Plumber fleeced me??

Ultimate Seduction

Had a leak from a pipe right after the cut off tap on oil tank. Plumber came out, spend about 3 mins 'fixing' it. Charged me 50 quid. Got 200 litres of oil that day, only to find out he didn't fix it properly and now all my oil has leaked out and I'll have to freeze until next month

Have i any comeback here

Wearb

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

Had a leak from a pipe right after the cut off tap on oil tank. Plumber came out, spend about 3 mins 'fixing' it. Charged me 50 quid. Got 200 litres of oil that day, only to find out he didn't fix it properly and now all my oil has leaked out and I'll have to freeze until next month

Have i any comeback here

Ring him and see what he says.

Otherwise it isn't really a plumbing question, more of a consumer rights issue.

btw. That much of a leak needs to be reported to the EPA.

Sleeper12

As Wearb says. First step is ringing him and give him a chance to stand over his work. Some will & some won't. This is where you find out if he is a good tradesman or not.

It's worth remembering that it may be a second leak and he might not be at fault.

Ultimate Seduction

Sleeper12 wrote: »

As Wearb says. First step is ringing him and give him a chance to stand over his work. Some will & some won't. This is where you find out if he is a good tradesman or not.

It's worth remembering that it may be a second leak and he might not be at fault.

I've already found out he's not a very good tradesman, to wrap a bit of tape around the pipe to fix a leak and charge me 50 quid. Leak is definetley the same place, could see it when I went out this morning. The advice I'm looking for really is how should I approach him? I have a different plumber coming to fix it this evening, I just want my money back really and him to know that 200euro of oil has basically gone down the drain, family with small kid now freezing untill next month. So angry

esox28

200ltrs is a major environmental impact on the area. not only ground waters, wells, wildlife farming etc etc..1ltr can contaminate 1 acre of lakewater.

oil can disturb your foundations and concrete structures. if that's not enough if it impacts your neighbours and your found not to have reported the spill you could be liable for costs.

once you have house insurance you need to contact a local loss / claims assessor he/she will get the ball rolling with a environment remediation company. the responsible thing is to act now.

the_pen_turner

2 sides here
first off 50 euro for a call out is normal and good value. that jobs wasn't 3 minutes of his time . probably at least an hour or 2 .
your only issue is that the repair failed.

when was this work done. to lose 200 euros oil it must have happened quickly. . where is it leaking out of.
are you sure someone didn't steel it and spilt some doing it


second side assuming he caused the leak
is that you really need to track this man down and get him to pay for the oil clean up. oil clean up is very expensive


I know of a woman that had her oil stolen, they drilled a hole in the tank and used drums to take it away. she thought it was getting low so ordered a fill . the oil company filled it over the wall like they usually do and all the oil went on the ground. the insurance covered her 50/50 with house insurance and oil company insurance. they were found liable for not checking the tank properly.
it still cost her insurance thousands to get it professionally cleaned up and disposed of properly

JustAMoment121

Unless the charge should cover a tradesman's travel time, how could wrapping tape around a repair be a good job? I don't think that counts as a "failed" repair, going by the description I wouldn't even call it an attempt at repair.

It's worth remembering that most tape used is made of the exact kind of stuff that diesel and kerosene can dissolve easily, especially if they're waterproof.


200 Litres of oil is a good bit less than €200 of oil.