Hi,Often plumbers are portrayed on television as being robbers and I aminclined to agree.I let out the house where I used to live. You may remember me recentlysaying the tenant had no hot water. The plumber said it needed a newexpansion vessel and a new PCB. he claimed this was an uneconomicalrepair, he said it would cost £400 to repair it but recommendedspending twice as much to replace the boiler. I can't see how thatmakes the repair uneconomic when it is less than half the cost of anew boiler.The advice here was to make the repairs. Geoff told me he could supplya reconditioned PCB for £50. The plumber has gone AWOL. It seems to mehe lost interest when I did not want to pay for a new boiler. My poortenant is still without hot water.I'm guessing only a gas safe registered person can fit the PCB as itinvolves opening the boiler in a rented house?I typed the postcode into the gas safe web site and emailed all thelocal plumbers. The first plumber to reply said: "I don't deal with reconditionedparts even if they have a warranty". He then said he would wantpayment up front "because I don't know you... Sorry about this but Ilive and learn!". I felt tempted to reply "I am not paying you upfront because I don't know you!" What's to stop him running off withmy money without doing the work?Second plumber said: "Unfortunately we do not carry out repairs toboilers we only carry out full systems or boiler replacements. This isdue to experience, we have replaced certain parts on boilers in thepast but once a boiler starts to fail it is inevitable at some pointthat it will fail completely and it is then seen as our fault for notrecommending this.In my opinion I feel that a new boiler would be the best course ofaction to take to save yourself money/expense in the long run,especially if you are renting the property."So on this basis I should not replace my tyres or brake pads when theyare worn, I must buy a new car? What a load of nonsense!Third plumber said: "[company name]...

You should watch 'Show me your money' on 4OD.It was a fly-on-the-wall doc about Pimlico Plumbers where the boss was trying to get some sort of order into pay scales to avoid being cornered every few days by someone wanting a payrise - which I suspect he just agreed to, knowing that being a London-based business, the customer will always pay.The lowest paid person was the canteen lady on £14,500, and she chose to travel 4 hours a day to do the job rather than go on the dole.The program concentrated on the admin and garage people, so we never got to know what all the tradesmen were being paid, but most of them seemed to be earning £65K upwards, and one of the shit-unblockers claimed he was on £150K. We never found out if they were on PAYE or some form of sub-contractors.

gas safe plumbers: greedy and unethical?

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dennis 14 years ago

That's different from fitting a recon part. A recon part as per geofs offering supplied by the plumber is no different to a new part supplied by the manufacturer as far as the law goes. It has to be fit for purpose and if it doesn't last a reasonable time the customer has legal redress against the trader.

A part supplied directly to the retail customer also has the same cover but its against the supplier. The plumber only has to fit it correctly. If the part fails in an unreasonable time then the customer has the capability to claim for the part and the fitting from the supplier. This can not be removed in contract, neither can the supplier claim he is trade only if the customer is clearly not a trades person.

repairs are a different matter if only because its difficult to show that the repair was the cause of the subsequent failure. reconditioned does not just mean repaired, it means its repaired, wearable parts replaced, tested, etc.

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tony sayer 14 years ago

What make is that Adam?..

JOOI what is the typical price for a Schneider or MEM 100 Amp dual pole isolator switch ?..

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tony sayer 14 years ago

In article , dennis@home scribeth thus

Like copper cable Den?..

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tim.... 14 years ago

earning? or being paid?

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As he said - wasn't explained (I wondered too)

tim

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tim.... 14 years ago

They can argue all they like - they would be wrong

>

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tim.... 14 years ago

"free" servicing as a sales gimmick *should* be included in the original selling price

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Man at B&Q 14 years ago

My local garage (the same one that doesn't mark up parts) has let me down only once in 15 years when they couldn't get the required parts in time.

MBQ

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ARWadsworth 14 years ago

Niglon. A rebadged somethime a not too bad.

Dunno. But I suspect I have second hand MEM one in my stores. Do you want me to have a look?

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ARWadsworth 14 years ago

Overnight we tie the apprentices to leashes in the store room and we do not feed them until the morning.

The 2.5 will be installed by Friday.

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The Medway Handyman 14 years ago

Not touchy at all, just a sensible businessman. My profits are non of my customers business.

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Tim Streater 14 years ago

Well, to be fair, is that not to be expected with today's cars?

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ARWadsworth 14 years ago

These things happen. The other day wholesaler could not supply 1.5mm 3 core artic flex for less that than buying an extention lead from B&Q and just cutting off the arctic flex and binning the plug and 4 way adaptor:-)

But £15 is also taking the piss. You could buy a 2 way CU with a 100A main switch for less:-)

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dennis 14 years ago

Are you saying its more expensive now than it was a few years ago? I hadn't noticed, I am still using red and black.

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ARWadsworth 14 years ago

Slow worker then?

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ARWadsworth 14 years ago

Sometimes I don't even bother to charge for the parts I fit. eg a 1g 1 way lightswitch that needs replacing. It's still a £30 job.Why make it a £30.95 job? And I would just charge £40 to swap a shower pull switch. The money is close enough to the mark to not make it worthwhile adding up the cost of the parts.

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tony sayer 14 years ago

In article , dennis@home scribeth thus

Well the Pikey's still have a demand for it ;!..

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geoff 14 years ago

Bet he's never actually done anything

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geoff 14 years ago

In message , "dennis@home" writes

Thats because plumbers don't fix boilers, central heating fitters do Dense

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Fred 14 years ago

The original plumber wants to come back and take a second look, and one of the other plumbers emailed to say in his experience sometimes it was a faulty sensor, not a faulty PCB. If I knew it was definitely the PCB, I would buy it and replace it myself but since event he professionals are not sure, I might end up replacing a perfectly good board and still need to call someone in! So I need someone to diagnose the fault (which I am happy to pay for) and as I do not live near the property any more, it might be simpler to let them fix it once they have diagnosed it.

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Man at B&Q 14 years ago

Are there no diagnostic LEDs on the PCB? Mine has a reasonable fault finding flow chart in the manual.

MBQ

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gas safe plumbers: greedy and unethical?

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