its the customers who should be on the telly as well

Ive just been to price a job and his neighbour who he didnt like got me out last year.this is what were up against. It was only local and when i went the pump had gone and it had 2 of the well made valves on and was in a good position ,so i said "pumps gone and i can do it now for £250"

.So i got it and i turned the power off and it needed a bit of heat on the valves but it was ok,then i thought i hadnt took the fuse out,so i went down and the door was shut but i could see through it just a bit and there he was taking the control box down (potterton profile) and he blocked a tube on the aps and put tissue over a few pins so the plugs werent making contact.

I was shocked and angry so i went back up and i was thinking when he appeared and all i could think was" right ,can you stay here while i just vent a couple of rads and shout me if it starts gurgling",so i ran right down and took the control box down and got the blue tack out and the 4 bits of tissue and then turned it on so he would shout its making noises,he did and i said ok lets try it and i said"will you turn it on as you normally do",and when he pressed it ,nothing ,3 times nothing ,then he said"it was ok before you touched" in a angry voice.

So i went to it and said"oh the control box screw is loose ,needs to be tight to work and i pushed the gas valve lead in as i was tighting it ,"ok,try it now",his face when it fired brilliant, he was paying me and looking at me thern the boiler and was totally puzzled,id left my tools upstairas so i loosend the air vent and it was going pretty well ,so i left anmd 30 min later "weve got water coming through the celing",my dad answered it and id told him about it all,and my dad said "he cant come back until next week so stick some bluetack in the hole you cheeky bastard"

250 quid, jesus was that one of them wilo solid golds?

mind you was it gold plated pump at £250

i was abit slow on that one.

or christmas day rates come early

oh i forgot it was the 27th of december and was 5 pm so it was cheap

No comment.

these should be the only people you'll see behind the door.

Gay biker mice from Mars?

250 is a bit chris rea i would say. no wonder he tried to do back to you what you were doing to him

Slugbabydotcom said:

250 is a bit chris rea i would say. no wonder he tried to do back to you what you were doing to him

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Entirely agree. It would have been a better story if the customer had got his revenge after all.

i think you are being harsh on zimmer, if he said to the guy 'it'll be 250 quid to sort', BEFORE he did the work, then its the customer who has the choice.

Sounds a cheap job for zimmers...

zimmers said:

im happy to make £800 for 1/2 days work .............i done about 3 1/2 days work and made just under £3,800

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I reckon the customer got let off lightly. It's this kind of rip off charging that leads customers to adopt "revenge" behavior.

Manor....So your saying if customer doesn`t know anything its ok to rip them off providing you tell them first.

perhaps Zimmers is trying to get back all that money he spent on a 6 weeks course back as soon as poss

manortim said:

i think you are being harsh on zimmer, if he said to the guy 'it'll be 250 quid to sort', BEFORE he did the work, then its the customer who has the choice.

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Most customers have got no idea what the repair entails and in desperation will often just accept a quote in order to have their heating/hot water working again...they're only to gratefull someone's turned up. They have a misplaced trust in the installer to carry out the repair for a fair and honest price.

It appears that this repair took no more than an hour or two, given a quality pump is around £50.00 then £200.00 labour is nothing short of a rip off. This over-charging really ****es off the good installers out there since it continues the stereotypical image of the industry...full of cowboys out to scam.

As you say manortim, you are new to breakdowns.....you will learn to despise these charletans and have no tolerance for them as you come across customers that have been ripped off time and time again.

It is up to the installer to explain the costs, likely parts needed and possible problems that will be encountered. Its often impossible to give an accurate qoute but I've no doubt zimmers did not tell the customer he would be charged £200 for just a couple of hours work.