Am I a bad customer / job magnet

[Millsy 82]

If you have made a mistake its not the end of the world. You owned up to it and offered to repair it I would send an invoice through with a letter stating that the remedial work will be carried out as soon as you are allowed access. Then if worse comes to worse then take it through the courts. If they are refusing to let you repair your fault they will lose in court.

Also if they remove the boiler it is there property and bill them for it as you dont know how well they removed the boiler.

 

[village idiot]

Sadly not a joke this is my life ATM

You should set a plan in place, finish jobs that are booked for now, then take time off work and take the missus somewhere nice and just forget about work for at least a two week period. Or hand over booked jobs to a friend, inform customers you are getting someone else to handle jobs as you cannot be there due to unforeseen circumstances

 

[Millsy 82]

Plus they want to keep some of the work you have done? why if they feel that you are incompetent? If you were incompetent then they would have the lot removed.

 

[Whyme]

Its the uncle and he is ALWAYS fully booked because he's the best apparently it was isolated when I left and the flue was a genuine mistake that was going to be sorted out there and then but she refused

if it was isolated when you left its classed as un commisioned and job not finished or rectified (don't worry cos you didn't turn it on). all bits including copper like i say belong to you until payment..Get gas safe involved and explain then take them to small claims...god i feel for ya..🙁

 

[hammers4spanner]

Only cost 60 to take someone to court which they pay if they lose

 

[JCplumb]

I really feel for you mate, this job can be horrible when it goes pear shaped.
Get through this gloomy part however you can, if I were you I would consider writing it off completely, hopefully get the boiler back and break even on the next job.
I know you probably could take them to court etc. but do you want to go through that? The courts tend to be on the side of the customer from what I've heard and if you do take them and lose and then have to pay their expenses - how will you feel?
Move forward and learn, it may be an expensive lesson, but it will be a valuable one. You'll know next time to keep the communication up and to take deposits and/or have a cast iron agreement in place before starting.

I had a nightmare a good few years ago, spent a whole weekend replacing a bath that the customer had bought together with the taps they bought, all cheap rubbish, took the old bath out and the floor was rotten, I told them the floor needed re-doing and they asked if I could do it. I said I'm no joiner but I could replace some boards. They provided some crappy tongue and groove that was about 4mm shallower than the other boards and I begrudgingly fitted it with them (about 6 of them) watching my every move. Almost at end of job and the taps wouldn't seal, they were absolute rubbish quality, I'd had almost as much as I could take and when I told them the taps wouldn't seal and better ones were needed they started calling the flooring I'd done and blaming me for the cheap taps.
I picked up my tools and told them to **** off.
Anyway to cut a long story short I was 2 days labour down and about £100 in materials down but I was getting so low because of these arseholes that I had to leave before I did something they'd regret.
Took me a good few weeks to get over it and I didn't lose nearly half as much as you did. Maybe I could have taken them to a small claims for the materials and labour, maybe not. It didn't really matter I just didn't want to feel like that anymore, I didn't even want to talk about the job as thinking about it depressed me.

I have learned and I have moved on and it's just a bitter memory now which hopefully yours will be at some point in the future.

 

[Centralheatking]

Dont forget job/financial screw ups can be placed against
your tax liability as a written off loss centralheatking

 

[hammers4spanner]

Dont forget job/financial screw ups can be placed against
your tax liability as a written off loss centralheatking

How's that work?

 

[Irish]

same as any company , you put your losses against your gains. if you get knocked for 15k you can claim it against your tax

 

[plumber0808]

It does sound like a bit of a balls up from your part to be honest. But problems and issues do occur and they always will due to personal expectations.

i would ask for the opportunity to sort out any issues the customer has and ask them to meet up with you at a neutral place to discuss these and how they will be carried out.

Either way get it wrapped up as soon as possible as it will cause too much stress and sleepless nights.

good luck with it

 

[Ermintrude]

I'm heads gone my mrs has gone mad because I didn't take a deposit she recons they won't believe me about leaving the boiler off She saying you made a mistake now you lost the money !! This customer was in contact with this family gas engineer all though the job now he's in the mix I'm at the end of my rope just so down

If family engineer is GS why didn't he do job?

Did you commission it ? No!
Did you benchmark it? No!
Did you leave an uncomissioned appliance connected to a gas supply? No

Are you in wrong ? NO!
Did you make a mistake? Yes
Are you going to correct it? Yes
Will a small claims court find in your favour? Probably yes.

We are all chipping in for your air fair to Belfast, so u can deliver a ferolli cascade And laugh at one of the sites admin - just to cheer you up.

 

[P J F PLUMBING]

Thanks guys really thanks

 

[BLOD]

Put in writing (recorded mail) that you want the opportunity to rectify any problems & finish & commission the install.
If they won't let you then get that claim in ! - I can't see it going well for them in front of a magistrate.
They must give you the chance to put things right.

 

[gasmanrob]

A few points.

1. You turned it all off.
2. They say they smell fumes upstairs.
3. POC (fumes don't smell)
4. In order for someone to supposedly smell fumes the boiler would need to function, soo with no POC re entering someone has turned on and left an AR appliance or if POC are re entering someone has commissioned and left a ID situation.

my concerns would lay there for the minute rather then chasing money you'll never see.
put a report together for your records start to finish what happened what was said etc that way you have a reminder should this drag out a few months

 

[Leo21]

Tbh I get the impression the custard was going to try and avoid payment anyway.

 

[GasmanxxxR1]

Chin up mate we all get knocked. Earlier this year a mate got kicked off a job in a big house, two married GPs owned the place. Halfway through they got another tradesman in to look at his work so far in the evening. He said "I would have done this, I would have done that" etc. Next morning at 8am they were waiting at the front door and told my mate to pack his stuff and leave. They paid a 'contribution' towards materials.

He's still shook up about it now. Hate customers like this

 

[Ermintrude]

I hate the nobs they get round. Had a joiner telling me we had fitted 60kw. Logics on a headder wrong! Cos boilers were joined together on one pipe

 

[lame plumber]

same as any company , you put your losses against your gains. if you get knocked for 15k you can claim it against your tax

if your claiming for lost labour then youll be paying tax on that and if you put it on your balance sheet, then you'll claim it as a loss so a bit pointless for a simple tax return, best to just show the cost of parts as an expense and forget the labout side, simpler as most small enterprises dont run a balance sheet.

 

[Irish]

if your claiming for lost labour then youll be paying tax on that and if you put it on your balance sheet, then you'll claim it as a loss so a bit pointless for a simple tax return, best to just show the cost of parts as an expense and forget the labout side, simpler as most small enterprises dont run a balance sheet.

fair enough I thought that's how it worked touch wood I'll never have to experience it

 

[lame plumber]

happens to us all, just had a cheque bounce down the road to be told to squat, not worth the hassle chasing a couple of hundred so note to self to lob her cats some cyanide and laxative next time I pass and look for the next job 🙂