New Boiler - asked to pay 2.5k upfront?

Hannaho

Hi! My gas boiler has died a death last week after 22 years. I got a couple of quotes - one was from a well-known and long-standing family run heating and plumbing business in our town. I'm happy to go with them, except, they asked me to pay the cost of the boiler and installation upfront. I am reluctant to do this - have been had on building issues etc several years ago. I offered to pay a deposit of 1k and pay the rest on completion of the job, but they said no. My concern is that they once I have paid for the job, they may give me a date for it, then push the date out etc - it is holiday season and they did mention they could be short staffed over the next couple of weeks. What is normal in this situation?

jimf

no way pay everything upfront imho

if you are on here asking you are probably thinking something not right

i could understand they asking for deposit enough to cover boiler and materials

black & white

I used to own a few properties and had a lot of tradesmen over the years and TBH if one asked for the full amount in advance, I'd tell them to FRO. It's OK to get half up front, or maybe the cost of materials etc but unless they are the only company that will do the work then I wouldn't use them.

Redfox25

Go with someone else, if you pay all up front you might not see them for months, they have little incentive to do the work as have been paid, in advance and in full for it.

Walk away.

Up the yard with ye is what I'd say.

coylemj

They don't pay their staff in advance and if they are a 'long-standing' company in the business, they probably have a credit line with their suppliers. So why would you pay them in advance? They've already admitted they may be short-staffed in the next few weeks so if you hand over the cash, guess which job will get pushed down the priority list when they don't have engough staff to fulfill their backlog!

callaway92

Crazy stuff as others have said

So many variables involved after paying up front

A) They have no motivation to 'hurry' the job up and get it done

B) They could end up saying that more is needed due to increasing costs etc and leave the job half arsed

C) If something goes wrong you have VERY little comeback without having to pony up more

theteal

We had a big boiler job done back in Jan/Feb (deconstruct 30+yr old monster in Kitchen and replace with new jobby to live up in hot press). We paid up front for materials, balance paid after work complete. It's been the same for other work we've had done around the house over the years. I would assume that was the norm.

Hannaho

Thanks for all the advice. I went with another very reputable company. I paid half up front, and they said the rest was payable by card on the day the boiler was installed. They gave me a definite day for the boiler - two months away as they are so busy with bathroom installations, but I'm fine with that. As long as it's done before Sept.