Any Plumbers do estimations without €100 cost

Dotsie~tmp

Acoustic wrote: »

i know a plumber and a sham guy at that

and he said to me before , he'd gladly go all day everyday estimating jobs and live on that money , and in some cases do sweet fa work , as he could do 5 or 6 estimates a day at €100 a pop , is that right ??????? NO

people are miss reading what i mean

i dont have a problem paying for a service ok

what i have a problem with is plumbers who havnt a bulls notion what there doing , saying it could be a number of things , i just want somebody to come in and spend 30 mins looking at it and giving me a straight answer as to what the problem is , give me an estimate and id let him do it

just hate the it could be a number of things etc , i mean come on if your 20 odd years in the game surely you'd know 30 mins later whats wrong

but dont have the neck to charge me when you havnt a clue yourself and your the expert , im not paying for that

Im an electrical contractor. I dont have callout charges (99% of time unless i think they are a time waster) as i think it would hurt business (as though it could get any worse). I do however understand why some guys in trades focusing on small maintenance jobs do. If you were simply paid for time on jobs for small repairs you would end up working for minimum wage per hour when u add in travel time and pricing.

Whats not right however is charging someone when you have been unable to fix a fault thats been described or carry out no work that was agreeed (over phone usually). If you described the problem beforehand on the phone and they turn up and dont fix it you owe them nothing IMO.

Callout charges are designed to cover your time for getting to jobs and getting the gear thats needed when the actual job may be quite quick. Thats why you will often see at least an hours labour guaranteed under the callout. They are not an excuse to screw people. My advice to OP is get prior agreement on phone that payment is only there is problem is resolved then everyone knows where they stand.

PS i think you should contact you boiler manufacturer and ask for a recommended repair technician. Most plumbers just fit the stuff and dont have a clue how to fix it when a fault turns up. Thats always the measure of a good tradesman, how they handle faults.

Alun

Acoustic wrote: »

so a small recap , all radiators heat up luke warmish , no more than that , temperature gauge in living room isnt working , and the boiler isnt firing up past 1

Sounds to me (not a plumber!) then like the thermostat on the boiler itself isn't working.

The room thermostat (what you call a temperature gauge) has no direct influence on when the boiler fires up on most installations. What it does is to open or close a motorized valve that diverts the hot water produced by the boiler to either the heating circuit or the hot-water circuit. Indirectly though, when the hot water already circulating in the system loses sufficient heat in it's travels round the radiators, this will trigger the boiler to fire up to maintain that temperature. All the dial on the boiler does is to govern what temperature the boiler heats that water to, and also indirectly the temperature of your hot water.

Your room thermostat may well be banjaxed too, but it doesn't sound like it .. the temperature in the room just isn't getting high enough for it to actuate the motorized valve, which, indirectly again, will ultimately cause the boiler to shut off if running since the circulating hot water isn't losing heat anywhere.

What this means in terms of repair, I don't know .. maybe just the thermostat can be replaced/repaired, or it might be a fault on the electronics PCB.

That'll be €100 please

Outkast_IRE

Acoustic wrote: »

couldnt give 2 fooks to be honest , plenty more around

people are screaming they can't get work etc

well i do jobs like yours every week and without stepping foot in your house i could think of the 3 most likely reasons for your problems , 10 mins or so in your house and i would have it pinned down unless it was an obscure unusual problem .
Ya plenty of people out there screaming for work , so do a bit of research ask around , ask nicely on here and only choose someone with a good reputation . Any good plumber enjoys solving problems like yours , its your atitude thats killed off any chances of help !!

Joey the lips

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

, its your atitude thats killed off any chances of help !!

My feelings from the start tbh. Its easier to come on asking advice instead of giving out about the lack of advice.

Ranting and raveing is

---

>

having said that would be nice to see you sorted. It can be frustrating.

