Not the advice I wanted

[cornwell40]

Have just been told by the FSB legal help people that an EX customer
will get away scott free with stopping a £112 cheque for an Indesit bearing repair.
I had mega trouble because of two bearing sizes used on the model
and didn’t know about it so to complete took two weeks after finding the correct seal.
On completing the bearings (just going….noise that I heard) which showed early signs of wear, I threw them away as I always do to spop getting everywhere covered in shit. WRONG!!!! I have just been informed that I should keep displaced parts for around six months 😯 just in case a dispute arises or as in this case its the hairy arsed engineers word against nice sweet smelling customers.
This has all arisen because I got a complaint of a noisy spin. When I checked it I heard the bearings starting to go and looked no further!! Informed again by FSB ‘Ah you didn’t do your job properly! You should have carried on looking for anything else that can cause a noise’
I tested it at the end of the call and it was quiet. Gets a call next day (Saturday), its still noisy-arrange a call Monday 2-4 as she only finishes work at 1.30.
I finished at 12, on my way out to meet friends when phone goes.
‘Someone booked a call for Monday…I want today and if you don’t come I’m stopping the cheque and getting Indesit (I love that name) to do a report on it to find what the noise is.
Long and short of it is, she got another company out (not Indesit, not local) to do a report which stated there was a coin in the pump. It didn’t manifest itself to me, nor am I sure that it didn’t arrive on the next wash, but because it is my word only which says the bearings were going according to legal help. I only wish that if it was there I’d have heard it as it would have saved me hours and pounds.

Their advice in general was that my only claim against her is the stopped cheque which if she counters I will have to pay her costs etc because I have no proof that the bearing was faulty. My claim that I know these machines and what they are like was met with a patronising ‘you obviously don’t know them that well do you or you’d have known the problem was the pump’. 👿
So the witch has won!
I’m left pissed off and out of pocket and she will have a smirk like no other.

I will certainly see things in a different light from now on.
Tony C

[admin]

Re: Not the advice I wanted

I’m assuming because the customer has not paid that you are therefore not responsible for the guarantee your work and materials would normally come with.

What is the position on that? Can you be held responsible for your guarantee in such a case?

Kevin

[kwatt]

No, if not paid for then there’s no warranty.

K.

[cornwell40]

Re: Not the advice I wanted

I dont think this woman would be that cheeky to try and get anything from me on guarantee. Then again8O !

Tony C

[Phidom]

Re: Not the advice I wanted

I’m sure if you have a good look round you will find the old knackered bearings. 😉

[Martin]

Re: Not the advice I wanted

A very sad tale Tony and if it’s any consulation mate, we’ve all been there or at least can associate your predicament 😥

We can only learn from it after all and thanks for sharing it with us. The points in this case I reckon are:-

1) Always get the cheque guarantee card written on the back as cheques cannot be stopped by so doing!

2) Always leave the old parts with the customer for their inspection and disposal!

3) At the time of the bearing repair job, there may have been a coin (or other foreign items) sitting in the drum you were unaware of. And in so doing that repair the coin found its way into the sump and pump after your call. Therefore (with the benefit of hindsight) perhaps we should all at least check the sump hose and pump before completion on jobs such as this in future?

What’s her name by the way? Pat-UK won’t go to anyone called Mrs Miles in future, so it would help with our BLACKLISTED CUSTOMER DATABASE

[leavemetogetonwithit]

Re: Not the advice I wanted

You’re gonna get the odd one like this just now and again. I had one a couple of weeks back. Long tale of mis-understanding leading to his ending up thinking that it was my fault that the machine could not be economically repaired. I sent him a letter outlining what had gone wrong from my perspective and enclosing a bill for the parts used only at trade cost. (Claiming nothing for labour). I had made a lot of effort to give good service and ended up about £60 out of pocket and lots of time wasted.
So far no reply but writing the letter with the bill put the onus to make reparation on him and cleared my frustration. After that I was able to forget about it and get on with serving nice customers (the overwhelming majority). He has made a rod for his own back because he will no longer be able to call on (probably) the best repairer in town!
Mike. 🙂

[cornwell40]

Re: Not the advice I wanted

Phidom wrote

I’m sure if you have a good look round you will find the old knackered bearings.

I’ve found quite a few so far and I’m making myself a catapult for them as we speak 😈

Tony C

[roly16]

Re: Not the advice I wanted

Years ago we took a customer’s chest freezer into the workshop for a compressor change. When my engineers delivered it back [yes, I employed engineers in those days] he refused to pay 😥 because there was a dent in one corner which he said we had caused, which we hadn’t. 👿 He claimed he’ d been standing in front of the van & watched from underneath while the guys were unloading it out of the back and saw them drop it! 😆
So the rule here is : whenever you’re unloading a machine make sure the customer isn’t lying in the road in front of the van, or standing 200yards away to be able to see the ground behind the van from the front! 😯

[roly16]

Re: Not the advice I wanted

If anybody is interested they lived in the farm right at the bottom of Pavement Lane Mobberley. Can’t remember the name though unfortunately; it was about 13 years ago.

[roly16]

Re: Not the advice I wanted

💡 💡 💡

I’m sorry that Martin was only joking about customer blacklists, I think one should be started. Personally I think that roly16 is too nice for his own good, I would add a few of our less pleasant customers to the list,
from Mrs Roly16!!

[mowerman80]

Re: Not the advice I wanted

Don,t you just love cuntstomers that like to try it on!!! 8 months ago i installed an intergrated dishwasher which they purchased themselves and had soon started to leak. the leak had swollen the cupboard and the door would not open without chaffing I told them to contact the company they purchased it from as it was still under warranty. They said they wanted me to fix it as i have been to them before and trusted me. So i went along and fixed the leak and shaved the cupboards down so to fix the problem. then at the end of the job i said i was just going to wright a bill out and then they said YOUR NOT GOING TO CHARGE ME ARE YOU its still under warranty, well as you can imagine big argument later and i left empty handed big time BLACK LISTED 2 hours for nothing.

[Author]

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