripped off.

I had 2 local plumbers come to look at my boiler, both said divertor valve was knackered £150-£200 for the part, then labour for fitting it.

I do wish that people would not EXPECT to get ripped off.

However if you chose to get TWO people to come to you unpaid then dont you think that you are ripping them off if you let them diagnose the fault and then do the repair yourself?

You wasted about an hour each so the repair charge is going to be higher because only one of them could possibly get the job.

We charge £106 to do that repair. I suppose you still think thats a ripoff???

But we ALWAYS charge to diagnose faults. We never make free calls.

What you should always do is tell the engineer the make and model and the symptoms and ask if he can guess whats wrong and how much he would charge to fix it.

Tony

 

[Rework24]

I did not expect to get ripped off, I only found out i was been ripped off because i spoke to Halstead technical advice who told me that it 100% would not be the divertor valve, merely the diaphragm inside.

And i would point out that in this life you have to speculate to accumulate, so charging for a diagnostic seems unfair.

I work in sales and i would not charge someone simply to quote!

 

[Rework24]

And no I do not think that is a rip off, i appreciate the work you guys do is highly skilled.

I dont like to feel exploited though by my lack of knowledge.

 

[giblets]

I work in sales and i would not charge someone simply to quote!

TBH I think "quoting" is rather different to an engineer spending time coming to your house and using his expertise to diagnose/trace a fault on your boiler.

 

[Corgigrouch]

But a salesman DOES charge to come out and quote, it's just that his price is included in the quote.. If the bid is not successful then it is the next customer who accepts his quote who has the honour of paying for the salesman's time.

Ever had the double glazing guy round who quotes a price and then phones his boss and comes up with a once only super special price? This technique is very old hat but they still use it.

Sometimes if the diverter valve is a reasonable price AND the valve has to be removed anyway to replace the diaphragm, then it is better to replace the entire valve

 

[simond]

And this is the problem. The divertor valve does sometimes need changing in entirety. Halstead technical won't give a hoot, they only ever see clean new ones in their training area.

So if you ask for a fixed price quote, many of us would take the safe option and replace the whole unit. Otherwise we would have been better off writing you a cheque for £70.

You may work in sales but that does not qualify you to call our trade a rip off.

You will argue that the engineer could have given two quotes, one to fit the diapragm, one for the whole valve. However, experience tells me that the man who tells it like it is very rarely gets the job from the general public.

 

[oilman]

And i would point out that in this life you have to speculate to accumulate, so charging for a diagnostic seems unfair.

So if you had a private consultation with your dentist you would not expect to pay his diagnosis charge?

If you talk to a barrister you would not expect to pay his consultation fee?

I know quite a bit, which allows me to diagnose things fairly quickly. I can even do accurate diagnosis in many cases over the internet.

I work in sales and i would not charge someone simply to quote!

A salesman's function is to get people to suspend their knowledge of what is real, indulge the salesman's fantasy until they have parted with their money. I bet you only tell the good parts of the story, and leave the bad bits out. You lie to suit your objective, which is according to you, taking a punt on getting money out of a geezer before he realises he's been done. i.e. you speculate to accumulate.

Well most of us don't, we provide a service to fix people's problems.

 

[ChrisR]

And if you have a pain, and you go to your private doctor, and gives you pills, and charges you£100, and the pain doesn't go away

do you ask him for your money back - he obviously ripped you off so you'd have to go back?

 

[oilman]

Not if I was the doctor, he wouldn't be able to come back after the pills I gave him.

 

[Agile]

And i would point out that in this life you have to speculate to accumulate, so charging for a diagnostic seems unfair.

I work in sales and i would not charge someone simply to quote!

We do give free quotes over the phone !

However spending two hours to travel to you and diagnose a fault is ALWAYS chargeable!

I really dont see how you think that spending two hours of my time to work on YOUR diagnosis at your home and benefitting YOU by telling you whats wrong can ever be "unfair" when we charge for it!

Since we charge what we think are very reasonable rates for repairs, we cannot spend unpaid time so all visits have to be charged.

You seem to have a very odd ( and rather selfish? ) view of the world around you!

Tony

 

[Rework24]

I would like to point out that the companies both said they only charge if they carry out any work.

I would also like to point out that had the diagnosis been accurate and REASONABLE, (someone said £106 for the repair) i would have happily paid this. But £200 + LABOUR + any other charges is not money that your average householder has lying around these days.

I would also stress i did not mean to offend anyone with my comments.

 

[Rework24]

Also as i have broken the seal around the combustion chamber by inadvertantly opening it, so I am not able to use the boiler for fear of carbon monoxide poisoning or possible gas leak.

So i will be paying out for a seal check anyway thanks to my own stupidity

 

[Rework24]

service went perfectly, seal was excellent, no problems!!