Hot water element repaired without checking pressure?

[Johnno1966]

Hello, hoping someone can advise me. My boiler stopped working - no hot water or central heating. Called out a company who came and assessed the problem as being that the hot water element in the immersion tank needed replacing. (I don't know exactly what it is called as the company has still not provided me with a receipt or an invoice despite requests).

The repair was done and there was hot water and central heating for 24 hours.

I informed the company that there was no hot water again, and they came out and said that actually they now needed to replace the Red Heating Expansion Vessel and sealed System Kit which they were going to charge me a further £120 on top of the £514 they charged to do the repair immediately on completion (I think my red tank is 8L). I wanted to do my own research on costings and they really tried to pressurise me in paying for the part there and2 then as they could do the repair today but if I didn't agree to do it today they would charge me for a whole new job and part. I refused and told them to leave.

My questions are:
1. is it feasible that after doing the repair on the element, wouldn't as a matter of course the pressure be checked? (especially as the tank is at eye level above the hot water cylinder?).
2. Can I request a refund (full/partial) as the fix only lasted a day?
3. What grounds could the company give for refusing to give a refund?

I urgently needed to have the repair done and didn't research prices - £514 is a lot for less than 60 minutes of work (Greater London) and a new part.

Any advice and guidance would be gratefully received.

 

[fowlerboi]

For starters the immersion heater wouldn't have anything to do with the heating. I'm going to hazard a guess and say they re-pressurised your heating system and changed the immersion because the back up was broken.

Once the heating stopped working again after a couple of days your immersion should still have worked. The heating would stop because its lost its pressure again because of the faulty vessel. While testing the vessel probably would have been smart I'm guilty of not doing it on occasion (but i'm not charging huge call outs)

How much has it cost total and how much on each visit?

 

[Basher]

For starters the immersion heater wouldn't have anything to do with the heating.

To be fair some places in London have an electric thermal store for both HW and UFH, and I've known people (including on this forum) calling them their 'boiler'. It would be helpful if the OP could clarify if this is an all-electric system, or if there is a gas boiler somewhere.