Nutter Customer!!

[cr0ft]

Try again in the Arms lol!!

I seem to stumble across these idiots every couple of years without fail. I wish my nutter detector was a bit better. He said before hand he would be getting a loan to pay for the installation and I should have realised then he would try absolutely anything to knock money off at the end.

Before we started on the first day, the customer told us specifically not to worry about the carpets as they were being replaced once we were done. On that basis we didn't put down roll and stroll protector, or indeed worry too much about the carpets. To be honest, our boots would have bloody cleaned his carpets as they were absolutely filthy anyway.

8pm the first night he got home. Keiran, I can't believe the state you have left our carpets in. Mud on them, a right mess. Me - you told me you were getting rid of them once we had done the work (this property is being renovated by the way) and not to worry about them. Him - I want them cleaned or replaced throughout the whole house..

At this point we are one day into the heating install and I have a fair amount of money in materials on his house. He also knows its our first job as a gas fitter and I believe he is trying to take advantage of that.

My colleague also heard him clearly say not to even worry about taking shoes off because he would be replacing all the carpets!!

So I stupidly agree to REPLACE all his carpets just to avoid a bad review. A week later I get a call off of my favourite customer, there is a small leak from under the boiler. I send one of my lads over who fixes it. 2 days later, there is another small leak from the same place.. Now I am getting suspicious as I know the lad who fixed it is good.

Next I get a very rude text at 10pm at night stating that me and all of my lads are completely incompetent, is the boiler even safe?? I tell him that I am happy to help deal with issues but would he mind being less rude and texting me during working hours. His response was to tell me to f*** off basically. He then emailed telling me we are not welcome back and he will be getting all of our work inspected and expecting money off the bill (on top of the £1,000 I took off to try and pacify the idiot by giving him brand new carpets).

I have told him to jump (politely) and that we will fix the leak for free. We are not allowed back in so we can't though.

Letter today, the f****** idiot has asked Gas Safe to inspect our work. Now I am worried that over this they will cancel my registration. I know the gas line is fine, did all the usual tightness testing. Equally, the flue is all fine and the boiler is combusting nice and cleanly (ratio and CO is spot on). Will they care about anything else this idiot says (he won't let me attend this inspection)? I am really worried now even though I am 100% happy I have left a safe installation.

I hate the guy with an absolute passion. I have fantastic reviews online and work my backside off to do things right and then you get one tosser like this who tries to ruin everything I have worked so hard to build up.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

why didnt you ask a mod to move the thread

 

[hammers4spanner]

We in here now with this then lol

 

[Toxic Ted]

First one still needs removing from public view.

 

[village idiot]

Croft, I'm sorry to hear you're being ''conned'' by this IDIOT. As for worrying about your registration being cancelled, rest easy. Gas Safe will not cancel your registration. Should they find any abnormalities, they will give you time to put it right (I've seen worse - Not saying there's a problem with yours as no pictures posted). Also, the customer is within their right to not want you there when the inspection is done. Sleep easy and relax. Hope you have been paid?

 

[plumben]

i wouldnt worry at all, if you know your work is all fine then gas safe wont find any issues,

if theres a leak on the CH or Hot or Cold thats plumbing not Gas and you've been refused access to rectify, the fools probley been messing around with the boiler or knocked it or the pipework,

either way its not a gas saftey issue

as for the carpets i wouldnt knock anything off the price at all send him the invoice for the full amount, and then pay for them to be cleaned if anything which should only be around £500 at most although always get it in writing when the customer says dont worry about the carpets or protect them anyway.

i had a job where when i pulled the roll and stroll up the carpet looked about 20 shades of red brighter than where it hadnt been but i wasnt going to take the chance of having to buy new carpets

 

[cr0ft]

100% happy the gas side of the work is all good. I just hate people like that. He showed his true colours the second time, asking for money off straight away.

Have been paid the full invoice less £1,000 for new carpets. Being the mug I am I took it off the bill hoping he would **** off. A grand is nothing compared to the damage an idiot like him can do to my business' reputation.

I genuinely would not put it past him to have engineered this situation. I checked under the boiler thoroughly before we left and I damn well know it wasn't leaking. We always pressurise them up to around 2.5 bars and run them at temperature so we know the system is good before we set it to the normal 1.2 bars and leave.

Wouldn't mind but I can strip a boiler down and swap a heat exchanger. How dare he say my gas work is unsafe.

