RCD's for kitchen pelmet lights - am I being conned?

[ljdottir]

I'm having a kitchen fitted by a major DIY chain. So far we've had several amendments to the order due to them not checking things etc, also hidden costs slapped on for 'gas and electrical certification', which is fair enough, only £66.
BUT yesterday the kitchen planner came around to survey the electrics. First of all, he's not an electrician, and I asked for an electrician to come round and make sure the work we want done is in the places it's been designed for and everything's OK. We're having 5 low-voltage pelmet lights under the kitchen wall cupboards, and this guy says - without checking the main supply box or anything in the house - that we need an RCD fitted to the fuse box (which is in the living room).
Apparently 'said DIY chain' would charge us £250!! for this but this guy reckons he'll do it on the side (or his team, cos he's not an electrician!) for £150 if we don't mention it to his bosses. Hmm. So this is ringing alarm bells with me, cos if we don't mention it to 'said DIY chain', we won't find out if he's making it up, and if we do they could charge us £250 which has never previously been mentioned. The fact that he didn't even check the electrical box (which is on the outside wall of the house) to see when the system was put in and if we needed one, has p*ssed me off!

So I checked with my brother-in-law who's an electrician, and he says it sounds very suspicious, and that £150 would be a rip-off anyway for something he reckons takes 30 mins to do. He said to begin with that we shouldn't even need an RCD for low-volt pelmet lights. He's coming to check it over this week thankfully, so even if we do need an RCD he'll do it properly and not rip us off.The house was built in 1984 and apparently we may or may not have one, I have to look for a green sticker in the main box to see what standard the electrics are done to.

Funnily enough the kitchen is delivered next week and fitting starts the week after, it's too late to cancel the order and this is when the hidden costs are appearing!

I just wanted to know anyone's thoughts on this and if the DIY chain are out to pull a fast one?

 

[phil_ballard]

t would be nice to know who the 'major DIY chain' might be, so we can look out for the practice?

 

[ljdottir]

Didn't know if I was allowed to mention the name. I'm not badmouthing them, as everything else they've done has been great, but as for kitchens my faith in them is waning (I will update on the quality once it's been fitted), but so far B&Q are not filling me full of hope!!!
I researched kitchens online, joined Which? and from all their reports B&Q get a good rating on the quality of their kitchens, above some of the really expensive brands, so I chose them. Hmm.

 

[phil_ballard]

Certainly sounds 'well dodgy' - I think you're doing the right thing having a spark (family or otherwise) have a look .... on the basis of your experience so far, it sounds like it would be well worth letting a spark have another look when they've finished .... what say the pro sparks here?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I just wanted to know anyone's thoughts on this and if the DIY chain are out to pull a fast one?

I suspect it's this guy personally, not the chain, that is out to rip you off.

If there is anyway you can hide a video camera, or a tape recorder somewhere, then do it. Discuss it with this guy again, get him to repeat his offer do do it on the side.

Then after the kitchen is installed, send copies to your local TSO and to B&Q (the manager of the branch where you bought the kitchen and head office). He's a conman, and he deserves to get the sack.

 

[ljdottir]

I'm glad you said 'after the kitchen is installed'. I was going to go and report it to the manager, but I thought if the same guy's going to get into trouble, then is doing my kitchen, he'll deliberately mess it up if he knows we've shopped him. I'm not worried about myself getting conned, (just p*ssed off) as I'm a naturally suspicious person so not easily conned, but he must be doing this to less aware people, possibly pensioners and gullable people who will just hand over the money, then you've got no written confirmation and no certification to prove the work was done properly.

So yes, I'll see if I can hide the camcorder and get him to talk about it again. I'm getting my brother-in-law to check over the work as soon as they've done it, then I can pull them about it if they've done anything amiss. I would have him do the lot himself, but B&Q say if they're not doing the electrical work they won't do any of the associated work i.e. changing the tiling to fit in the moved socket! Pains in the ass...

