Is it wrong to ask for a written estimate?

[SafeGasInstall]

How could you OP send quote to repair car without even seen the car !!!
I told you , bring the boiler over to me and I will give you the requested estimate to repair and once I have done the job then you could pay me and then you could have had your boiler taken home with you . How about that ?
You need to get to belive people that are willing to help you , when you need help.
Like I said new diverter is £150+ vat were new boile just the same as yours is £500 inc Vat .
You need to learn how to speak to people and have respect to the one that are willing to bring your/ her boiler back to live .

 

[Leo21]

Best thing the op can do is go to bg for a fixed price repair. Us small businesses can't afford to faf around.

 

[SafeGasInstall]

that is what I also recommended him over the phone to ring BG

 

[woodsy]

The only people generally who would give a firm price on boiler repairs are the manafacturers who charge anywhere between 200 and 300 pounds to turn out - you pay this whether its a 5p fuse or something bigger. They buy parts at a tenth of engineers prices and take a gamble that most of their jobs will be small. This covers them for the jobs which lead to several parts which as alluded to in previous posts can occur. Unless i am reading it wrong you are wanting a fixed price not an estimate. I can assure you that there are many more rogue customers out there than engineers and rightly or wrongly i also would have alarm bells going off in my head that if anything else occured with the boiler you would be trying to back out of payment.

 

[Keefy]

I think the problem here is that the customer is suspicious and on their guard due to an earlier incident which didn't turn out too well. This is the problem we all have to bear when a cowboy (in the customers eyes) gets his mitts into a job before we turn up. 'We' meaning 'proper plumbers/engineers'.

Maybe he has a reason to be on guard but he needs to understand that some tradesmen out there have the customers best interests at heart as well as bringing home the bread.

 

[petercj]

BG advertise a fixed price from - which I take to mean a quote for the repairs required following inspection. I doubt any quote given by BG is going to be cheaper than an independent.

BG are also quite adept at muddling up their fixed price repairs (from) for non BG customers, with their fixed price excess payments that are part of their Home Care cover plans. Their adverts make it look as if they are the cheapest, whereas we all know that they are nearly always by far the most expensive.

Vaillant do a fixed repair fee, but it doesn't include heat-exchangers.

An estimate, written or verbal, is just an assessment of what the cost might be if the diagnosis is correct, and the repair goes as planned. If unforeseen work is necessary, then it's likely to cost extra. But then maybe the OP understands that.

 

[peteheat]

Having looked back through the thread it appears to me that there is very little learned by comparing different sectors in the service industries

"I ran car repair garage for 15 years and had to give estimates for all jobs, if did not what the problem was to start with i would take a look and once i knew i would inform customer of the cost."

At which time you had possession of the car and it was clocking up a bill just for being in the garage, how many of us have had the "Gun to the head" feeling when we got that phone call?

Any problem with a customer paying you keep the car, the reality is we can't stay in a persons home preventing them from using the boiler or the parts we have fitted.

"I have had issues in the past, and my girl friend, whose flat it is, was ripped by the people who fitted boiler and one on another occasion who claimed to know what wrong, but did not and tried over charging her.

She evidential found a good engineer who fixed it, he did give her a price once he diagnosed the problem."

It appears from your own posts that you have tarred everyone in this industry with the same brush, a question that arises is why not employ the "Good Engineer" again?

Despite how this thread may read to consumers the majority of the people in this sector are neither cowboys or stupid, one overcharged visit to a particular property / customer is not how we build a business, we want the same consumers calling us at least once a year to service the appliance and to continue calling us for breakdowns and the ultimate boiler replacement.

We also want them to supply our details to friends and family and to bring our contact details with them should they move home, they are our wants.

We need the consumer to trust us, I have attended four breakdowns this week where money has not been mentioned, (reminds I should be doing the invoices not typing here), the reason money was not mentioned is the customers trust me, even when I do have to advise about expensive parts the job gets done because I will not leave a customer without heat they will pay when they can (I hope).

Trust works both ways, one thing left out of the original diagnosis was a possible PCB fault I know that if I present the PCB as the problem the customer will most likely doubt my findings simply because he hasn't seen a similar diagnosis on the internet.

So now i ask me, would I want this customer?

Guess the answer.

 

[SafeGasInstall]

Answer is yes !!!

 

[Keefy]

"I ran car repair garage

My brother had a garage at one time, it was called Seaman Rd Garage - "Where Everyone Comes" - not kidding.

 

[jtsplumbing]

Its quite obvious this person has no trust in what a engineer is going to tell him, So his best course of action is to call out the Boiler manufacture on a fixd price repair and they will give him a gurantee but it will cost around £300.00,