 

[village idiot]

I wouldn't worry about the leak. After completing a job, my favourite quote is: ''Any issues, give me a shout and it will be sorted as a priority''. The fact they don't want you back to rectify the supposed leak means you are in the clear.

 

[cr0ft]

why didnt you ask a mod to move the thread

Wanted it gone off the public forum quickly. I put it on the wrong one by mistake. Didn't think venting about customers on a public forum would be good PR!

 

[cr0ft]

I wouldn't worry about the leak. After completing a job, my favourite quote is: ''Any issues, give me a shout and it will be sorted as a priority''. The fact they don't want you back to rectify the supposed leak means you are in the clear.

Yes, I did think it was quite odd myself to be honest. Call me daft but if I had paid someone £4k for a new heating installation I would be inviting them back very quickly if there was a leak.

 

[Roger Welton]

If you're happy with your work stand your ground, re the carpets, i personally would have cleaned them, you could buy a v good quality carpet cleaner for £1k and then have it if ever needed in the future.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Was this a checkatrade customer?

 

[SimonG]

Don't forget to ask for the receipts for the carpets as you are putting it through your insurance company. Drop in that they may want to inspect the new carpets due to the level of fraudulent claims

 

[SimonG]

If you're happy with your work stand your ground, re the carpets, i personally would have cleaned them, you could buy a v good quality carpet cleaner for £1k and then have it if ever needed in the future.

The wife has the expensive vax one. Very good it is too.

 

[cr0ft]

Don't know if this will show up but this is the installation in question, taken on the last day of the project. There is room to get the Magnaclean out of the top before anyone says

I was pretty pleased with it tbh for my first one.

PS Don't blame me for the existing shower cable on the right hand side of the picture, no part to play in that!!

Wish I got some photos of the vertical flue in the loft. Don't know why I didn't! All clipped in with the proper clips and looking dappa!

 

[cr0ft]

Was this a checkatrade customer?

Yes mate. I know what's coming..

 

[WaterTight]

This is why I don't use checkatrade (and have even decided i might let my website drop down the pages rather than keep it higher up.) I prize nothing higher than knowing that if relations all go pear shaped I cannot be held to ransom with the threat of online slandering. Not so easy if you're trying to be successful, grow a business as big as you can and employ people. But ok if you're resigned to being a 'lifestyle plumber.'

 

[cr0ft]

I don't mind the odd knob writing negative feedback to be honest. It shows prospective customers that our feedback on Checkatrade is indeed genuine. Overall we do incredibly well from it and one knobber every 2 years writing stuff like that shows them up for what they are.

It's people like him trying to screw me royally that ****es me off.

 

[plumben]

View attachment 23838

Don't know if this will show up but this is the installation in question, taken on the last day of the project. There is room to get the Magnaclean out of the top before anyone says

I was pretty pleased with it tbh for my first one.

PS Don't blame me for the existing shower cable on the right hand side of the picture, no part to play in that!!

Wish I got some photos of the vertical flue in the loft. Don't know why I didn't! All clipped in with the proper clips and looking dappa!

all looks good to me,
did you seal the flue going through the ceiling?

 

[leelister6]

Why didn't you go through your insurance for the fools carpets?

 

[village idiot]

from what I can see, it looks good.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

did you screw the flue to the spigot on the boiler? as cant see any in the pic,
and that wiring is a mess why didnt you shorten and use proper flex clips instead of t+e
wheres the fcu for the boiler as well?
wheres the main lever/full bore valve to turn the mains off to the boiler

where does the prv and cond terminate as not in pic?

 

[hammers4spanner]

Thick moment fcu???

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Thick moment fcu???

fused connection unit (fused spur)

 

[village idiot]

It's out of your hands now croft, as they don't want you back there. I still say relax. For your first install, all Gas Safe will do if they find a fault is send you a letter giving you ample time to rectify any faults. For jobs I have attended that had faults, the reason for me attending is the customer ''falling out'' with installer and not wanting them back in to rectify faults identified by Gas Safe. So if Gas Safe carry out an inspection, find fault(s), give you time to rectify and customer says don't come in, then well, you are in the clear. It's too late to worry about it now, just relax.

