It started as a typical bathroom one in one out , but with no making good, tiling etc, as they wanted to do themselves.
The heating system was a oil floor standing boiler and cylinder in airing cupboard.
I knew id get problems if i drained down fully because there was 2" of scale and crap in header tank, and there was old ch wall heaters in rooms that looked well past it.
Bathroom went well. With a expensive vanity unit and victorian style sink, w/c and towel rail.
We worked non stop and also having problems thrown in like customer got replacement towel rail which was completely different pipe centers.
The pipes were behind wall and wall was made from ply, so out came the multi tool( its never straight forward , is it?)
Not wanting to drain down a old farm house system i went into the flee ridden loft and bunged the header , creating a air lock.
When she seen the new wc and sink she was over the moon, like a kid at xmass.
I removed one of the wall heaters by closing a old isolation valve on flow and return. Which she agreed with as,
No.1 the floors were concrete,No.2 the system was black with sludge and it was tea time.
The second heater ,the isolation wouldn't turn so i said it'll have to stay for now as its late and we could get into any amount of problems draining down.
I added i could do it live and put a cap end on but said there would be allot of mess and black sludge everywhere........that seemed to scare her off, as that time of night i didn't want to do it anyway.
We advised her that one of the valves has a small weep on it but will dry up ( you no the type a weep on the valve center)
Now a couple days later when payment was due she said we couldn't wait to go home!!!???
That we had left her with a leak on the valve!
That the radiators upstairs weren't heating up!
That shes spoken to British Gas and they,they've said we should go back to fix all these things we've created in her house.
basically were the big bad tradesmen , that we've cause loads of problems and stress and that we should drop everything and come NOW to fix things.
We charged a hourly rate and not a fixed price for the job, after more conversation she said that she was not willing to pay us and not willing to pay us to go back round to do more work. BUT when asked by my boss "would you of paid us if we stayed late on the night of the job" she said of course yes id pay.
Well whats the difference its the same work on a different day !
My boss said im not prepared to run my lads ragged making them work til 8, 9 10pm , which in the circumstances could of been possible, as fixing air locks etc can take hours in some cases. it was a hourly rate for that reason.
If the job was local we might of went to check things out, to cool things off a little as we never leave people in a situation.
But it was a 2hr round trip and when it came to it she said she doesn't want us to do any more work.
isn't it strange that she was happy as larry when we left, happy to the point of cringeworthy then on a different day cant stand us at all???
She then agrees to pay and not use us again, then changes her mind and says shes seeking advice.
We said to her i bet you didn't tell BG that we were charging hourly rate and that it wasn't a all in price. She agreed that she never told them, she just tried to skull **** us into submission .
You try to work hard, do a fair days work and still people just want to rape you for every last bit of energy.
How can you defend against such people???
The heating system was a oil floor standing boiler and cylinder in airing cupboard.
I knew id get problems if i drained down fully because there was 2" of scale and crap in header tank, and there was old ch wall heaters in rooms that looked well past it.
Bathroom went well. With a expensive vanity unit and victorian style sink, w/c and towel rail.
We worked non stop and also having problems thrown in like customer got replacement towel rail which was completely different pipe centers.
The pipes were behind wall and wall was made from ply, so out came the multi tool( its never straight forward , is it?)
Not wanting to drain down a old farm house system i went into the flee ridden loft and bunged the header , creating a air lock.
When she seen the new wc and sink she was over the moon, like a kid at xmass.
I removed one of the wall heaters by closing a old isolation valve on flow and return. Which she agreed with as,
No.1 the floors were concrete,No.2 the system was black with sludge and it was tea time.
The second heater ,the isolation wouldn't turn so i said it'll have to stay for now as its late and we could get into any amount of problems draining down.
I added i could do it live and put a cap end on but said there would be allot of mess and black sludge everywhere........that seemed to scare her off, as that time of night i didn't want to do it anyway.
We advised her that one of the valves has a small weep on it but will dry up ( you no the type a weep on the valve center)
Now a couple days later when payment was due she said we couldn't wait to go home!!!???
That we had left her with a leak on the valve!
That the radiators upstairs weren't heating up!
That shes spoken to British Gas and they,they've said we should go back to fix all these things we've created in her house.
basically were the big bad tradesmen , that we've cause loads of problems and stress and that we should drop everything and come NOW to fix things.
We charged a hourly rate and not a fixed price for the job, after more conversation she said that she was not willing to pay us and not willing to pay us to go back round to do more work. BUT when asked by my boss "would you of paid us if we stayed late on the night of the job" she said of course yes id pay.
Well whats the difference its the same work on a different day !
My boss said im not prepared to run my lads ragged making them work til 8, 9 10pm , which in the circumstances could of been possible, as fixing air locks etc can take hours in some cases. it was a hourly rate for that reason.
If the job was local we might of went to check things out, to cool things off a little as we never leave people in a situation.
But it was a 2hr round trip and when it came to it she said she doesn't want us to do any more work.
isn't it strange that she was happy as larry when we left, happy to the point of cringeworthy then on a different day cant stand us at all???
She then agrees to pay and not use us again, then changes her mind and says shes seeking advice.
We said to her i bet you didn't tell BG that we were charging hourly rate and that it wasn't a all in price. She agreed that she never told them, she just tried to skull **** us into submission .
You try to work hard, do a fair days work and still people just want to rape you for every last bit of energy.
How can you defend against such people???
