Should I Pay These Charges?

pootas · 20 Sep 2006

To cut a long story short:

My Ferroli Modena Boiler had developed a fault and I called a local Gas Engineer to come and have a look at it for me.

1. 1st bloke arrived and stated "I've never worked on one of these before". I had to correct him on where the DHW sensor was located and after 40 minutes of basically reading the manual he called a 2nd bloke to my address who stated the PCB, Flow Sensor or Pressure Switch was at fault. This took 1 hr in total and they stated the would order the parts overnight and come back the next day to fit them

2. Today the 2nd bloke arrived with a different colleague again and they spent another hour changing the PCB only to find it wasn't at fault. At the end of the hour they stated it was the flow sensor which was at fault and although they had ordered one their stores department had ordered the wrong one so they would have to come back again tomorrow to fit the correct Flow Sensor.

This company charge a £50 call out fee and then £38 per hour so therefore they will already be trying to charge me £50 plus £38 x 2 ie. £126. I'm guessing the Flow Sensor is around £40 and I can see them charging me another hour tomorrow so in total:

£50 Call Out
£38 per hour x 3
£40 Flow Sensor

Total = £204

Now I know nothing about how these charges work so my questions are:

1. Will they charge me what I have calculated above or will it be different ? ie Not the 3 hours of apparent "Fault Finding"

2. If they did try to charge me it do you think I should have to pay it considering the saga of the last 2 days?

Any opinions welcomed....

ItsOverFlo · 20 Sep 2006

Hey, you have forgot to add VAT

Rob · 20 Sep 2006

does seem a bit much

id say £50 call out and 1 hour to diagnose then 1 hour + parts the next day. although i dont agree with the call out charge in any case!

if they cant diagnose which bit it actually is assuming it is one one part required then it shouldn't be you paying for their learning experience.

ollski · 20 Sep 2006

What is it doing pootas? there are several common failure points on this boiler most often the gas valve and the electrodes.

JohnD · 20 Sep 2006

You are entitled to receive reasonable skill.

Provided that you told the company what the product was that needed servicing, and unless you have imported some weird product that no-one local can reasonably be expected to be familiar with, then you should not be expected to pay for the time of a person who is not competent to deal with it as well as the competent second person.

If they try to charge you for two people's time, when the job could be done by one, I think you should challenge it.

It would not be unreasonable to charge for a first call to trace and diagnose the fault, and a second call to fit the replacement part (even though you would expect them to carry common service parts). If a
third call was necessary because their stores was unable to provide the correct part then I think you should also challenge it.

pootas · 20 Sep 2006

rob884 said:
does seem a bit much

id say £50 call out and 1 hour to diagnose then 1 hour + parts the next day. although i dont agree with the call out charge in any case!

if they cant diagnose which bit it actually is assuming it is one one part required then it shouldn't be you paying for their learning experience.

To be honest that's my thoughts too....

If they had diagnosed the problem correctly yesterday and ordered the "correct" part they could have fitted it today thus negating the need for them to come and charge me again tomorrow....

What makes me laugh is that whilst I was here the engineer asked if I would fix his laptop as I was working on my server...I jokingly said I charge £30 per hour and his reply was "Oh never mind then....That's too expensive for me".... The word hyprocrite comes to mind

pootas · 20 Sep 2006

JohnD said:
You are entitled to receive reasonable skill.

Provided that you told the company what the product was that needed servicing, and unless you have imported some weird product that no-one local can reasonably be expected to be familiar with, then you should not be expected to pay for the time of a person who is not competent to deal with it.

When I called them I gave them the exact model number and even the year it was made....As well as having all the manuals for them to read which listed the correct part numbers!!!

ChrisR · 20 Sep 2006

You had heating and no hot water, or something like that?
Shouldn't take more than an hour to diagnose that, more like 15 minutes even if not familiar with it.
The only really hard faults are intermittent ones.
You shouldn't be paying for slow learners..!

It's arguably chargeable to go and get parts, but it's not until the next day , and it's not a big job to fit it, so another hour should cover those I'd have thought. I don't see why they charge that way, but they can of course. I suppose they might try to hit you for another callout too.

2 x (50 + 38 ) would be darned high, but not really outrageous. You should always ask for the basis of charges up front, though few do.

Description FROLI 804220 FLOW METER
MODENA HAWK 2,E03340
ALSO NEED TO ORDER PART NUMBER 438997
Price
(Excluding VAT and quantity discounts) £44.51

Selected Product:438997

LEAD FOR FLOW METER
LEAD FOR PART NUMBER 438998, 803430 FLOW METER

Price
(Excluding VAT and quantity discounts) £2.71

pootas · 20 Sep 2006

ollski said:
What is it doing pootas? there are several common failure points on this boiler most often the gas valve and the electrodes.

Basically it will fire up for central heating fine...However it does not fire up for DHW and doesn't even recognised that I'm requesting it.... I said to the 1st engineer I reckoned it was a sensor or switch but funnily enough he recommended the PCB ....Funny that considering the Flow Sensor is £40 and the PCB over £150 lol

ChrisR · 20 Sep 2006

Basically it will fire up for central heating fine...However it does not fire up for DHW and doesn't even recognised that I'm requesting it....

If you'd told me that on the phone, I wouldn't have bothered turning up without the part.

pootas · 20 Sep 2006

ChrisR said:
Basically it will fire up for central heating fine...However it does not fire up for DHW and doesn't even recognised that I'm requesting it....

Click to expand...

If you'd told me that on the phone, I wouldn't have bothered turning up without the part.

I wish you weren't telling me this I'm getting more p*ssed off with these cowboys!!!

On the phone I told them

Ferroli Modena 102 made in 2001
CH works DHW doesn't work and boiler doesn't recognise I'm requesting and DHW

So in essence what do you think I should pay them because if they think I'm paying over £200 they are very much mistaken

ChrisR · 20 Sep 2006

I'd charge £500 and steal your laptop. Does that make you feel better?

pootas · 20 Sep 2006

ChrisR said:
I'd charge £500 and steal your laptop. Does that make you feel better?

Well I think it is on a par with the service I'm getting anyway lol.....

micky p · 20 Sep 2006

i'd say approx £70 +vat for labour and what ever parts should cover most combi boiler faults.

doitall · 20 Sep 2006

The call out should include the first 30 mins as well.

or at least anyone I know it does.

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Should I Pay These Charges?

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