 

[jonnyswamp]

did you screw the flue to the spigot on the boiler? as cant see any in the pic,
and that wiring is a mess why didnt you shorten and use proper flex clips instead of t+e
wheres the fcu for the boiler as well?
wheres the main lever/full bore valve to turn the mains off to the boiler
I assume croft would have done everything to regs and the ins man and this photo was taken before the job was actually finished
Looks like a small shelf/ledge under the boiler, thats where I would have put the spur
Also, Ideal have a vert flue adaptor which is held in place with a screwed clamp and from memory, doesn't need a self tapper through the joint into the air duct
I never put a full bore/lever valve before a boiler isolation valve on my installs either, can't see the point

 

[ShaunCorbs]

did you screw the flue to the spigot on the boiler? as cant see any in the pic,
and that wiring is a mess why didnt you shorten and use proper flex clips instead of t+e
wheres the fcu for the boiler as well?
wheres the main lever/full bore valve to turn the mains off to the boiler
I assume croft would have done everything to regs and the ins man and this photo was taken before the job was actually finished
Looks like a small shelf/ledge under the boiler, thats where I would have put the spur
Also, Ideal have a vert flue adaptor which is held in place with a screwed clamp and from memory, doesn't need a self tapper through the joint into the air duct
I never put a full bore/lever valve before a boiler isolation valve on my installs either, can't see the point

fair enough on the lever valve, but thinking what gas safe would look at

 

[cr0ft]

No small shelf/ledge underneath, the floorboards were up when this photo was taken. It's the old airing cupboard for the hot water cylinder that was heated from their solid fuel back boiler.

The flue is clamped onto the top of the boiler with a special bracket that Ideal supply, it doesn't get screwed in other than at the clamp. Followed the instructions for the flue and gas installation to the letter.

There is a main lever valve built in underneath the boiler to turn on/off the incoming mains for servicing.

FCU for the boiler is on the right hand wall just out of sight. It was an old airing cupboard and I have reused the wiring for the immersion heater circuit.

PRV runs outside and is fitted with the manufacturers fitting on the end to direct any flow back onto the wall.

Condensate runs directly into the internal soil stack under the floorboards.

Vertical flue is properly clipped in the loft space, 2 clips for a 1.5m run.

Photo was taken prior to the job being completed, wiring has been tidied up and clipped with correct clips on the finished install, I forgot to take pictures of the boiler/flue at the end though. I wanted it out of the way whilst I was soldering the pipework under the floor of the airing cupboard and I only had T&E clips on me at the time. No biggy really though and doesn't affect the gas safety. The Gas Safe letter says they only get involved if there are gas safety issues and there aren't any, of that I am 100% certain.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Honestly mate wouldn't worry about it .

 

[lame plumber]

This is why I don't use checkatrade (and have even decided i might let my website drop down the pages rather than keep it higher up.) I prize nothing higher than knowing that if relations all go pear shaped I cannot be held to ransom with the threat of online slandering. Not so easy if you're trying to be successful, grow a business as big as you can and employ people. But ok if you're resigned to being a 'lifestyle plumber.'

doesnt make any difference if you get the odd idiot slanging you off on checkatrade, you have the right to reply and make them look stupid, politely of course

 

[missplumb]

i wouldnt worry at all about gas safe. but NEVER believe customers when they say "dont worry about the carpets", if you are in the habit of putting sheets down or roll&stroll then its only 5 minutes and shows the customer you care even if they asked you not to, and it stops any chew like this!!

 

[jtsplumbing]

Wonder he didn't want you to paint the walls where the old cylinder was, Did you insulate the pipe work when you had finished ?
But I would want the receipt for new carpets and a photo you can claim that against your tax if he doesn't get them fitted sue he in small claims court for your £1000, if he doesn't spend the full amount on carpets tell him you want the balance back !!

 

[JCSPLUMBING]

I've had to clean carpets before. Same issue as you had. Install looks good though mate

 

[stevetheplumber]

be very carefull about the amount of weight your placing on your reputationif you get a reputaion of being a soft touch for a grands worth of carpet on every job that will not help either

 

[Millsy 82]

Gas safe deal with muppets like this all the time. They will spot that he is after money back etc so I wouldn't worry about it.

If you have loads of good feedback on Checkatrade then don't worry about that either as everybody knows you have 1 crackpot every now and then and will look over it if the rest are good.

And as missplumb said never ever believe a customer when they say don't worry about this or that as that usually means they want a new one and if they get chance you will be paying for it. It has happened to me before when I was an apprentice subbing to British Gas, they were not best pleased lol.

I wouldn't of gave them money to buy new though I would of paid a professional cleaner to go round and then taken photos after.