what exactly does CORGI registered mean?

[LOLLA]

My partner and I have personally lost respect for plumbers. Most of them do the job for money and feel they don't owe their customers a duty of care. 10% are genuine and 90% are cowboys who studied plumbing because they needed something to get them off the dole queue.

Since Dec 24 we have had problems with our heating and till today had no resolution.

We had loud vibrating noise in our pipes in the airing cupboard and called Glowarm whom we had paid for 3 years for servicing without claiming a thing. Glowarm who are meant to be a reputable company and serviced our fairly new system (2005) came round 3 times and changed three different things (timer, valve, thermostat) but nothing worked because it was all guesswork and when they finally returned our call it was to ask us why we stopped our direct debit. We hired another plumbing firm One stop plumbing and they came four times, flushed the system, changed our 3 port valve and changed our bedroom valve all for a nice sum of £585 plus VAT and left us with a boiler that didn’t work either. It started switching to reset. Each time we called they sent us the same useless engineer who asked me (a lawyer) what I think the problem might be. We called another company again who are now coming on Monday after the One stop threatened to charge us for their next visit (forgetting that all the visits they made so far had not solved our problem and left us (with a small child) with no heating for 3 weekends. We have no idea when we would have heating. I read on this site plumbers accusing people for paying comboys and I just laugh. Is cowboys written on anyone’s forehead? All the engineers that visited our home were Corgi registered but all they are interested in is taking your money. They have no sprit of excellence. We paid lots of money to ‘corgi' registered engineers with big names, Glow arm, one stop plumbing , took six days off in all to wait at home yet we are still without heating as we speak.

Can you blame customers for accusing plumbers of not having any pride in their job and loosing faith in the whole plumbing industry?

 

[Andy165]

Do you not think you would have been better off going to british gas for a fixed price repair? And then signing on for one of their service /breakdown agreements. Sounds to me like you have been overcharged and have called on the wrong specialists .Did you not think to ask for a personal recommendation from a friend or family as to who they have used in the past? Sadly there are some get rich quick merchants out there but most are not if personally recommended

 

[corgiman]

To be CORGI registered you have to prove competancy and belong to CORGI

Basically this means that you pass a test in controled conditions and then give CORGI a significant amount of money

alas it does not mean that someone who achieves this heady height is any damn good at the job.

You are a lawyer, sue there butts off

Joking apart get another opinion ASAP

Sorry that you have got let down like this and I would have to disagree with your assumption of 10% Good 90% bad, I would say that its more likley to be the other way and you just got really really unlucky

 

[arfurrrr]

10% are genuine and 90% are cowboys who studied plumbing because they needed something to get them off the dole queue.

Well what are you doing on here asking advice for , your moaning is boring me .

 

[LOLLA]

...All the plumbers recommended by friends and family either never returned our calls or were busy till the next century. if not then friends will warn you with comments like 'try him but don't say i didn't warn you'.... You can only go by what they tell you but then thats what we are paying for a service. In my profession, if we guess as much as the plumbers do, all the beaches on the UK coast will have to be turned into prison camps....

 

[heatingman]

From personnal experiance and listening and seeing how joe public has been "done over like a kipper" I only use people reccomenned.
My soliciter charges me £180@hr (darn site more than me) but she is worth her weight in gold. Been ripped off by accountants a few times.
Always be wary of big flash adverts/heavily sign written vehicles.

Jesus I'm ranting again.

 

[Onetap]

WHAT EXACTLY DOES 'CORGI REGISTERED MEAN????

It means they are a registered GAS installer. They are registered as qualified to work on the gas, all of the gas, and nothing but the gas.

You might then enquire what training an RGI undergoes to provide them with knowledge of heating circulation systems, insulation, pump sizing, water head loss calculations, control systems, etc., etc.?

You may find this a little surprising, but the answer is; none.

RGI means registered gas installer. Not heating installer, heating engineer, or any of the many other things that some RGIs would like the public to think it implies.

