Help need i think my Aunts been Ripped off!

[dadthebuilder]

Hi My aunt who lives in clacton told me her Baxi solo 2 pf boiler had stopped all of a sudden xmas , i asked her the symptons and apparently there is no spark at the electrode and theres also no noise from the pump or the relay. I myself thought it may be something to do with either the pcb or the fuse or even the electrode (by the way she did change the fcu fuse to no avial) Anyway a friend of hers contacted a corgi registered Heating engineer that had done there work and who is meant to be cheap etc. But to my surprise today she told me she has just paid out £240 but it the heating is still not working as the guy couldnt get it going and was lost for ideas and would need to contact Baxi after the Hols for suggestions and if she wanted he would come out again in a weeks time but it would cost more money for labour and parts! Apparently what had happened the engineer thought it was the pcb also, so he went to colchester for the part which apparently cost £140 New and upon return refitted the new one.... but it did not work! He was there for about 4 hrs trying different things, but in the end admitted defeat! Now what i am peed about is the guy would not give my Aunt a reciept for the work done as he had supposedly run out and would not even give a reciept/invoice for the part he had purchased that day! And to make matters worse he still wants to charge her again when he returns to retry to fix it! Strange to me as surley this should be done free of charge due to him being incompentant in the 1st place! Now apparently he was a corgi registered person as my aunt saw his van, so i would imagine he must be doing the work as a bit of private!
Any ideas on where she stands here? I know she should not have given anything to this Cowboy but she is an Oldish Eccentric Lady who is on income support "of which the engineer knew of" but the dog still left her with no money/no heating and alas in tears when he said goodbye!! Ps can you advise because i am ready to drive to his house and do something silly! Many thanks and sorry for long post! [/b]

 

[Strachan]

I know what i`d do. But proving his incopetence is a different matter. Most engineers of stature wouldn`t have charged for the part, but that`s down to the good nature of the engineer. Bit out of order but alot get away with it. Don`t know where you stand legally. Did your aunt check his corgi card before he started any work?

 

[ChrisR]

Caveat emptor, sorry.

Now apparently he was a corgi registered person as my aunt saw his van, so i would imagine he must be doing the work as a bit of private!

What do you mean? Being Corgi registered means his name's on a list of gas safety qualified people, not that he works for Corgi, or that he knows anything about repairing boilers.

RRP inc vat for the board is £174, so £240 is OK, IF it was faulty.

After that, he seems to have spent a lot of time without charging.

 

[Paul Barker]

I think the last Suprima pcb I bought was over £200.

When you take your car to a garage do they not charge for every hour spent on it and for every part bought regardles of whether it works at the end?

 

[dadthebuilder]

A bit more info ive found out! Apparently he said the boards fuse kept blowing the 1amp fuse (6x it blew) Shouldnt he have tried a higher rating such as a 3amp or 5amp?

PCB

Part number is:231711BAX
GC:379031[/b]

 

[kevplumb]

Shouldnt he have tried a higher rating such as a 3amp or 5amp?

your username says it all

if the fuse is blowing it is doing it for a reason

 

[HarrogateGas]

A bit more info ive found out! Apparently he said the boards fuse kept blowing the 1amp fuse (6x it blew) Shouldnt he have tried a higher rating such as a 3amp or 5amp?

PCB

Part number is:231711BAX
GC:379031[/b]

No because the one amp is there to protect the board...........would you put a 30amp fuse in your lighting cicuit on the distibution board at home if the lights kept going out?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Id be suspecting the fan to be faulty........but this can easily be checked.

you really need to get someone in who actually owns a multimeter and knows how to use it.

 

[holty]

paul baker. looking foward to the day i do a job for the garage my car gets worked on

 

[Paul Barker]

Yes, I'm looking forward to gas work notifying for the accountant who charged me over £100 for the equivalent in their field.

Garages charge for very bit of time fruitful or not, and every part right or wrong.

 

[Agile]

I am glad that I diagnose my vehicle faults first and then get a fixed price to repair.

I do have to say that I am most unhappy with the way this fellow had dealt with the aunt, not so much the charge but the refusal to give a receipt and the incompetence.

I would expect it to be a faulty pump which is pretty easy to diagnose on site.

Its not really such a large amount to make a fuss about although I would on principle.

However, Clacton is a small place and there are not many CORGIs there. Find out who it is and ask him to refund the amount paid and if he refuses spread the word.

This all shows why its helpful to have a younger person to deal with things like this. Age Concern will often help if asked and we have often been asked by them to deal with vulnerable people locally.

Tony

 

[the plumbing miracle]

i carry out work for three major manufacturers of boilers, the latest condensing boilers have secret diagnosing codes which the average corgi reg installer wouldnt get access too.It isnt in the installation guides. So to be fair to the corgi guy manufacturers are making it more and more difficult to diagnose faults.
Although the boiler in question isnt a hard boiler to work on.
The cost of one manufactuters pcb is £8.00 this is what they can get it for. The cost to the regular corgi engineer is £129 plus vat.
Manufacturers are squeezing the one man band out of business. It is an unfair trade advantage which i believe should be looked into by the office of fair trading because working on the latest gas boilers is going to be alot harder in the future, without this insider information

 

[ollski]

Sounds like the fan or pump not too sure what the board fuse is protecting but a bit of a doddle to diagnose.

I have the price for a pcb @ 93.00 and the fuse @ 2.20 (also listed here as being 4a)

Are you saying he will not leave his invoice for the part?

Where did that 6 digit gc number for the board come from??

 

[ollski]

the latest condensing boilers have secret diagnosing codes which the average corgi reg installer wouldnt get access too.

Which ones are these?, the only one I was aware of is the service code flashing up on the new worcesters

 

[the plumbing miracle]

i cannot say but they are all going down this route

 

[nickso]

i cannot say but they are all going down this route

cant or wont??

are you jumping on the "bandwagon" by making it harder for joe plumber by keeping this information to yourself now?