Bloody plumbers

John_A

Had a plumber over to fit a new radiator, when he left the heating wouldn't come on, he came back out and said 'pumps gone on the boiler, nothing to do with anything ive done'  we had hot water so I was sure it wasnt the pump and lost confidence in him, he quoted £350 for fitting a new pump.  Took out a 'no fix no fee' contract with the boiler people for £299 for 12 months, the guy came out this morning and opened the return valve on the boiler and it's all working!

So I'm £300 out of pocket, took this up wit the plumber and he said ' I didn't turn it off, nothing to do with me'  I know I certainly didnt.

Rant over

skunkwerx

Buggars aint they. 

My dad pays for british gas cover, so its like £50 a pop call out but they fix whatever is wrong for that price. 

So anyway during the recent snow days, on a saturday to be precise, I put a wash on and halfway through, the sink which was empty, was now regurgitating dirty water, to the point it filled to the brim, then overflowed and flooded the place. 

Opened the washing machine after setting it to drain, and it was half full with dirty water too.. 

So we knew it was our bloody drain pipe which both the sink and washing machine share. Its a known issue in our place. Too shallow an angle and too narrow, probably also full of fat and blocked. 

45 minutes on the phone to british gas and no one ever answered, and hell even if they did it probably would have been a 2 day wait to get them out! 

So I called an ‘emergency plumber’ from the local area who said it was probably just iced up, and that he was knocking off now anyway (4pm).. some emergency plumber! He wanted £150 to do it Monday. 

Called another firm who also wanted £160+ to come out.. 

So tried a well reviewed but not as reviewed Romford plumber. 
Eastern European bloke, said ‘I can come in 20 minutes, be £90 to unblock it’
Haha yeah right. 

Risked it, and 30 minutes later the job was done, he power cleared the tube, advised us that it really needs replacing to a larger diameter tube and at a steeper angle (which we knew already, but was reassuring that he wasnt chatting bollocks or trying to get work that wasnt necessary). 

Took a cheque, good as gold and its been fine since. Didnt mind getting his van out in the snow and ice and also immediately! For almost half price of competitors to boot.

£90 for me is still a hell of a lot of cash anyway for what was 40 minutes work for him (including driving to and from us) just to flush a tube through, but shit, can’t argue with his work ethic at all, so compared to these other lazy sods who wanted double in 2 days time, I can’t complain. 

Phil_aka_Pip

at least they're not builders. If they were, they'd dump half a ton of sand on your driveway and then you wouldn't see them again

EricTheWeary

We needed a plumber and hard to know where to start. Used the My Builder website to find one, he seems to have done everything okay for the quoted price. 
For the boiler we have the British Gas cover, it is expensive but they are pretty good. 

blobb

I had a heating engineer replace a thermostat. Looked good, all digital control, timer etc....apart from whatever you set on the panel nothing happened on the boiler in response. He hadn't bothered to connect it to the boiler at all!

Cols

Rotten stuff.  You’ll never see the £300 again; the plumber knows fine right that his reputation with you is now shot and he’s unlikely to see any further work from you.  No benefit for him to make amends.

McSwaggerty

skunkwerx said:

Buggars aint they. 

My dad pays for british gas cover, so its like £50 a pop call out but they fix whatever is wrong for that price. 

So anyway during the recent snow days, on a saturday to be precise, I put a wash on and halfway through, the sink which was empty, was now regurgitating dirty water, to the point it filled to the brim, then overflowed and flooded the place. 

Opened the washing machine after setting it to drain, and it was half full with dirty water too.. 

So we knew it was our bloody drain pipe which both the sink and washing machine share. Its a known issue in our place. Too shallow an angle and too narrow, probably also full of fat and blocked. 

45 minutes on the phone to british gas and no one ever answered, and hell even if they did it probably would have been a 2 day wait to get them out! 

So I called an ‘emergency plumber’ from the local area who said it was probably just iced up, and that he was knocking off now anyway (4pm).. some emergency plumber! He wanted £150 to do it Monday. 

Called another firm who also wanted £160+ to come out.. 

So tried a well reviewed but not as reviewed Romford plumber. 
Eastern European bloke, said ‘I can come in 20 minutes, be £90 to unblock it’
Haha yeah right. 

Risked it, and 30 minutes later the job was done, he power cleared the tube, advised us that it really needs replacing to a larger diameter tube and at a steeper angle (which we knew already, but was reassuring that he wasnt chatting bollocks or trying to get work that wasnt necessary). 

Took a cheque, good as gold and its been fine since. Didnt mind getting his van out in the snow and ice and also immediately! For almost half price of competitors to boot.

£90 for me is still a hell of a lot of cash anyway for what was 40 minutes work for him (including driving to and from us) just to flush a tube through, but shit, can’t argue with his work ethic at all, so compared to these other lazy sods who wanted double in 2 days time, I can’t complain. 

Just as well the Country voted for Brexit....got to keep them foreigners out....putting all our reliable tradesmen out of work...

57Deluxe

@John_A ; - - If you have a WiFi thermostat you will have to re-associate it with the controller board in your airing cupboard. It should have two push buttons only. You hold the Thermostat close to it with the system on and press one button, then the other and it should start the pump up again.

fields5069

McSwaggerty said:

Just as well the Country voted for Brexit....got to keep them foreigners out....putting all our reliable tradesmen out of work...

If you haven't seen the Stewart Lee sketch on this, it's very amusing.

shrinkwrap

Your guy turned it off on purpose.

Many years ago I got a bastard crooked CH engineer.
The CH had stopped working but I still got hot water, guy turns up and takes all the electrics to pieces - says the timer is faulty, and the pump is blown and I need a new system.
But I knew the timer was fine - and said I'd call him back next day and the more I looked at it the more suspicious I got.
Called out another guy - he fixed the fault - a broken remote valve - and he then found the crook bastard had shoved a load of twigs and crap in the header tank to try and break the system. He was furious and took the details to report the crook.
Nine times out of ten I do my own plumbing now.