Your thoughts on this estimate...

[benjaminknowles]

Just looking for a bit of advice if any of you knowledgeable people could help.

I have a procombi HE85 boiler which broke down on Thursday, an engineer came out on Friday, I have no heat or hot water. The engineer has diagnosed the fault which could well be the true but I’d appreciate your opinions.

The engineer told me the boiler was a rebadged Vokera. After spending an hour inspecting it he has diagnosed a faulty fan. He talked me through the issue explaining that although the fan was getting the correct voltage it wasn’t turning as fast as it should. The fan did sound a tiny bit noisy, but not like the bearings were shot. He explained that as a result of this the pressure switch wasn’t engaging correctly. To show this he removed one of the tubes found by the fan connected to what he said was the pressure switch. The boiler fired up immediately. He said he couldn’t leave this tube off for safety reasons.

The only thing that I’m worried about is that he has estimated the cost of a fan as £245 which seems steep after looking on the net. Firstly can a fan run slow if it getting the correct voltage (I saw 244v on his meter), secondly could it be the pressure switch, or something else at fault. The total cost of the repair is £350, if this seems fine then I’ll go with it, what are your thoughts?

Ben

 

[Biggles..]

So he basically wants £105 to cover both his visits.
Offer to supply the fan yourself, pay him the £105 but when or if the fan breaks down within its warrenty period don't expect him to come back for free to look at materials he didn't supply.

 

[Agile]

Oops.....

I dont think that Ben will be so keen on that idea in case it fails again!

Then here is the other aspect! If Ben buys a new fan himself and when the RGI fits it the fault is NOT cured then Ben has laid out considerable expenditure with no benefit.

At least if the RGI buys the fan and has got the diagnostics wrong then at least Ben does not have to pay for parts which are not required!

It seems that this RGI has come out and diagnosed the problem completely free of charge! Thats not good business practice! But to cover those occasions where the owner does not get him to complete the repair he then has to charge extra to those who do. That is why I always charge a diagnostic fee and the owner can then decide who will complete the repair.

Tony

 

[RickyLee53]

I read it differently, I think he said the fan was £245, which The op said is expensive.

 

[benjaminknowles]

Thanks,

I should have stated that the cost of £350 was for the repair not the diagnosis. I paid a call out charge of £45, so it'd be £350 on top of that. My concern was more that he was making money on the part which seemed a little excessive - although I understand that he deserves some profit on it. Equally I just thought that if it wasn't the fan he'd have money in the kitty to cover himself. I'll be honest, my concern was getting up and running for xmas!

Ben

 

[ukrobj]

So whats the real issue here?

Sounds to me your more interested in his profit margin than the work involved.

So he's got to ensure he's ordering the correct fan, travel to collect the fan, bring the fan to you, remove the old, replace with the new, test it, check the boiler is safe and working to manufactures standards etc....

The internet is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't supply the reader with the incidentals that's involved.

Personally the call out diagnosis charge of £45 is very low in my opinion.

Where did you get his number? from cold, or a recommendation? Why did you choose him?

Sounds like he's explained more than I would in respect to the fault, I wouldn't give as much detail for this precise reason. A little knowledge creates a whole lot of issues.

 

[Johnmelad]

Just looking for a bit of advice if any of you knowledgeable people could help.

I have a procombi HE85 boiler which broke down on Thursday, an engineer came out on Friday, I have no heat or hot water. The engineer has diagnosed the fault which could well be the true but I’d appreciate your opinions.

The engineer told me the boiler was a rebadged Vokera. After spending an hour inspecting it he has diagnosed a faulty fan. He talked me through the issue explaining that although the fan was getting the correct voltage it wasn’t turning as fast as it should. The fan did sound a tiny bit noisy, but not like the bearings were shot. He explained that as a result of this the pressure switch wasn’t engaging correctly. To show this he removed one of the tubes found by the fan connected to what he said was the pressure switch. The boiler fired up immediately. He said he couldn’t leave this tube off for safety reasons.

The only thing that I’m worried about is that he has estimated the cost of a fan as £245 which seems steep after looking on the net. Firstly can a fan run slow if it getting the correct voltage (I saw 244v on his meter), secondly could it be the pressure switch, or something else at fault. The total cost of the repair is £350, if this seems fine then I’ll go with it, what are your thoughts?

Ben

Get a couple of quotes, not estimates, estimates will always go uppppppppp

 

[mickyg]

i think the main problem here is that the engineer has probably mis-diagnosed ! Make sure he 100% guarantees it will fix the problem, no fix no fee, as I suspect he's missed the fault which is quite common on this model. but being a gas related issue I cant divulge.

 

[4xpaws]

Unless the gas fitter lives to the left of you and the merchant selling the fan lives to the right, the fitter will be spending time ringing round merchants to find one that’s got the fan in stock, then doing a return trip to purchase it. You feel that he shouldn’t be charging for any of this time/running costs, or that it should be some how be covered in the time on site charge, as were the time and costs of getting to your job and then away from it.

I would expect a fitter to charge for his time to get the fan and a handling charge to cover eg. fuel costs. Just as I would expect to pay an even higher premium for a part if they carried it on the van on in the first place.

Ordering boiler parts off the internet relies on the company actually having in stock the part they’re selling you. Few admit to not having the part until they’ve got your money, even then the “should be with you in 1-2 days” becomes 5-7 days coming from the manufacturer coz there’s a “national shortage of Procombi fans”. Then you’ll have to wait in for the part to be delivered assuming they tell you when it’s been despatched. Part damaged in transit, but didn’t notice it until after you signed for the parcel? Or, your fitter discovers the damage on turning up to fit? Good luck.

I agree his £45 diagnostic fee it too low to run a business assuming he's good. He's taken the time to show you through the fault which is more than most. Finding the fault is the skill and someone that has it makes it look easy. You’re paying for someone to hit the boiler in the right place first time, not how many times they aimlessly hit it. You can now call it quits with the first fitter, call in a muppet and give him the fan to fit you’ve bought of the web. The unknown cost comes when you have another fault. You've parted company with the fitter that seems able to correctly diagnose and you’ll be left taking a punt with the muppet to aimlessly hit it before he then reads your boiler the last rites.

 

[FiremanT]

So, Ben, did you get it fixed yesterday, or are you waiting in the cold for the internet to deliver?

 

[joe-90]

********


DELETED
Joe90 please stop giving advice where you clearly don't know what you're talking about.

At best it's misleading, at worst dangerous.

Mod

 

[sooey]

*****

Stick to telling people how to hang their wallpaper joe.

 

[joe-90]

Nah. I know more about boilers than the average part changer.

 

[sooey]

Course you do.

 

[joe-90]

And you think***********