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I cover a large service area in my business. Within that area I have at least 8 names of ‘local’ plumbers I recommend to my customers, should the need arise for plumbing jobs, boiler repairs, central heating etc etc.
YOU SCRATCH MY BACK and all that good stuff 😆
Now, I have since found out having spoken to one of my recommended plumbers (and this guy is red hot…40 years in the business….!) and he admitted to me today that he will not be renewing his Corgi registration this year, having paid thousands over the years to be registered for the sake of his business.Due to the simple fact that he is about to retire in the next couple of years and cannot justify the £3000 plus it will cost him to upgrade/retrain to todays 2005 regulations 🙁 He simply cannot recoup that expenditure over such a very short period of time.
So, the point of this posting is to show that for the ‘one man band’ the current rules and regs are way, way out of step to the realities of the working man. This guy will continue to repair gas appliances, as he has been doing for decades, with the full knowledge that his public liabiilty insurance* alone will be nul and void should any problem arise. But as he so graphically states to my question……….
“I HAVE DONE ALL THE TRAINING ASKED OF ME OVER THE MANY YEARS, I HAVE PAID A SMALL FORTUNE TO BE THE OWNER OF THAT LITTLE CREDIT CARD SIZED CORGI REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE AND I SHALL KEEP IT IN MY WALLET AS MOMENTO, BUT I’M DAMNED IF I WILL RENEW IT AT THAT PRICE!!!!!!!!!!!”
…….is he a cowboy?….your choice to decide? but I will continue to recommend him ‘cos as I said earlier, he IS a red hot plumber. But one of hundreds around the UK that will be making exactly that same decision…..FACT 😆
Martin
*Please don’t rant on about PL insurance, he knows full well the implications of his actions.
Re: Corgi cowboys?
“Another fine mess you’ve got me into” was a phrase the late “Oliver and Hardy used to come out with…..
And no matter what the mess I’m afraid I have to go with the law of the land, even if I can’t see the sense of it.The way forward is not in condoning or sanctioning “breaking” the rules and regulations even when common sense dictates otherwise!
Sorry Martin, if the guy does not want to requalify he should cease doing it.
KevinRe: Corgi cowboys?
kheath wrote:Sorry Martin, if the guy does not want to requalify he should cease doing it.
Bang on right Kevin!
I’m just stating the reality of what is happening today out there due to the exorbitant costs of bureaucracy gone mad in the plumbing industry alone.
Christ knows what chance our trade has if this is the state of feeling the plumbers and heating engineers are faced with today 🙁
Martin
Re: Corgi cowboys?
Hmmm…
I see where he’s coming from, but I do not advocate this guy committing an offence. It may be debateable the extent of his misdemeanour, but it is still unethical. The cost savings maybe better, and more attractive to the consumer, but would this guy like to advise potential customers that he is now in a position to offer a cheaper service on gas, and explain why? Somehow I don’t think so; being dishonest on that front would not be appreciated by his clientele. Therefore, he should think long and hard before applying his skills on any gas system.
The point is, as long as this goes on, the relevance of the rest of the trade falling into line is slightly diluted. It reinforces the view taken by some being, “why should I bother to toe the line”? But it is then the likes of the legitimate side of the trade to carry on bearing costs. Then that creates competition of the type who are not adhering to the rules and therefore undercutting the side of the trade that is following the correct procedures.
Looking at it from a different angle, I’m sure this guy has all the experience and skills to be a fully competant gas engineer, and maybe this makes the regristration scheme a mockery. However, without it, he will not be kept up to date, nor can he demonstrate that he is indeed conversant with the latest regulations etc.
There are plenty of other trades & professions that have to be regulated in a similar manner, and they are forced by a similar criteria.
All the above is merely an observation, and it is down to the conscience of the individual tradesman and his customer.
Alex
Re: Corgi cowboys?
Whether the law is an ass or not, it’s the law!
And should, heaven forbid, anything did go wrong it’s not a simple slap on the wrists he’ll get, it’s locked up!
What we need is people to tell CORGI about this sorta stuff and not bury their heads in the sand hoping the problem will go away because, quite frankly, it won’t.
I do not agree with some of the stuff that CORGI and the HSE do, I think that in particular the re-assesment is extremely harsh by any standard but especially for our trade in particular. However I do also see the safety aspect of what they are attempting to accomplish with the system in place but little consideration (if any at all) has been given to the costs involved in attainign this. But when all’s said and done a lot of it comes back to CORGI and the HSE trying to teach their granny to suck eggs.
After all, the cowboy traders simply wouldn’t register in the first place as then they’re off the radar totally. The system is “flawed” shall we say, but it is nonetheless the system and the law which means that if you want to stay on the right side of the law you must abide by the rules.
