Possible misdiagnosis help please

[Paul R]

Hello all, I'm after some advise please. I recently got in touch with a plumber/heating engineer via checkatrade.
I had a boiler fault. He turned up and after a while of checking the boiler, he came down and said "you might need a pcb and the wiring centres in a right mess" he left saying he would ring me. which he did saying £250 all in.
Yes please ill go for that i was desperate for heating. He turned up a day later fitted the board then come down and said its not working and i needed a electrician to sort the wiring. he then showed me the original board and it had a component hanging off blaming a power surge. so thats £250 down and no heating still he offered no advise no solution and no idea what else was wrong.
I called a second firm in on Saturday night £120 call out, a second engineer turns up and quickly diagnoses a transformer fault. (Blown big time split all down between the pins) I sourced the replacement and fitted it along with a new code plug that he had left on the original pcb which he took with him.
finally got heating after 5 days.
I'm in dispute with plumber number one over Paying £250 which he changed to £200 and now hes saying £140
I don't know if the pcb was damaged by him or really had a fault. Any advise would be much appreciated.

 

[quality]

Pay the company that fixed your heating and don't pay the company that did not

 

[Scott_D]

If you called no.1 as the boiler wasn't working there must have been a fault.

 

[firemant]

If you called no.1 as the boiler wasn't working there must have been a fault.

Obviously so, Scott, but he didn't fix it. No decent RGI would recommend an electrician to sort out a boiler wiring fault, they don't have a clue. And neither,possibly, did the wreckthetrade guy.

 

[Harvest Fields]

Sounds like you might have fitted parts to your own boiler?. Please be aware that you need to be Gas Safe Registered to change that part on certain boilers. What boiler make and model is it?

 

[Paul R]

I can see i went on to much the question should be do i pay the first plumber anything at all? call out only? half the cost of the parts ? this has never happened to us before. any trade i have ever contacted has done whats required.

 

[Paul R]

Sounds like you might have fitted parts to your own boiler?. Please be aware that you need to be Gas Safe Registered to change that part on certain boilers. What boiler make and model is it?

I sourced the parts and number 2 plumber fitted them on his way home from work. Should of been clearer. i travelled miles for the code plug.

 

[Scott_D]

Obviously so, Scott, but he didn't fix it. No decent RGI would recommend an electrician to sort out a boiler wiring fault, they don't have a clue. And neither,possibly, did the wreckthetrade guy.

I mean if was already broken he probably didnt break it
If you should pay or not, I dont know, sounds a right mess

 

[quality]

I sourced the parts and number 2 plumber fitted them on his way home from work. Should of been clearer. i travelled miles for the code plug.

Why did you source the parts?

 

[Paul R]

Why did you source the parts?

Because 2nd company was a big one and it was the weekend i would of had to wait for a quote first then wait for them to send an engineer.

 

[dan_the_plumber]

If second engineer works for a big company then his gas registration will be held with them. He’s not allowed to do Gas work ‘on the way home’.
Unfortunately though these situations can sometimes exist. The 1st engineer was trying to help you and make a living. I would say as a compromise, pay him cost of parts £150.00 and draw a civil line under it.
I hope your Heating is behaving itself now. Have a great Christmas)

 

[kozak1968]

Golden rule is don't call an engineer out at night or weekends. That way at least you wont pay a premium call out charge.