Unsafe situations and dealing with customers

Just wondering what the worst reaction people have had when dealing with an ID or AR situation was.

Mine was recently when dealing with a landlord of a pub. The pub is owned by a large brewery that we have a national contract with to service and maintain all there gas equipment, fires, catering and boilers.

On arriving to carry out a full service of a grill, twin fryer, two ranges and a boiler. I first find a blown gas boiler in the basement of about 200kw with insufficent ventilation and no low level ventilation.

Then after carrying out a tightness test I find a big drop equivalent to about 3 pilot lights running, eventually trace it to the ranges. Now with this particualr contract we have to quote first for any rectification work.

So i tell the landlord the situation and that i would have to make safe the ranges, this is when he lost it completely slamming doors shouting and swearing. Getting aggressive he refused to allow me to make safe and basically kicked me out of the property, seems this guy was more concerned about making money than the safety of his staff and customers.

So in the end i had to call national grid who came and shut the gas off, to the property with a warrant and left him with a bill for there time and a quote to reconnect his gas supply when he had the work made safe.

So if he had kept his cool and let me finish explaing i could have made safe the ranges kept the rest of his kitchen going and he wouldnt have been left with such a bill. I could have got authorisation to make the repairs in less than a day

Some people.

James

Went to an external flueless pool boiler to tighten a thermocouple nut on the gas valve. Posh blokes chippy was just finishing off a new wooden enclosure to protect the boiler from the elements. When the enclosure, looking a bit like an old fashioned coal bunker, was in place it totally enclosed the boiler with about an inch gap at the sides and a drop down hinged lid that was about two inches from the top of the boiler. Told posh bloke and his chippy of the dangers of this and they said the boiler would only be used with the lid up. One heated conversation later the boiler was turned off with warning notice issued but not accepted by posh bloke. Looks like he might get a free barbeque at his next pool party!

You did right. Could not have done better.

The best bit is you always get the same response "its been like that for years"

Do you work on a lot of pool boilers, do you find the cost for parts a bit excessive, last one i worked on i was quoted about £55 for a thermocouple. This particular boiler had a thermopile as well so god knows what they would want for one of them.

James

SvenVanLagerTop said:

Went to an external flueless pool boiler to tighten a thermocouple nut on the gas valve. Posh blokes chippy was just finishing off a new wooden enclosure to protect the boiler from the elements. When the enclosure, looking a bit like an old fashioned coal bunker, was in place it totally enclosed the boiler with about an inch gap at the sides and a drop down hinged lid that was about two inches from the top of the boiler. Told posh bloke and his chippy of the dangers of this and they said the boiler would only be used with the lid up. One heated conversation later the boiler was turned off with warning notice issued but not accepted by posh bloke. Looks like he might get a free barbeque at his next pool party!

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I take it you then called in TRANSCO and got a job number to absolve yourself of ant reponsibilty?

OI also assume TRANSCO then came out and switched it all off?

He can't argue with them

GforceJames said:

The best bit is you always get the same response "its been like that for years"

Do you work on a lot of pool boilers, do you find the cost for parts a bit excessive, last one i worked on i was quoted about £55 for a thermocouple. This particular boiler had a thermopile as well so god knows what they would want for one of them.

James

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Dont work on many, but like you say, the parts are generally very expensive.

Forgot to mention it was LPG bulk storage and posh was reluctant to reveal his supplier.

"its been like that for years"

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"You've been getting away with it then, sir".

James, how did your employer respond when faced with the complaint from the licencee?

Whilst you were correct in gas safety terms to want to turn it off it does not necessarily get you praised for loosing a big chain customer.

Tony

The licenced trade can be mighty stressfull .....

Still he lived & learned

The owners of the said chain were also trying to explain to the pub landlord that it needs to be made safe, they were trying to reason with him.

The chain were very insistive to me that i dont leave before making it safe but still he wouldnt allow me.

When you deal with big national contracts everyday, you soon learn to get the right people on your side before you go anywhere.

James

My employer backed me all the way, in this issue and agreed with every decision i made.

Just because its a big customer doesn't mean they are exempt from the regs and procedures.

James