Hello all,
AS you can see, I’m a new member to the forum. I totally understand what Ray is getting at, and I understand the sentiment behind it. As one of those who used to service those aircraft your families fly with, I personally understand the point.
As a consumer though, it’s not the product I worry about, it’s the never ending supply of dubious people out there, offering to supply or fit them.
We all know that within any trade, there are plenty of unscrupulous individuals who are quite happy to charge silly money for substandard work. Take a roofer for example, how many of the general public, including yourselves, go on the roof to check the work? So the point being, we put our trust in that tradesman, that he has carried out the job to the best of his ability, and you have been charged fairly for the service……..right?
My issue with the domestic heating industry, is that (rightly so) we are legally obliged to use a certified engineer, preventing dodgy DIY issues from occurring, yet the quality between those individuals, despite their qualification, is immeasurable, and they charge how they see fit.
I did 15 years in the RAF, and saw no end of lads do a 2 week plumbing course, and then do 3 days ACS, only to be churned out as qualified gas fitters? They’re my mates, but I wouldn’t let them near my Gas! Especially, as we are former weapons engineers LOL
I think the point I’m getting at, is it’s so difficult to determine what kind of engineer you’re getting, I know of people in the building industry who will put you onto family members when checking on their quality of work! That’s frightening! But I suppose it happens in all trades………..How do you combat that?
I’m fortunate to able to most of my own work, but that’s based on seeing the dreadful work carried out on my parents house when I was 14, the ramifications of seeing them in tears after loosing money on sub standard work, and worse, by a friend of theirs, pointed me in the right direction for self reliance.
Only today I received a quote of just shy of £4k to supply, fit, and re-pipe a W/B 34 CDI and remove a storage tank.
As one of those savvy shoppers, I can buy that boiler and associated parts, plus 9 rads and Drayton TRVs (which are not in that quote) for less than £1800 online and that’s before I go into the merchants and haggle prices, which normally ends up cheaper. So is £2100 a reasonable cost for that work? Not to me, so sometimes the more expensive quotes don’t happen to be best either, but that’s what’s so difficult to determine. I’m paying for his skill, and knowledge, yet I‘ve only known him for 45 minutes!
I appreciate profit has to be made, but sometimes the legal burden to use a “certified” tradesman can come at a cost, that said, it’s what we have to do, and can’t argue with it.
What I like about the forums, is that the type of individual using it is inclined to want to help, and be helped, and I find forums an invaluable way of researching.
“Riley” put it in to context with his post, if such a place was made available to select an engineer for heating work, and one that was available to accept positive and negative feedback from all, the world would be a better place, as bad work gets negative press, and professional pride would get battered in front of their peers on a website..
I know of, as I’m sure you do, of several sites out there that offer this, basing your hiring on the reviews of “Joe Public” but I’ve seen much error in those as well.
I often say buyer beware! And it’s down to the individual to spend more time assessing the potential tradesman they are using, as much as saving a few £££ trawling the internet for weeks.
I hope I’m not offending anyone here, that’s not my intention, just passing on my views as a “Customer”
Regards
Jay
