electrician charging to replace faulty items

[hiace_drifter]

Hi, an electrician fitted a new consumer unit and wired up my new garage. A breaker has failed, and one of the strip lights too, and he wants to charge me for replacing them. The work is 6 months old. Is he within his rights, but giving terrible customer service?

[Neelix]

Giving very poor customer service. I never charge for the 1st year and often longer.

One reason for adding margin to items you supply is for these eventualities

[kellys_eye]

12 months warranty should be the basic minimum. These days you can't tell if your lecky has sourced his parts from a reputable UK source or gone straight to China and sold you 'cheap sh1t' at dealership prices.......

[big-all]

assuming you have done nothing wrong -----
if he supplied them he should repair free off charge as his goods are faulty
if you supplied the faulty components, his contract finished with correct instillation
but off course my opinion is not legally binding ??

[Someone-Else]

Tell your electrician that under the sale of good act 2015 that he should change the failed parts free of charge to you, but that he can take them back for replacement from where ever he purchased them FOC to him.
If he says no, ask would he like you to get another electrician in to do the job and send him the bill, and if he doesn't pay you will take him to court.

[arco_iris]

The important question is "who supplied the components (that have gone faulty)"?

If it was you, he's within his rights, if it was him it's his responsibility.

[hiace_drifter]

The electrician supplied all the parts. He's providing replacement parts free of charge but is charging me a call out fee.

[Neelix]

The electrician supplied all the parts. He's providing replacement parts free of charge but is charging me a call out fee.

Tell him you are going to give him bad feed back on social media and tell all your friends and neighbours

[hiace_drifter]

As a result of the faulty breaker I had no heating or hot water (including shower!) for a day in sub zero temps. I should be charging him.

[ericmark]

If he has offered to pop in and sort out the problem next time he is in the area, and you say this is an emergency I have no heating, I need you to come now, then I can see why he would charge an emergency call out fee.

We clearly don't know whole story, and I have been involved in the past where some customer to my mind was being unreasonable, for example saying you must come now as no heating, and you drop all and find there is an earth leakage causing a trip, and the customer admits it has been tripping for last month, but only called you when it would not reset. And one thinks if she had said you could have corrected next time in area not as an emergency call out.

Time and fuel costs, and logistics is a large part of the tradesman's job, working out which job takes priority and how to arrange the day so least time wasted travelling.

I would normally expect a strip light replacement could take a week to fit it in, likely you can use a standard lamp or table lamp when waiting.

The breaker is different, no central heating is a big thing, you don't say what sort of breaker, we have

PartID_CU.jpg (41.37 KiB) Viewed 2167 times

some shown here, and in my house I have all RCBO which is a RCD and MCB combined, these in the main cost more than having a RCD feeding 4 or 5 MCB's and normally the pros and cons are talked about before a consumer unit is fitted.

To my mind if a customer selects the cheap option, and so the RCD tripping causes time constraints which would not have existed had all RCBO's been fitted, that was their choice, and expense incurred to repair as an emergency rather than next time passing is down to customer to pay.

The same could be said for lack of SPD with an LED strip light, we know there is a risk that spikes or surges can take out direct mains powered electronic equipment, we also know it is rare for it to happen, so in the main it is worth taking a chance, however if the customer takes a chance, then not really fair to expect the electrician to foot the bill.

The problem is showing the failure would not have happened if a SPD was fitted.

I have seen a MCB fail, but rare, I have seem a RCD fail, and also seen where can't really pin point problem, I have used a RCD tester on a RCD which showed the RCD as being A1, but on swapping it, the fault stopped. So I have swapped a RCD when no fault found. I have even found the strain on the terminals of a RCD has caused it not to be within the prescribed limits.

I had an old tester without a ramp function, so could be on RCD tripped at 16 mA and other at 29 mA both would have passed, and I did not have a clamp on meter to measure 0.001 amp so could not measure back ground leakage. So the circuit could be right on the edge.

In 1992 when I fitted my RCD's unlikely I could have bought a RCD tester with ramp, or a clamp on meter with a 0.001 amp scale, and single width RCBO's had not come out, but 30 years have passed since then, and it seems prudent that back ground leakage is measured and also a ramp test. However the instructions are still to test the RCD with no load, if tested with load then the leakage must be less than 15 mA or it would trip the RCD on the 15 mA test. But often not done that way.

But still if a customer selects a cheap option it is the customer who is taking the chance, not the electrician, and as it stands we have no idea if the new consumer unit was all RCBO's with a SPD or elcheapo twin RCD's with MCB's. And also no idea if it is a MCB, RCD, RCBO or other device when referring to a breaker.

I would say one call out non emergency to fix be it replace parts or anything else, the electrician should take the hit, repeated call outs when customer has selected cheap option, or emergency call outs, then can see why an electrician would charge.

[hiace_drifter]

Ok, here's the chronology:

1. October '21 - electrician says I need a new consumer unit, quotes for the job, fits it. Also quotes for wiring up new garage with own consumer unit. At no point am I asked to choose between options. He chooses and fits all kit.
2. Sunday 13th Feb '22 0900 - I hear a crackling coming from house consumer unit, work out which breaker the crackling is coming from, switch it off. I have also noticed in the last few days that one of garage lights flashes.
3. Sunday 13th Feb '22 0905 - I message the electrician and say we have no heating, hot water or shower, please can he come out to rectify. I mention the light too but not as a reason to make a trip
3. Sunday 13th Feb '22 1800 - Electrician replies saying they'll be out the next morning
4. Monday 14th Feb '22 0900 - Electrician comes out and moves circuit from the faulty breaker to a new one. Wiggles a wire inside the light and says he hopes that has fixed it (it hasn't).

The faulty breaker is marked "fault":

[Neelix]

Could you post another picture showing all the fuseboard?

[hiace_drifter]

Could you post another picture showing all the fuseboard?

[Neelix]

Doesn’t sound like a competent spark to me.

Photo of garage fuseboard?

[hiace_drifter]

Doesn’t sound like a competent spark to me.

Photo of garage fuseboard?

What makes you say that? Just interested, not doubting you. I'll take a pic in the garage later on.