Please help, difficult customer. need to resolve this

[armyash]

This 2 port valve, if i slide the lever over and lock it in, you can hear the water circulating and the banging noise is not so bad.

What does that tell you?

 

[Masood]

Didn't make it tonight, it's not the sort of customer i am going to at 6pm, not worth the hassle. If they want to wait they can do if not tough.

They phoned me this morning and said it's still playing up, i said reset it and it will fire up - it did. Shouldn't have to keep resetting it, or reset it every time the power has been switched off. I said to her i recommended changing the entire valve but her husband said no. He confirmed this to her when i was on the phone.

When i was there last night he wouldn't even let me take the cover off the boiler to check if there was anything amiss.

Sounds like they have circulation problems if F + R are around the wrong way. Funny how the customer has never touched his boiler but when he has had to drain the system he isolates all the rads rather than drain the whole lot and if his hand didn't shake he would have changed the valve himself.

Sounds like a nightmare Ash. I'd walk away to be honest - no matter what you touch there'll be a can of worms waiting behind it. Customers who lie about their fiddling always sound alarm bells for me. Just don't know what is waiting to bite you in the arris...

 

[GasmanxxxR1]

This 2 port valve, if i slide the lever over and lock it in, you can hear the water circulating and the banging noise is not so bad.

What does that tell you?

Sounds like it may not have been wired correctly originally.

Cant you prepare a quote for ripping the whole lot and starting again, correct flow and returns and wiring and then that will be the end of his woes

 

[armyash]

I have also told her to bleed all the rads just in case there's lots of air.

I am getting text messages now saying it's all my fault.

I said i will happily fit a new timer for them if they supply it. I said the issues are not my fault. I told her your boiler keep locking out or the flow and returns being around the wrong way are nothing to do with me. Those noises are caused by circulation issues or blockages (for the majority of the time who agrees?) I had one job last year where the bypass needed replacing but these customers wouldn't have been happy with me investigating.

i'm being decent at the minute exchanging a few texts but if she starts being unreasonable i will just ignore. I would rather sort it than not even just to see what the issue is for myself but i'm not going to spend a penny doing it.

 

[armyash]

Sounds like it may not have been wired correctly originally.

Cant you prepare a quote for ripping the whole lot and starting again, correct flow and returns and wiring and then that will be the end of his woes

Ideally yes but they are adamant everything was working "to a point" now it's not so they wont want to pay to have anything else done.

 

[clarky101]

Don't forget time is money......so don't spend to much time on it if you think your not going to get anything out of it....

 

[armyash]

If you arrived at a property and the boiler was making a loud banging noise then going to lock out what would be the first things you would check?

 

[gasmanrob]

If you arrived at a property and the boiler was making a loud banging noise then going to lock out what would be the first things you would check?

Pump, valves, correct circulation, heat exchanger, h plan, over gased, incorrect modulation, thermistors and ntc sensors pretty much in that order

 

[rpm]

Ideally yes but they are adamant everything was working "to a point".

I have to be adamant sometimes that what I did couldn`t have caused this problem !!!

 

[SimonG]

Im with rpm on this. What you have done has not caused the issues. Time to be polite and firm, failing that, then its feck off time.

l hate people, with a real passion, who think they can extract the urine.

 

[armyash]

They have said to me that if i can't put it right they want their money back.

 

[gasmanrob]

It was their diagnosis against your judgement and advise.

You provided your time and carried out the work they requested. That money is yours as you'd earnt it

 

[stevetheplumber]

if the valve is running in reverse it will bang probably what killed the first valve

 

[plumben]

They have said to me that if i can't put it right they want their money back.

Don't let the thought of someone trying to screw your name on the internet worry you,
if you've already got reviews off your past customers one bad review wont hurt, and if you haven't, you should join a free review site to get some, looks good and its free,

i'd just reply to there messages with, I'd be happy to correct the faults on your system or fit a whole knew system, but changing the valve head and turning the power on and off, shouldn't and wont cause all these faults on your system,

 

[armyash]

if the valve is running in reverse it will bang probably what killed the first valve

That's the thing i first thought as soon as he said that the F+R are the wrong way round.

I'm going back tomorrow and i'm going to say let me fit your other programmer, then if they let me i will investigate other possibilities if this doesn't solve it. Once I have found what's causing it i'm going to tell them they have a fault that needs rectifying but it wont be done by me.

 

[Neil K]

Sod em, people like that are just not worth the hassle.

 

[jtsplumbing]

Mate, just learn to walk away, I've been doing this job for more years than you have been on the planet, you will over the rest of your career come across winging never happy customers like these people some even worse, don't let it get to you ! see a lot of younger guys coming into this industry who worry to much about what is put on the internet & social media, you cant keep 100% of people you deal with happy, its human nature, as you will find out the longer you are working at this job, I wouldn't even bother to go back, you will just dig yourself a deeper hole,

 

[rocketmanbkk]

Don't do anymore work as they'll likely not pay.

They already want their wedge back.

I'd block their number.

 

[armyash]

It was a very strange one. I received a text saying dont come back, we have it sorted.

Fine by me. Funny how they didn't say why and didn't ask for their money back again. Mr. DIY has either got it going or they have had someone else look at it who confirmed that there is another fault which is nothing to do with me - which they will never admit but can be the only explanation.

Oh well, it might not have gone smoothly but it wont knock my confidence i can hold my head up. I went about things the right way, was professional and courteous and if anything have used it to my advantage as something to look out for in the future and will not complete any work without confirming a fault for myself. If that is not allowed i will sort it on the phone before attending.

It's all a learning curve and i appreciate all the comments from everyone here.

 

[IDCHAPPY]

There's tons of morons out there Ash, but you done good 🙂