Welcome to the forum. Although you can post in any forum, the USA forum is here in case of local regs or laws

View the thread, titled "Nutter Customer!!" which is posted in UK Plumbers Forums on UK Plumbers Forums.

cr0ft

Plumbers Arms member
Plumber
Gas Engineer
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.
 
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?
 
Last edited:
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
 
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.
 
Last edited:
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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 🙂
 
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.
 
IMG_0377.jpg

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!
 
Last edited:
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.'
 
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.
 
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?
 
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?
 
Last edited:
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.
 

Official Sponsors of Plumbers Talk

Reply to the thread, titled "Nutter Customer!!" which is posted in UK Plumbers Forums on Plumbers Forums.

We recommend City Plumbing Supplies, BES, and Plumbing Superstore for all plumbing supplies.

Thread starter

cr0ft

Plumber
Gas Engineer
Plumbers Arms member
Joined
Location
Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Member Type
Heating Engineer (Has GSR)

Thread Information

Title
Nutter Customer!!
Prefix
N/A
Forum
UK Plumbers Forums
Start date
Last reply date
Replies
44

Thread Tags

Tags Tags
None

Thread statistics

Created
cr0ft,
Last reply from
newcastle phill,
Replies
44
Views
1,142

Weekly or Monthly Email Digest

Back
Top