My Central Heating Was Not Working After Being Installed 4 Years Ago So I Contacted The Firm Who Put It It

[gollob]

they said a service would be £90.00 and what was wrong I then said it was not working which they said you do not need a service you need an engineer to look at it. So I booked an engineer for a Thursday. They said on the wednesday we have an engineer down the road to you who can be at your place within an hour Great. He arrived and said your batteries are flat on the thermostat and replaced them in 5 minutes They then sent be a bill for 5 minutes work for £90 which works out at over £1000 per hour .I refuse to pay. am I right. OR what would be a fair payment for their time

[Tuvok]

Ask what their hourly rate is - remind them it was not a service but a repair and if they mention travelling remind them that he has not come direct from bas, but was in the vacinity.

[woofgang]

Did you ask about charges before you agreed to the visit?

[Zacs-Master]

The engineer had possibly travelled half an hour, used his expertise to quickly find the fault and then maybe half an hour back, so it’s not just 5 mins and it’s his knowledge your paying for, not just his time.

[Tuvok]

.... and the parts - in this case batteries.

[bhg481]

You need to put that down to experience and next time there's a problem check simple things before you call out an expert.

[woofgang]

and ASK what a call will cost first. No you are not right.

[sunny-dave]

You haven't got a leg to stand on - it's possible the company might reduce the charge as a goodwill gesture - but they certainly don't have to.

It might help swallow the pill if I paraphrase an old witticism :

"To fitting batteries - £25 ...

... to having the knowledge and training to understand that the problem was the batteries and to knowing how to fit them - £65".

[EDDIE51]

Most of the £90 will be the callout fee which you have to pay just for the engineer to come out. The rest is the cost of parts, the actual time spent on the job (normally a 1/2 hour minimum time applies) and VAT. The call out fee was £50 the last time I needed an engineer and that was 10 years ago. So £90 is about right.

[gness]

Isn't there the tale of the man who quibbled about paying £100 to have an engineer hit his boiler with a hammer to fix it?
He said he could have hit it with the hammer for nothing......

£20 call out fee, said the engineer....and £80 for being the one to know exactly where to hit the boiler......x

[douglas9401]

Had that very convversation with a Scottish Gas operative last night as he lamped my fancy chrome radiator with his trust adjustable wrench.

How we chortled.

In related news, an elderly friend of the boss returned from holiday to find her cordless phone handset inop. I took the battery compartment cover off to discover two alkaline batteries in there instead of rechargables.
Returning with a pair from B&M at £2.99 I went to fit them only to discover that the first expert had fitted two new Duracell alkalines, got no result and walked away scratching his head.
The rechargable ones worked right away.
You get what you pay for (or not since she hasn't yet coughed the three quid) :-)

[Hopkirk]

I'm with the company here I'm afraid.

A reasonable charge for a tradesman to come to your house, diagnose and fix the problem. No one charges by the minute.