Juwwi

Acoustic wrote: »

thats fine , thats what i mean , a plumber should be able to know in a few mins whats needed , and quote for that

not just turn up and expect easy 100 for doing sweet fa in 5 mins

happened twice to me , mewhen all i wanted was a quick look at it and give an estimate , asked was there a call out [/B]charge and told no , bit diff story when they hear

they should only charge for work done and not estimate

Sounds to me like your a timewaster to be honest OP.
You expect people to pay for diesel in their vans,possible taking time off
work (where they are getting paid) to drive to you and diagnose
your problem for free.

Micky Dolenz

As already said, most if not all tradespeople won't charge for a quote. If I got a plumber around to price to put in a bathroom he wouldn't charge. you weren't looking for a quote, you were looking for fault finder.

If you had called out Bord Gais, they would have charged you for the fault finding and give you a quote for repair.

Acoustic

quick update

had a bloke over to look at it , didnt charge a call out , diagnosed the problem and quoted me there and then , he went off got a new thermostat , bled the radiators and balanced them , all done for €140 and the radiators are piping hot and its fixed

he'll be referred by me and used by me again if any trouble

i talked to him about charges and he said he never charges for a call out and only charges for work done or parts needed , now if i lived 2 hrs away he's charge and rightly so

ludermor

Acoustic wrote: »

quick update

had a bloke over to look at it , didnt charge a call out , diagnosed the problem and quoted me there and then , he went off got a new thermostat , bled the radiators and balanced them , all done for €140 and the radiators are piping hot and its fixed

he'll be referred by me and used by me again if any trouble

i talked to him about charges and he said he never charges for a call out and only charges for work done or parts needed , now if i lived 2 hrs away he's charge and rightly so

Never or sometimes? What about an hour away?

Acoustic

well he's come from far side of swords where he lives to finglas in that weather

pity there aint more like him who appreciate the work

ronkmonster

What if had taken 2 hours to diagnose it? 4 hours? it was a simple problem this time, someone (not a plumber) already mentioned it could be the thermostat.

Roads aren't that bad. and finglas to swords isn't that far for work.

Micky Dolenz

Acoustic wrote: »

pity there aint more like him who appreciate the work

:pac:, Those kind of statements really crack me up. i put it right up there with "sure, aren't you lucky to have a job"

Some work is better not to be had.

Glad you got sorted though, fair enough price too. Did he leave a cert?

Acoustic

yep a letter of compliance

Acoustic

Acoustic wrote: »

well he's come from far side of swords where he lives to finglas in that weather

pity there aint more like him who appreciate the work

Do you think the trades men on here who are happy to help, are going to be the type who have ripped you off and were incompetent, or the type that are fair minded and know their trade?

I live in Roscommon and i was in Waterside(Swords) yesterday for a no heat, must make me a Artic adventurer:). Gary.

Outkast_IRE

Glad you got it sorted but seriously like anything do your reasearch first and you will avoid this problem . Good plumbers have a good rep and people will be happy to recomend them

yoshytoshy

Acoustic wrote: »

well he's come from far side of swords where he lives to finglas in that weather

pity there aint more like him who appreciate the work

Can I have your mates number ?

Bruthal

Acoustic wrote: »

quick update

had a bloke over to look at it , didnt charge a call out , diagnosed the problem and quoted me there and then , he went off got a new thermostat , bled the radiators and balanced them , all done for €140 and the radiators are piping hot and its fixed

he'll be referred by me and used by me again if any trouble

i talked to him about charges and he said he never charges for a call out and only charges for work done or parts needed , now if i lived 2 hrs away he's charge and rightly so

Never charges call out, but also does if too far, and traveled all the way from swords to finglas, i think that says it all about your concept of service levels. It could of took a fair while to find problems in heating systems, so something simple like a room stat has worked out well. But it could of been somethin far more involved and then you might not think the service was so great even if it was as competently dealt with.

perry stanley

Just a short one, carefully assuming the boiler may not have been regularly serviced, it may need to be. If you want to ( make sure the power to boiler is off) remove the burner and let us know what the fire chamber looks like. Have a look at the nozzle while its out. Refit carefully..