Plumber didnt fix problem - do i have to pay him?

[Mattk]

We called a plumber out to fix our faulty boiler. it took 3 visits all in all he replaced a gas valve, serviced it,changed a thermostat and still didnt fix it. so far i have paid him �200 but still owe approx �60.

we got another plumber out via the service company who make the boiler and he fixed the problem and left within 20 mins!

so do i have to pay outstanding fees to plumber no.1?

thank you.

[anthony25]

not a chance you shouldnt have paid him full stop he simply didnt fix what he came to do think about it,and get plumber no.2 to verify that had infact completed what plumber no.1 was paid to do its quite smple....wayne

[gelda]

Report the first one to trading standards asap.

[Twenty20]

Its not quite as easy as that. Unless you can show that plumber number 1 was incompetent then you would have to pay. Just because plumber number 2 fixed it in 20 minutes doesnt necessarily mean that what plumber 1 did was wrong. These parts may have needed replacing also. What youre paying for is investigative work - unless you employed plumber 1 to do a definite job i.e. replace one part of the boiler that you knew to be faulty.

Plumber number 2's job was possibly easier because plumber number 1 had replaced some of the parts that could have been causing the fault and left less for plumber 2 to do.