should I pay?

[EdT]

Had local heating engineering firm in to diagnose why our boiler system was losing pressure. Chap was here for an hour , did a few things, and left us with the news that it's a leak which he couldn't track down.

I spoke with the Business owner who agreed with the findings & suggested a leak tracing firm to trace and fix (£££).

I didnt feel this was correct. Got another firm in that found faults, fixed some & suggested a fixed price Ws. Bosch engineer best call fir us due to what else needed doing. So, in the end all resolved - system holding pressure perfectly for 2 months now .

Original firm now pushing for payment. I've told them what I think & why I'm not willing to pay.

As far as I'm concerned I'm in the right here, but what about legally?

[randlemarcus]

You asked for their services, you owe them something. Whether you pay the full rate for less than successful skills is up to you, but they offered a contract and you accepted.

[Dan_1981]

Surely you owe him an hours labour?

Unless it was a no fix no fee

[sgrimshaw]

Personally, I wouldn't pay them.

It would appear they didn't do the work they set out to do.

[standardman]

You asked them to diagnose why it's loosing pressure.

That's what they did "it's a leak" pay them (-:

[EdT]

The point being their diagnosis was not only wrong, but if I'd followed their advice it would have lead to a massive bill looking for something that didn't exist.

[Alucidnation]

Pay up FFS.

[EdT]

You would pay?

[loafer123]

If their advice was wrong, I wouldn't pay.

Look at it this way, if you took your car into a garage for an engine fault and they said you needed a new engine, then you got a second opinion and all you needed was a new battery, what would your view be?

[Bikerjon]

Was the first engineer completely wrong then? Was there no leak?

[98elise]

standardman said:

You asked them to diagnose why it's loosing pressure.

That's what they did "it's a leak" pay them (-:

If a pressurised system is losing pressure then it's leaking. That's a symptom, not a diagnosis.

That said, as long as the guy was actually trying to find the leak then he has performed a service.

[EdT]

Bikerjon said:

Was the first engineer completely wrong then? Was there no leak?

Yup neither the other heating firm or the WB engineer said we need to investigate a leak. They both did their job, and the pressure is now fine and constant, and has been for around 2 months.

[EdT]

loafer123 said:

If their advice was wrong, I wouldn't pay.

Look at it this way, if you took your car into a garage for an engine fault and they said you needed a new engine, then you got a second opinion and all you needed was a new battery, what would your view be?

My point exactly. As far as I'm concerned they didn't earn their fee (£80 to answer the question).

My question is do i need to legally pay if they come chasing hard?

[FWIW]

What was their response to your complaints?

[EdT]

FWIW said:

What was their response to your complaints?

1 missed call from them. No message.

[myvision]

I had the exact same first firm sent a kid that looked fresh out of college and the boss rang after he'd left and said I need to rip out my utility floor and kitchen floor as the leak is likely to be under one of them as all other pipes are visible.

I didn't agree and got British gas to have a look and it was fixed in five minutes according to them it should have been the first thing the first mob should have looked at. It was some valve furred up.

I did not pay the first cowboys I invited them to come and look at the valve BG replaced he didn't show up funny that.

[xjay1337]

EdT said:

1 missed call from them. No message.

They weren't that bothered then.