For example, the method of calculating pressure losses due to friction in gas pipework in the (old ) Corgi notes I have is a simplified and abridged method. This is strange, since the same method is used for pump sizing. It suggests that the simple technique for pump sizing is beyond many who have enrolled in the kennel club.

A bit of a bummer, that, especially if you've paid a bunch of them a wad of wonga to sort out a problem with a water system. Or to calculate the size of the valves required for the underfloor heating system that is now buried under the cold floor screed in your new extension.


Asking you, a lawyer, what you thought was wrong was a good idea. You probably knew more about heating than he did.

 

[Aquaheat]

Lol Lolla, does that feel better to get that off your chest!!??

In all seriousness it sounds like you have had quite a rough deal and have fallen foul of the "they seem like a big company they must be good" routine (gritish bas anyone?)

As with the above post i agree that the best way to find out who are conscientious engineers is to go through personal recommendations. They will have carried out work for friends of a standard that they consider to be worthwhile passing on. Also references are good to ask for and will show that they have performed well in the past.

A good engineer IS hard to find which is why you pay a premium for us good guys and you should refuse to pay the bad guys unless they can provide you with an efficient service. I personally wouldn't charge for a job until it was completed and the customer is happy as would most of the guys on here from what i have heard.

We're not all money grabbing "dole queue rejects"!!! You would be surprised at how qualified some of us are. I know that there are alot of us that go through more training than doctors/ lawyers etc and we also have outside qualifications too!! I have a degree in product design for a start and have never seen a dole queue!!

If you really get stuck then put as much detail as you can on this site regarding your fault and we will all take a look.

 

[LOLLA]

...i will try British Gas although they appeared on watchdog last week. it feels better getting it off my chest though. I think its frustrating when people assume on this site that we are all looking for cheapies/cowboys. I am happy to pay for quality workmanship because you end up saving yourself a lot of stress in future. I just wanted to point out that it’s hard to find a quality engineer and people should acknowledge this in their postings: oops:

 

[Aquaheat]

...i will try British Gas although they appeared on watchdog last week. it feels better getting it off my chest though. I think its frustrating when people assume on this site that we are all looking for cheapies/cowboys. I am happy to pay for quality workmanship because you end up saving yourself a lot of stress in future. I just wanted to point out that it’s hard to find a quality engineer and people should acknowledge this in their postings: oops:

If you read mine properly i wasn't recommending Gritish Bas!!!!!!!

 

[nickso]

i wouldnt bother with british gas, you wont find them any more or less satisfactory than any of the others you have tried. but i dont think you would ever be satisfied with any service that your recieve.

 

[Andy165]

Good engineers are always busy and are worth waiting for. Once you get one , keep their card and treat him /her right and you,ll always get great service.Probabley the same with lawyers. Once you,ve won peoples confidence they come back for more. Sorry to hear of your problems but if british gas promise a one off fix and repair charge, they will usually stick to their word and get the problem sorted , especially when you tell them you are a lawyer

 

[doitall]

OY !!! where did me post go

 

[ChrisR]

LOLLA
I'm Corgi reg'd. Doesn't help me mend heating systems.
I've got degrees and recognitions and more letters after my name than I care to remember (or pay for). Doesn't help me mend heating systems.
There aren't any courses or qualifications on heating system problems.
The population of plumbers, "even " Corgi reg's ones, includes a high proportion of thick people with negligible reasoning ability.

I'm fairly intelligent on good days, which helps, but I still get it wrong too often.
Root causes of problems like noises, can be hard to pin down.
Poor circulation, for example, takes time and analysis to diagnose.

Everyone has a variety of motivations - to earn money, satisfy the boss, get out of a difficult situation, etc. Oh yes and integrity, getting a good reputation might be in the list somewhere but don't bet on it.
Don't bother looking for professional institutions of the type you might expect.

The LAW which applies, is one I've never looked up. it would be under J for JUNGLE!

 

[doitall]

Good one Chris can I use it for my CC

Reasoning is what they can never teach you, Thinking outside the box is experience, see my post on the vibration