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I’ve had an email from someone who had an engineer out who quoted about £80 to fit a “door switch”. The part needed to be ordered and when the engineer fitted the part it didn’t cure the fault. After further investigation he announced it was the power module at fault, it was BER and apologised but walked away with the £80.
Now I only have one side of the story and I’m opening it up for to cover any similar event. It’s not rare for this sort of thing to happen and it can happen to any of us, but can you legally charge the customer in this situation?
There are two ways of looking at it. From the engineer’s point of view (assuming it wasn’t a simple cock up and incompetent misdiagnosis) he’s had two visits, had to obtain a part and it wasn’t necessarily his fault so why should he have to pay financially? From the customer’s point of view he said it would fix the machine and it didn’t so she shouldn’t have to pay.
My angle on this is that no customer should have to pay to have a part speculatively ordered and fitted unless they agreed before that this was a speculative fit, and that it may not cure the machine or that once the part is fitted, other faults may become apparent that couldn’t be detected before. This is the fair way – but also one most customers would refuse unless the machine was very expensive. If this is the case then as engineers we have to accept that the gamble of not making customers aware of this situation for fear of losing the job comes at a price of the occasional case where you have to walk away losing out financially.I think it’s fair that an engineer (if they believe they weren’t to blame) should be able to charge something to compensate them, but not for the part, and only as a cut-your-losses exercise.
What do you think? I would think you don’t have a leg to stand on if trading standards became involved if you quote a price to fix the machine but the part you said was required did not cure the fault and that the customer could even claim they shouldn’t pay a single penny?.
Re: Repairer’s right to charge for not fixing machine?
Hi
Why should he refund his labour, surely just the cost of the switch as this was his error; but the labour was used to diagnose albeit wrongly at first but the outcome was the same ie – BER. That surely wasn’t his choice?
If the £80 was for the total job then he should refund part of that amount.Thats just my input 🙂
Greg
Re: Repairer’s right to charge for not fixing machine?
He misdiagnosed first (who hasn’t be honest)
Eventually found the fault and customer I would imagine rendered appliance BER.
So there is a certain amount of charge due to engineer surely, less the un-required switch. 😕Greg
Re: Repairer’s right to charge for not fixing machine?
He didn’t mis-diagnose, he tried to pre-diagnose (incorrectly on this occasion) which we’ve all done to try and save two visits which is beneficial to us and the customer as they don’t have to wait in twice and we don’t have to make two journeys.
Had he gone on an initial call and found the PCB faulty and the appliance was deemed BER by the customer then he would be fully entitled to charge for that diagnosis.
Remove the interlock, don’t charge for the interlock and walk away with £80 minus the cost of the part 😀
Dave.
Re: Repairer’s right to charge for not fixing machine?
Thats what I said Dave and what I would do. 😀
I dont see any problem with that at all.
Greg 8)Re: Repairer’s right to charge for not fixing machine?
gegsy wrote:Thats what I said Dave
I know, I was just chucking my two penneth in 😀
Dave.
Re: Repairer’s right to charge for not fixing machine?
Cheers. :rolls:
IMO charging for the time is fine, if the terms are explained up front irrespective of the pre-ordering. If the part was not required and didn’t solve the problem then the part shouldn’t be charged for.
It is my opinion that pre-ordering is a service to the customer that WE take the chance on based upon the information from the customer and our own knowledge/experience. That isn’t the customer’s risk, it’s ours.
K.
Re: Repairer’s right to charge for not fixing machine?
andy_art_trigg wrote:I’ve had an email from someone who had an engineer out who quoted about £80 to fit a “door switch”. The part needed to be ordered and when the engineer fitted the part it didn’t cure the fault. After further investigation he announced it was the power module at fault, it was BER and apologised but walked away with the £80.
It sounds like a cowboy has been at work. I wonder if for the diagnosis he could have bypassed the door switch just to see if his guess was right.
Re: Repairer’s right to charge for not fixing machine?
🙂 In this situation i personally would only charge for diagnosing the fault which he eventually found and the customer did not want to go ahead with the repair. In some instances ive explained to the customer that it could be one of two things and we could try the cheapest option first but if that dosn’t work and they don’t want to go any further then they still pay but its made clear at the start.
Re: Repairer’s right to charge for not fixing machine?
andy_art_trigg wrote:I would think you don’t have a leg to stand on if trading standards became involved if you quote a price to fix the machine but the part you said was required did not cure the fault and that the customer could even claim they shouldn’t pay a single penny?.
You are spot on there Andy, the customer (in law) would and should not have to pay a penny in a case like this. And if a dispute (court proceedings) were taken out, could also demand compensation. 😯
Your example shows us clearly that ‘cowboy tactics’ were indeed applied as the trader walked away with all the money. That can be construded in law as ‘intent to deceive for the purpose of obtaining money by deception’, which is totally illegal from the very outset. 🙁
I wonder if that trader is registered with any trade body or association? :rolls:
Have a read of this: –
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/calitem.cgi?file=ADV0015-1111.txt
Re: Repairer’s right to charge for not fixing machine?
was the interlock faulty as well? or was it just the module? surly that would make a difference? also s/he would still be entitled to his call out fee wouldn’t s/he?
Re: Repairer’s right to charge for not fixing machine?
Martin
I find your comment about not being a member of a trade assosiation very insulting, I for one have opted not to join any trade assosiations, but I can assure you that I have built a reputation of honesty with my customers…..as have other traders on this site…and do not charge if I dont fix it….simply as that….do you honestly believe that by PAYING for a badge you are any more reputable repairer than those of us that do not……the trade can do without comments like that I think!!
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