Hope this is the right place to post it. It's about a gas hob, but has to do with electrics and not gas.
I have a gas hob with 4 burners. The electric ignition stopped working on two of them.
I booked repair with a nationwide service, which uses local firms, and the payment plan I chose was a fixed rate for the call out & labour (£119), plus separate payment for the parts needed on top of that.
They assigned me to a local firm, which sent engineers (different ones) on two occasions.
The first engineer visit didn't seem very fruitful. He just tried lighting each of the burners one by one to confirm two of them were not lighting (which I had told them already) and based on that alone, without even opening the cover, he said the ignition head electrodes needed replacing. He told me he'd order them and schedule another visit.
The nationwide company, which was handling the payments, sent me an invoice for £72 for the parts, which I had to pay before we could proceed.
A second engineer visit was scheduled. The man replaced the electrodes and it didn't change anything. He said he had to replace another part, the spark generator, which he happened to have on him. Replacing it solved the problem.
A few days later I received a call from the nationwide company asking me to pay an extra £42 for that extra part. I paid, but told him I wasn't happy. He sent me an email address for their customer service to complain to.
Now, the way I see it, it wasn't the ignition electrodes that were the problem, but the spark generator. They ordered them 'just in case' and made me pay for them. When it turned out it wasn't those, they replaced the spark generator and made me pay for it.
Looking at online part prices, I see the spark generator for my make (Neff) is indeed £42. The electrodes, however, are £14 each. So the price I paid for the generator sounds about right, but the one I paid for the electrodes, not so much... unless you include the generator: indeed, 2 * £14 + £42 = £70. It would thus seem I've paid for the spark generator twice, on top of paying for the electrodes I most likely didn't even need.
All in all, I paid £119 for the labour and £70 + £42 for the parts, totalling £231.
I'm posting this in hope some of you who are more in the know can confirm this makes sense and I'm on firm ground, so I don't embarrass myself filing a complaint?
In the future if it happens again I'll just replace the spark generator myself.
I have a gas hob with 4 burners. The electric ignition stopped working on two of them.
I booked repair with a nationwide service, which uses local firms, and the payment plan I chose was a fixed rate for the call out & labour (£119), plus separate payment for the parts needed on top of that.
They assigned me to a local firm, which sent engineers (different ones) on two occasions.
The first engineer visit didn't seem very fruitful. He just tried lighting each of the burners one by one to confirm two of them were not lighting (which I had told them already) and based on that alone, without even opening the cover, he said the ignition head electrodes needed replacing. He told me he'd order them and schedule another visit.
The nationwide company, which was handling the payments, sent me an invoice for £72 for the parts, which I had to pay before we could proceed.
A second engineer visit was scheduled. The man replaced the electrodes and it didn't change anything. He said he had to replace another part, the spark generator, which he happened to have on him. Replacing it solved the problem.
A few days later I received a call from the nationwide company asking me to pay an extra £42 for that extra part. I paid, but told him I wasn't happy. He sent me an email address for their customer service to complain to.
Now, the way I see it, it wasn't the ignition electrodes that were the problem, but the spark generator. They ordered them 'just in case' and made me pay for them. When it turned out it wasn't those, they replaced the spark generator and made me pay for it.
Looking at online part prices, I see the spark generator for my make (Neff) is indeed £42. The electrodes, however, are £14 each. So the price I paid for the generator sounds about right, but the one I paid for the electrodes, not so much... unless you include the generator: indeed, 2 * £14 + £42 = £70. It would thus seem I've paid for the spark generator twice, on top of paying for the electrodes I most likely didn't even need.
All in all, I paid £119 for the labour and £70 + £42 for the parts, totalling £231.
I'm posting this in hope some of you who are more in the know can confirm this makes sense and I'm on firm ground, so I don't embarrass myself filing a complaint?
In the future if it happens again I'll just replace the spark generator myself.