WHY WE DIY!!!

[barch]

On Tuesday, my boiler stopped working. Iwas given a name of a plumber, who I rang at around 2:00pm on Monday. He said, " Well, I dont know if I can get round there tomorrow, but I can probably do Wednesday. I'll call you tomorrow to let you know". Of course, I called him on Wednesday and he said he'll be there in the afternoon. He didnt show and when I called him, "oh I forgot to be honest". (TO BE HONEST, dont make me laugh mate.), Anyway, he said " DEFINITLEY, DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY be there tomorrow afternoon. So at 5:30pm, I call him, "Oh, I'm still stcuk on another job, but I'll still make it round." Then after 7:00pm, he wasnt contactable and didnt turn up. So, this morning at 8:30am, I called him and he "wouldnt let me down today". Of course he did, didnt turn up. And at 5:30, his phone was off.

Now, I've got some great advice on this forum from electricians and plumbers alike, but there are too many of these sort of guys around working as tradesman. Its -5degrees tonight.

I'm in Watford and need an plumber who can work on a SIME boiler. How would you go about it? Yellow Pages? Yeah right!!! Is there an industry code of conduct? If not WHY the **** not?

Disgruntled, disillusioned, disappointed and disgusted

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

I'm in Watford and need an plumber who can work on a SIME boiler.

Disgruntled, disillusioned, disappointed and disgusted

Location: Bournemouth,

He probably never turned up cos hes still looking for your part of Watford in Bournemouth.

Just as you can't be precise about where you live; a Heating engineer cannot tell how long his next job will take.

Today I was on my way to an urgent job to repair a back boiler.

I got diverted by a call to another house which was supposed to have a faulty fire. When I got there the fire had been isolated and boxed over but the house was flooded due to a faulty ballvalve and I ended up sorting that out instead.

Then I sorted out the back boiler and fire which I discovered were just about to kill the tenants with Carbon Monoxide.

The guy who works for the Landlord of these properties and passed me the work will have to wait until Monday now for me to fix his own fire which I had promised to fix 3 days ago.

What I am trying to get through to you is that every job can be as long as a piece of string and with so many systems going wrong at this time of year all jobs have to be prioritised as best they can.

I do agree with you on one point though and that is a phone call would have been nice to let you know he couldn't make it. But in mitigation his phone has probably been going daft all day just like mine has. It is better to leave someone in the cold than to get distracted and make a mistake with the job you are doing which could blow someone up and leave them in pieces.

 

[bengasman]

Maybe the plumber you called has the same attitude that I have. If someone I have never heard off calls with a broken down boiler, a cheap model that has not been serviced properly, and quite likely poorly installed, he goes to the bottom of the list when I am busy. And good plumbers are always busy.

 

[hav it]

slugbabydotcom
you are spot on m8t, but would you please tell my boss in work . That cause he seems to think all job take an hour.

 

[barch]

Maybe the plumber you called has the same attitude that I have. If someone I have never heard off calls with a broken down boiler, a cheap model that has not been serviced properly, and quite likely poorly installed, he goes to the bottom of the list when I am busy. And good plumbers are always busy.

Oh, good to know. Sorry, but that is attitude and what gives you guys a bad name. I didnt choose the boiler, it was installed before I bought the flat. I have serviced it though, which he asked, and dine all I can to keep is working. The last conversation I had with him was "I'm on my way there now." What part of this is acceptable then not to turn up and not be contactable? The fact that you dont seem to find his actions to awful is frankly odd. You know, there are some good guys out there, but finding them, wow, what an effort.

 

[hi-spec plumbing heating]

thats their loss at the end of the day.
every customer you let down thats a dozen new contacts they have lost.
you know what they say yrs to build customers 5 mins to loose.
if they don't turn up they are wasters, get someone else.

 

[chrishutt]

On Tuesday, my boiler stopped working. Iwas given a name of a plumber, who I rang at around 2:00pm on Monday.

Why did you wait almost a week before calling anyone?

As for finding a Corgi registered boiler engineer, you could do worse than the find an installer section of the Corgi site.

 

[baxpoti]

Why did you wait almost a week before calling anyone?

Excellent!

 

[DP]

Slugbabydotcom could not agree with you more. When I am hard pushed, the only calls I answer are 1) from my wife (different ringtone) so she can wisper sweet things in me ear or 2) call of nature.

Phone catches people who leave a message. These I get back to when time permits. Undiveded attentioned to task in hand is best approach.

 

[Paul Barker]

At this busy time I find only solution is not to answer the phone and not to let it divert to answerphone. This is because people having left a message think you have a duty to respond to it.

When I was using an answer phone my amusement was always to phone back "when I get in" those poeple who ask for it. They don't expect it to be at 11pm though.

Since I stopped answering the phone I have regained 10% of my sanity but there's a long way to go, I have had one long letter from a regular customer about it (my unavailability) though. The thing is, if I let them run me into a heart attack I'll be no use to them will I? So only way to protect self is to shut self off and plough into the work full steam.

 

[ChrisR]

I don't think any of us would argue with Barch's opinion here:

"I'm on my way there now." What part of this is acceptable then not to turn up and not be contactable?

Yes we all have the same problem - a list of calls it would be nice to have time for, or jobs it would be nice to do.
If your best customer has a breakdown he doesn't go to the bottom of the list, so many others have to wait longer, and you can't call them all.

I intend using an old phone on a pay-as-you-go for important customers to call me on. It would only used outgoing for calling the messaging service, and private calls, so the taxman wouldn't disallow 25% of calls from the normal phone as "private".

 

[Bon]

IMO not getting back to a potential customer stinks. Fair enough if at the moment you have enough work on and are "too busy" to answer the phone, but it could all change very quickly.

Barch look at it this way, yes a good plumber/heating engineer should be in demand, but if he doesn't have the decency to be honest or at least call you back and tell you he's too busy then do you want him doing the job in the first place?

 

[Agile]

Well I cover Watford ( but not Bournemouth! ) and I will work on those unfortunate enough to have a Sime boiler.

There is something very odd about this fellow who waits six days before he calls anyone and does not seem sure where he is.

I have also been very busy for the last few weeks but still manage to get to most people the same day or the next day if they have no heating or hot water.

Some customers are odd too. This lady called me about her non working boiler and when I told her our diagnostic fee she just put the phone down. Another old fellow with a faulty Netaheat told me to "forget it" when I told him our fee. We also only charge a minimal cost for parts we fit, like £94 for a Vaillant 824 diverter.

Tony

 

[bengasman]

Some customers are odd too. This lady called me about her non working boiler and when I told her our diagnostic fee she just put the phone down. Another old fellow with a faulty Netaheat told me to "forget it" when I told him our fee. We also only charge a minimal cost for parts we fit, like £94 for a Vaillant 824 diverter.

Tony

Some people still fall for the old, -free call out -, surprising how many. They don’t seem to realise there is a reason a plumber is so keen to get in your house that he is willing to show up in November for free. Same for the – get 3 quotes, take the cheapest concept-

I don’t call that odd, I call it being thick

 

[matz]

whats your diagnostic fee Agile, just out of interest?