J
JimB
Hello
I'm concerned about some work I had done today by a Gas Safety Registered firm.
I called when my gas range oven would not burn properly. We paid £75+VAT to have someone call and inspect the range and diagnose the faults on the understanding that the cash paid for the labour on any subsequent repair and this has been recorded on the worksheet.
A new FFD was ordered - this took three weeks to arrive despite assurances it would be only three working days. We chose this company on that lead time.
After chasing this up for three weeks I finally got a call yesterday telling me the part was in stock and could be fitted today at a cost of £160. I asked for a breakdown and was told that was the price of the FFD.
When the engineer arrived he put his clipboard in front of me and I saw that the cost price of the part was £53. Some markup! I must be in the wrong business.
Anyway, the part was replaced in 10 minutes and the range was slid back into place.
I asked whether the system needed leak testing. "No" he said. "It has rubber seals." I asked again, "I am concerned that you are not leak testing this, not checking the gas pressure and that you didn't check beforehand." He said "I have never had a leak before and there is definitely no need to test it. I will go to my van and get my testing gear if that is what you want, but I never test these jobs." I told him that he should test it if it was necessary. He said it was not.
My understanding of having a competent engineer touching your gas devices was that they should make sure before they leave the job that everything is safe.
Should I be concerned and call them up to come and test this? Surely he is assuming that the device has no manufacturing defects? This assumption may be incorrect.
Also, is £100 mark up on a FFD the industry standard? 167% mark up? I expect to be challenged on the pricing but I would rather I was charged for the appropriate labour rather than see this size of mark up.
I would appreciate some advice on how to handle the testing question. Thanks very much for reading this far!
Jim
I'm concerned about some work I had done today by a Gas Safety Registered firm.
I called when my gas range oven would not burn properly. We paid £75+VAT to have someone call and inspect the range and diagnose the faults on the understanding that the cash paid for the labour on any subsequent repair and this has been recorded on the worksheet.
A new FFD was ordered - this took three weeks to arrive despite assurances it would be only three working days. We chose this company on that lead time.
After chasing this up for three weeks I finally got a call yesterday telling me the part was in stock and could be fitted today at a cost of £160. I asked for a breakdown and was told that was the price of the FFD.
When the engineer arrived he put his clipboard in front of me and I saw that the cost price of the part was £53. Some markup! I must be in the wrong business.
Anyway, the part was replaced in 10 minutes and the range was slid back into place.
I asked whether the system needed leak testing. "No" he said. "It has rubber seals." I asked again, "I am concerned that you are not leak testing this, not checking the gas pressure and that you didn't check beforehand." He said "I have never had a leak before and there is definitely no need to test it. I will go to my van and get my testing gear if that is what you want, but I never test these jobs." I told him that he should test it if it was necessary. He said it was not.
My understanding of having a competent engineer touching your gas devices was that they should make sure before they leave the job that everything is safe.
Should I be concerned and call them up to come and test this? Surely he is assuming that the device has no manufacturing defects? This assumption may be incorrect.
Also, is £100 mark up on a FFD the industry standard? 167% mark up? I expect to be challenged on the pricing but I would rather I was charged for the appropriate labour rather than see this size of mark up.
I would appreciate some advice on how to handle the testing question. Thanks very much for reading this far!
Jim