> Thanks for the information. We have not fiddled with the fire at all
> - that's what we pay the gas board to do. I have spoken to Hepworths
> and they didn't seem all that keen to get involved - the lady in the
> spares dept said she had never heard of a nut failing (other than
> through cross threading) in 35 years of working there, but she wasn't
> qualified to put that in writing. I did speak to an engineer, who
> said that it was possible for nuts to fail through cross threading but
> really gave me the impression that he did not want to get involved.
> I've had some legal advice via my insurance company - they say that if
> it can be proven that the gasboard have been heavy handed then we
> could look at getting some compensation from them. However, it would
> be compensation for a 16 year old appliance (in other words, not
> much). The gas board have offered to send one of their sales reps
> round to tell us what options are available and to possibly (!) offer
> some discount. I think it would have to be a very good discount to
> outweigh my reluctance to give them further business.
> All in all, a bit of a frustrating experience.
> Sue
Hi Again Sue,
No luck with getting anyone to admit anything then. Typical.
Very frustrating indeed. How long have you been on the gas board servicing agreement all together ? Because it seems to me that, if the gas board have been looking after the same appliance for many years, they should probably realise that it could only be them that caused the fault if it didn't show up on previous visits.
A sixteen year old gas appliance is a bit on the "becoming obsolete" side of service parts, so it may be in your interest to think of a change soon, before it does produce a major fault, but it is a pity that it has to be through these circumstances.
I don't understand why service engineers can't just say that the appliance is becoming old and that parts are becoming more difficult to obtain and that you should start thinking of a change, rather than using underhanded techniques to get you to buy a new appliance.
As the saying goes "Honesty is the best policy". Well in some trades it is. :-))