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Four visits - one visit to diagnose problem as pressure switch or maybe fan, second visit to fit new pressure switch (fix failed within 2 days), third visit , fan declared fine now possible PCB error, 4th fitted replacement PCB

Charge time 10 hours at £45 per hour - is this reasonable ? Parts were extra.
 
Sounds good to me, but I’m a plumber also. If I worked 40 hours for £500 I’d be thinking to myself, this guy earns £3600 a week WTF!
 
I would say it’s a bit much
 
Four visits - one visit to diagnose problem as pressure switch or maybe fan, second visit to fit new pressure switch (fix failed within 2 days), third visit , fan declared fine now possible PCB error, 4th fitted replacement PCB

Charge time 10 hours at £45 per hour - is this reasonable ? Parts were extra.
Edit- due to repeat information :p:p:p
 
Four visits - one visit to diagnose problem as pressure switch or maybe fan, second visit to fit new pressure switch (fix failed within 2 days), third visit , fan declared fine now possible PCB error, 4th fitted replacement PCB

Charge time 10 hours at £45 per hour - is this reasonable ? Parts were extra.
well the usual questions ...where do you live ? £45 per hour is really not enough...central london £125.00 plus vat per hour,

its really the wrong price per hour ....not enough to get a competant engineer in my opinion..others might correct me...Rob Foster aka centralheatking
 
Would expect it fixed within 2 vists else I can see the customer complaining
 
Probably fair from the engineer's point of view, but depends whether the fault was one that was truly hard to diagnose or whether part of the tab is essentially a training cost. 'Was this a difficult repair or was he just a bit slow to pinpoint the cause?' may be the question.

Sometimes I find I'm taking longer than I expected because a job is hard (chargeable), and sometimes I find I'm taking longer because I've tackled the job arse-about-face (not chargeable).
 
That’s where I’d start. If it were a faulty part I don’t see why you should be paying for part or labour
agree Riley...this price set up just does not stack up im my
opinion l..its not how we would approach a job like this
Rob Foster ...aka centralheatking
 
2 vists is normally enough a manufacturers service repair is only £300 - £400 labour and as many parts as it takes excluding the heat exchanger, you really should have recommended this to your customer . Kop
 
It’s a difficult one.

Sometimes it only takes an hour for an experienced engineer to diagnose. May take another engineer 3-4 (plus some parts) to get to the bottom of it.

Cheap, doesn’t always work out cheap.
 
It’s a difficult one.

Sometimes it only takes an hour for an experienced engineer to diagnose. May take another engineer 3-4 (plus some parts) to get to the bottom of it.

Cheap, doesn’t always work out cheap.
Some ,'engineers' just throw new parts at boilers until it works again....proper people as you say dignose fault find and fix ...bg are prime at this because what they dont use just goes back...normal outfits cannot do this ..I know
Rob Foster aka centralheatking
 
Makes me chortle as i took my car to a garage got charged 90 labour plus another 110 for the part. I managed to drive to the garage the part was delivered i knew the fault and it took 20 mins to fit. Just paid it and went on my way, thought 200 was ok to get car working.
Now considering we goto the fault charge first hour , then have to pick up the part if its in then we have to go through the suppliers system to find it another hour. Drive back and fit it, and quite often the part is not in which costs more time.
Anything less than 100 labour doing boilers then whats the point
 
Makes me chortle as i took my car to a garage got charged 90 labour plus another 110 for the part. I managed to drive to the garage the part was delivered i knew the fault and it took 20 mins to fit. Just paid it and went on my way, thought 200 was ok to get car working.
Now considering we goto the fault charge first hour , then have to pick up the part if its in then we have to go through the suppliers system to find it another hour. Drive back and fit it, and quite often the part is not in which costs more time.
Anything less than 100 labour doing boilers then whats the point
What was the OP charged for labour?
 
Crazy! When I go to a faulty boiler, or cheaper items, like taps, I first consider the cost the new boiler or tap is. I wouldn’t spend close to the brand new item fixing the old.

Sometimes you have to take a hit when you fail to initially diagnose a fault and not charge for excess time.
 
I wouldn't be questioning the price, but more the time allocated.

10 hours total for seem to be very easy faults to diagnose.
Without being on the job I could be wrong yes, but most faults contained within the boiler can be diagnosed within 30 minutes, especially fan and pressure switch issues.

Let's say he took 30 mins to diagnose each fault, that's 2 hours. Then we add an hour and a half total for fitting which takes us to 3.5 hours. Include any travel etc to merchants and I still struggle to see how we get above 6 hours total which gives a total of £270 labour, not the £450 you were charged.

To give you an idea of duration, I recently on a job removed lead from a gas meter and replaced with a new union, ran a gas pipe to the new utility room which was 5 metres away, installed a new combi boiler, installed a magnaclean filter, hung 6 radiators, installed a hive thermostat, filled balanced and vented system, all within 10 hours which included trips to the plumbers merchants and a lunch.

I would see he has overcharged, but without seeing the work and knowing the faults, don't quote me.
 
Also, watch this video (Link at the bottom of this post).
The engineer you had seems to be similar, guess until solved.

I had to comment on this video it was so outrageous.

How to fault find your gas boiler


That video is horrific and the comment section is even worse. He's advising someone who has admitted they have no gas training, let along on the gas safe register, on which parts to replace on their boilers. Its pretty disgraceful for someone in his position to be encouraging illegal work on boilers.
 
That video is horrific and the comment section is even worse. He's advising someone who has admitted they have no gas training, let along on the gas safe register, on which parts to replace on their boilers. Its pretty disgraceful for someone in his position to be encouraging illegal work on boilers.

And the biggest offence is the fact he has no clue what he is doing.
Change parts until repaired basically !!!

But yes I agree, YouTube is a haven for DIY illegal workers. Gas Engineers/Installers should not be putting info into the public domain on how to carry out work.
 
And the biggest offence is the fact he has no clue what he is doing.
Change parts until repaired basically !!!

But yes I agree, YouTube is a haven for DIY illegal workers. Gas Engineers/Installers should not be putting info into the public domain on how to carry out work.


Yep, all the decent experienced gas engineers would never post such info on youtube, its those that more incompetently minded that don't see an issue with it, so like that video you end up with the blind leading the blind, but when you've got explosive gas & deadly CO involved, its not good!!!
 

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