I was thinking about cancelling the order yesterday but the thing is, it's a 100% deposit! So we've 'paid' (got the Homeplan card) £6,000 nearly, and I'm sure it'd take ages to get it back. But this lot have never worked for a slavedriver like me before!!! so I'll be watching everything they do, and they'd best do it right. I'm sure I'm just worrying too much, and keeping my fingers crossed that they actually fit it properly...

Why've you got a 'no Focus, B&Q, Wickes, Homebase' icon??? Personal experiences or general dodgy reputations?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Why've you got a 'no Focus, B&Q, Wickes, Homebase' icon??? Personal experiences or general dodgy reputations?

Something I put together to explain what my username meant...

I just hate the way those places, with overpriced rubbish on the shelves and insufficient, inexpert staff, have killed off retailers who did provide quality products and advice.

 

[Millennium_Boy]

Wickes actually provide many good products at reasonable prices, except their consumer units which feel a bit plasticky and cheaply built!

 

[il78]

Sounds like the guy is going to fit a new consumer unit for you and if he does it for £125 thats not a bad price (depending on make etc).

The lighting does not need to be protected by an RCD

Make sure you get all certification for any electrical work they do in your property.

I've been to a few jobs where kitchen fitters have played with electrics and it usually is a game trying to find where the joint wiring is.....

 

[ljdottir]

I've had the electrics checked out by my brother-in-law (electrician) who says that cos we have the green sticker (sorry can't remember the name of it!) in the supply box and the electrics are all modern standard etc we already have a new consumer unit, so this guy who came from B&Q was talking a load of crap (like I said, alarm bells started to ring cos he hadn't even checked we had one before telling us we needed one!)

I think I'll take previous advice and get him to repeat his 'advice' with a camcorder hidden somewhere. Then report it after my kitchen's done!

I'm going there tomorrow night to get them to show me all the paperwork and qualifications and I want to see the proof from any electrician who is doing the work.

 

[vxxbcks]

It is a bit crap to offer to do a job that doesn't need doing, but then how many times when your car is being serviced does the garage say "oh you should really get the brake fluid changed". The point is they know anything vaguely to do with safety 9/10 will go for regardless. And to some its always nice to get something done for cash, alegedly.

As an aside though I think its quite good really that this guy is fitting RCDs as a matter of course, if he's actually fitting them that is, as I still can't believe how many houses don't have them.

A friend of the wife was killed in my home town after cutting through a wire with a strimmer a short time ago - surely an RCD would have saved her?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Probably it would.

But that's not the point - this guy isn't doing it cheap for cash as part of some altruistic scheme to improve the take-up of RCDs. He's doing it to trouser the money, he's telling people they need it when they don't, and in the eyes of his employer he's (hopefully) committing gross misconduct. He is a menace and a thief - at the very least he deserves to lose his job.

 

[vxxbcks]

I do see where you are coming from and do agree with you - was just trying to cut the guy some slack as the chances are there are some that owe him for it, regardless of his own intentions.

In any case if Mr Brown didn't dip his hand into everything quite so much perhaps we wouldn't have such a culture of cash .

 

[ljdottir]

I personally think the guy's a bit of a charlatan, and that's why I sought advice on here. I wouldn't have minded if he'd even checked the supply to see if we needed one!!!! And it turns out we don't...but would he have told us that if we'd paid him the money? I don't think so. So I'll take ban-all-sheds' advice and get evidence on it...if he does change his mind and tell us we don't need one, I'll let him off. If he's trying to rip me off cos I'm female, blonde (never mind the 155 IQ pal, just go with the stereotype) and he thinks he can pull a fast one, he's getting the sack I'm more concerned that this guy is not an electrician, and he's giving electrical advice. Plenty people on here have said that the worst problems done by kitchen fitters are them doing electrical work they known nothing about.

On the subject of strimmers etc. My stepdad cut through the wire of the hedge trimmer (twice, I might add) by stupidly turning around when someone came in the garden, and taking no notice of the wire. But then he was a DIY and safety bodge artist at the best of times, and I'd even bought him an external RCD to plug in with the trimmer, which he never used. Idiot!

 

[securespark]

And your stepdad is?

Please tick one:


Dead?

Alive?

Rendered in a coma?