- This topic has 15 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 22 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I am so shocked at the outrageous repair practices for boiler repairs by major companies (Potterton the central heating boiler makers in particular) that I’m seriously wondering if Watchdog may be interested.
Maybe some of you guys have come across this kind of thing before but it seems like boiler repairs are extremely profitable these days, and customers are over a barrel with their pants down.
I have a 3-year-old Potteron condenser boiler. It won’t fire up any more. I phoned British Gas who refused to send an engineer at all because we aren’t on one of their highly profitable maintenance schemes. It seems the maintenance contracts have become so ubiquitous, that many companies don’t want or need chargeable work any more.
(Is this the future of all repairs? No independents ? everyone covered by insurance and maintenance contracts)
I phoned a few Corgi registered companies and individuals but no one knows how to fix condenser boilers.
So I phoned Potterton who told me it will cost £170 for an engineer. Apparently, this includes parts (apart from the main heat exchanger) but no matter what is wrong, and no matter how inexpensive the part (if indeed any is required) it will cost £170. In addition, to have the privilege of being ripped off like this, I have to get my credit card out and pay this money in advance!
How can a repair company justify charging such a high set charge? How can they justify charging everyone the same, even if it’s just a dodgy electrical connection or an inexpensive part? And how can they justify treating customers so bad as to insist they pay up front just because as they said, “We’ve had customers not pay in the past.” (Who hasn’t?)
Please don’t tell me this isn’t outrageous.
It is outrageous.
But here’s a thought or two for you…
My next door neighbour (who had the old manse that my house in built on the grounds of) sold up and moved to Spain as he said he couldn’t make a decent living over here. He was a heating engineer for Vokera although an independent. the minimum he would call to house for, even for the likes of D&G was £50 plus VAT, my question was: why are we worth any less than that? And that leads on to still more questions. We have the same costs in training, in fact more in some cases. The same costs in transport, fuel, public liability, office facilities and getting on the same costs for salaries, strange isn’t it?
Vokera charge £100 labour off the bat with parts on top.
Are these charges silly or are they realistic prices for in-home service?
Are we undervaluing ourselves?
K.
Re: Unbelievable repair practice – move into boiler repairs?
Hi K. I agree, that the prices major companies usually charge are not outrageous, they are simply the charges needed to make a profit. It’s just that customers won’t wear the same prices from a small firm or sole trader, they expect us to do it for less than half the price of the majors.
Our problem is simple, the appliances are too cheap to replace. I don’t think even the white goods manufacturers are making anything on chargeable work but they know they can’t afford to send someone out for less or they’ll simply be running at a loss.
Ultimately, costs are irrelevant to consumers. If I set up a business to repair toasters and kettles in people’s houses, and my legitimate and conservative running coasts dictate I need to charge £30 + parts to repair one ? I can’t complain that people wont pay because new toasters and irons are only £20 odd. To me, it’s a simple case of repairs being made obsolete in similar ways to what happened to Blacksmiths, Milkmen etc. It’s not economically viable to trade any more.
Of course, this is entirely different to the rip off Potterton company that charges a set price for all repairs so that other customers are heavily subsidising the customers with expensive faults. Why should a little old pensioner lady (little old pensioner lady example gratuotously used to add unnecessary weight to my point) who has a minor fault, have to subsidise people who have expensive faults and who are Potterton to dictate that should happen?
Re: Unbelievable repair practice – move into boiler repairs?
It would appear that Pottertons have taken the commercial decision to apply a flat charge to call out and repair any fault on any of their products.
They, just like us, sell and or service their products in a free market. Were they not able to sustain their required workload or service to thier products, then the price they charge would be reflected in thier fees. otherwise, they like many of our number, would simply go out of buisness.Obviousley joe public is paying thier price otherwise Pottertons would not be in buisiness. They are aware that it is the cost of getting the skilled engineer to the property with the required spare part that represent’s the majority of thier own cost’s and are relecting that fact in thier charges. So it would seem that what some people see as ‘Rip Off’ others see as ‘Reality’ .
I dare say Pottertons will still be in buisness long after any of us. Perhaps they have realised that they are an independant buisiness who must stand and fall on the profit that thier company does or does not make.
Therefore we would all do better to take a leaf out of thier book, instead of seeing ourselves as an another unfunded unofficial branch of social services.Re: Unbelievable repair practice – move into boiler repairs?
There is another explanation. That is that they have made a commercial deision not to do chargable work because they can’t make it pay. Therefore, if anyone wants to have one of their engineers they will have to make it worth their while. Just like British Gas, and others, they are making their money on maintenance schemes and are busy enough thank-you-very-much dealing with those customers.
More likely the commercial decision was that if it doesn’t pay we don’t do it. Wonder if we’d get away with that? 😉
K.
Re: Unbelievable repair practice – move into boiler repairs?
These companies can make those decisions because they are usually manufacturers who make their money making and selling. They can shut down or farm out servicing when it becomes unviable and remain profitable with their main business. For most white goods repairers, servicing IS their main business so if they put prices up to become properly profitable – they will simply go bust. If they only do chargable work they have to keep repair charges artificially low and make no profit or go under (in the end)
I’m the proud owner of a Potterton boiler. The easy route is the one I took 6 years ago & don’t regret it, join up with D&G flying toolbox and book the repair.
might cost something up front, but nowhere near Potterton prices, and you are then covered as long as you stick with it.
Re: Unbelievable repair practice – move into boiler repairs?
Cheers Alex, I just checked them out and the recommended repairer
DOMESTIC HEATING (UK) LTD, Nottinghamshire charges £39.85 for the first hour and £25.52 per hour after + parts of course. This shows how outrageous £170 is.Take a look in the training forum re my post about CORGI training and then it becomes all too clear why many of them are charging so much! 🙁
K.
Re: Unbelievable repair practice – move into boiler repairs?
Will do K. But my beef isn’t just about high charges as such, it’s about charging a fixed price, which includes “parts” which may or may not even be needed and insisting on payment up front when all businesses have people who don’t pay. You can’t treat 99{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of your customers like scum just because 1{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} have caused you problems.
The only way you should be able to charge a set price is for servicing, as with cars, when it’s accepted that at a certain age/milage, certain procedures and parts should be replaced. A repair, could be anything from a 10 minute trace and fix dodgy connection to a big job and you can’t fairly do a fixed price without most customers paying too much (and many way too much) if this wasn’t the case the company concerned would be losing money.
Re: Unbelievable repair practice – move into boiler repairs?
Had a look K. It’s crazy. So the only logical conclusion is that it will cost so much for a Corgi engineer to visit a consumers home that they are priced right out of a job. We will all end up being covered by insurance and maintenence schemes for all household repairs in the end and paying considerably more in the long term for it too.
Insurance companies and some manufacturers just love fixed price repairs or “cabinet fees” as they are known though as it helps with budgeting.
Not that I personally agree with the practise, I don’t even really agree with it on labour only with some contracts either.
K.
Re: Unbelievable repair practice – move into boiler repairs?
andy_art_trigg wrote:So the only logical conclusion is that it will cost so much for a Corgi engineer to visit a consumers home that they are priced right out of a job.
Essentially correct. 😕
K.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.