K.
Re: Corgi cowboys?
for this plumber to be paying £3,000 to take re assesment would send alarm bells ringing, unless he has no current qualifications; is registering multiple engineers ; or is going for every module going. just doesnt compare to anything like my experiences
Re: Corgi cowboys?
Begs an interesting point, if I may speak from my distant floe. Mr X has 40 years of formal, legal, quantified training and certification. How many of us non-Corgi, electric appliance can say anything like that?
Most of us will have done some sort of company training at some distant point in the past, some of us are self taught, some of us are learning the job via UKW (and good for us). Most current learning among the independents is “on the job”.
So Mr X will drop his registration, but his particular skill levels are probably still extremely high in his chosen field. Unfortunate that his chosen path would be in breech of the law; ridiculous that our own skills are completely unregulated, quantified and have no legal standing whatsoever.
There has to be a middle ground somewhere for all small traders to stand on and be recognised.
Regards,
Penguin45.Re: Corgi cowboys?
I have no intention of being the ‘Whistleblower’ to this plumbers future activities.
I’m not conversant at all with CORGI or their regulations, BUT, do they not police the activities of those that may allow their registration to elapse and yet continue with their business in this way????????
Martin
Re: Corgi cowboys?
Martin wrote: do they not police the activities of those that may allow their registration to elapse and yet continue with their business in this way????????
Not unless someone reports them I don’t think so no 😕
Dave.
Re: Corgi cowboys?
Which only re-enforces my view that CORGI/HSE, by their very nature and systems in place, actually only persecute those businesses that are honest.
The only time a cowboy gets into trouble is when something goes wrong as they are not policed or pursued if there is no reason to do so. So the guy down the pub that’ll fit you a new boiler for a few beers and a hundred quid will get away with it ad infinitum until he cocks something up.
Great system eh?
K.
Re: Corgi cowboys?
kwatt wrote:… actually only persecute those businesses that are honest……Great system eh?
Another toothless quango then eh?
OK here is another question to all you knowledgeable CORGI bods out there….If CORGI cannot police their own legislative doctrines at ground level as this case highlights, who can?
Is it left to the consumer to insist on seeing the CORGI certification of anyone tampering with gas appliances?
Do the suppliers/wholesalers of gas appliances and gas spare parts insist on only supplying those that show proof of accreditation?
Of course not 😈
So when a block of flats blows up and someone gets killed, CORGI will have enough paperwork in place to prove they were entirely blameless :rotfl:
The whole system is a joke from beginning to end!!! 👿
Martin
Re: Corgi cowboys?
Martin wrote: The whole system is a joke from beginning to end!!! 👿
Pretty much, yes.
The HSE sets the rules, CORGI impliments the bidding of government and the HSE basically. CORGI is “not for profit organisation” that oversees the gas safety in line with the Gas Council and HSE from what I can understand of the internal politics. So, in effect as things stand now, John Prescott says, “jump” and the HSE and CORGI ask, how high, and we end up with the Gas Safety Initiutive and the bill for it! 🙁
When you start to dig into the politics of it within the EU things become a little clearer and, in the end as with most things, it’s all about money. You see its now all about meeting the targets set by the Kyoto Accord and the money that the UK can get back from Brussels for meeting the emissions standards laid out. Mr Prescott fancies some of that methinks. Hence it all changes to condensing boilers and they are basically outlawing anything else barring special circumstances as if that happens they’ll meet one of the targets in about ten years and there’s a few billion GBP waiting for collection at the end of the rainbow.
The whole Gas Safety thing just slots in a piece of that plan and, nicely your duly elected government can get all we mugs to pay for it and they didn’t even raise our taxes, but they destroy industry in the process.
Sadly it’s not a toothless quango in the respect that we have to do what they tell us or we’re breaking the law, end of story.
Nobody polices it to my knowledge, it is a reactionary system, not pro-active. And yes, it’s up to the consumer to check that the person is qualified to carry out the work as required.
And here’s the biggest laugh of all for you Martin…
You as a private individual can take your gas boiler off the wall if it breaks. Pop down to B&Q, buy a new one off the shelf with no proof of competence required. Take it home and fit it and not a soul can say “boo” to you about it!
Any private individual can carry out work in their own home and it’s legal. But do it commercially, even if you are competent, without the required certification and you’re a criminal!
Go figure. 😕
K.
Re: Corgi cowboys?
corgi = money ££££££..
my brother inlaw fits gas fires-surrounds etc…and he tells me that soon he will have to report to corgi on every job he does..if he phones them with the info it will cost him £6.50 or if he emails it will cost £4.50..per report..he fits 14-20 fires per week..
where is this money going.
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