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Gas Safe Engineers - Ben 10

Just got a new gas hob and oven delivered.

Obviously I'm not legally entitled to fit myself as it has to be a GasSafe qualified fitter.

I am a member of Which? and contacted 4 local engineers so far that are on their recommended site. 2 haven't responded. 2 gave some bollux, which leads me to believe they don't want to work for a couple of hundred quid for a couple of hours work. All they are interested in is making £1500+ for a days work installing boilers and rads.

But I'm held back because I must have one of these qualified to do it.

The money is not enough for them it seems. And British Gas don't even provide the service.

Gas Safe Engineers - Leif
Maybe they are good trades, anyone with a good reputation is busy. You could contact a good local kitchen shop, and ask if they will provide you with the name of one of the people they use. It worked for me when I wanted a tiler.
Gas Safe Engineers - galileo

Where did you buy the cooker from? They ought to know a fitter if they are in the business of selling gas appliances. (If it was an Ebay/private sale, that's a different situation).

Gas Safe Engineers - Ben 10

Bought them from internet appliance company. Somewhere up north I think. They wont know local companies. Thats why I used Which? local. They came up with a list of engineers in and around my town.

Like I said, not had much luck with several so far, so we've got two shiney pieces of kitchen apparatus that is sitting in our dining room awaiting "professional" fitting. I am quite handy with DIY and in the past would have probably set it up quite adequately myself.

Now due to essential H&S, I'm not knocking it, I have to await the services of these guys. Cause we don't want people like me causing explosions, do we. Yet I am at the mercy of whenever they can get around to coming over or when it's convenient for them. Bread and butter stuff, but not as profitable as other work I guess.

So I'll have to search more, or wait until it suits them. There must be a market for a GasSafe bod who only does this line of fitting that would keep them permanently at work. As it appears, roughly £80 an hour day in day out compared to spending a few days installing a heating system. There's work there if you want it!

Edited by Ben 10 on 08/05/2014 at 00:38

Gas Safe Engineers - galileo

One compensation for living up North is that many things are cheaper than the more affluent areas down South, not just housing but also GasSafe engineers. The lad who serviced our boiler last year only charged £50 (including his 15 mile trip each way from base) and last week only £50 for one trip to diagnose a failed valve and returning the day after to replace it.

Good luck in finding a fitter, I found ours through internet search.

Gas Safe Engineers - Bromptonaut

Same in the Midlands. There's a plumber in next village who is also Gas Safe fitter and very reasonable.

Gas Safe Engineers - dadbif
Some hobs have hoses with bayonet connections for gas, if your old one has and you can get one fitted to the new hob, then it is a fairly simple matter to undo and reconnect
Gas Safe Engineers - daveyjp
Buying off the net for gas items is always a gamble. The person who installs it likes to supply it, they may make a mark up, but if the goods don't work they can sort it out.

If there is a problem you are in a position of not knowing if the goods were faulty on delivery or as a result of the fitter's work and both will blame each other.

Gas Safe Engineers - I'm a Pane
Some hobs have hoses with bayonet connections for gas, if your old one has and you can get one fitted to the new hob, then it is a fairly simple matter to undo and reconnect

This has been illegal for some time and on no account should you do this.

Gas Safe Engineers - jamie745

Yes it's illegal so as to keep these 'engineers' in work and the quango who certifies them relevant.

Electric is similar. Installing an electric cooker is not difficult, my Dad showed me how to do it when I was 10. But if you're not an electrician and install it yourself, warranties won't apply and insurance companies will drop you like a brick if anything goes wrong.

Gas Safe Engineers - Ben 10

Managed to get hold of a GasSafe registered, eastern european guy who came yesterday after 4 days following initial call. Did a great job, reasonable hourly rate and even did a bit of carpentry, so the hob fitted nicely.

Problem. Once connected up, he found a fault with the "British" made oven. So not usable. He could have fixed it, but said it would invalidate our warranty if he did. Contacted the makers who first of all gave a date of 2nd June to send us an engineer and after some moaning, have given next Monday.

Must be a known fault, as a thermocouple arrived by courier this morning. How can an out of the box, off the production line item be defective "ffs". Not impressed, and quite angry.

Keep getting told to buy British. Don't make me laugh. I wont be buying any more "British" electrical goods in future. I thought we had shaken off the poor quality tags of yesteryear. Obviously not.

Edited by Ben 10 on 13/05/2014 at 19:03

Gas Safe Engineers - Sulphur Man

interested to know which British make this is, as I'm about to pull the trigger on a new range cooker. Is it the "master"ful one?

Gas Safe Engineers - Ben 10

A Bell***.

Their customer service booked with us an engineer to call on the 19th May. On Sunday 18th. their customer service rang to cancel as their engineer was sick. Supposedly they only have one for the whole of the UK ;-)

My wife had booked a day off work, and being a Sunday at short notice, could do nothing about it with her company. After much angst over the phone they rebooked for today 22nd May. Another day booked off.

She called CS this morning to make sure this guy would be calling. They came back with, it's on our system but not on our engineers work sheet. So he may or may not call today. She was furious.

So we've been without an oven for a couple of weeks nearly.

Bell*** item: not impressed

Bell*** CS: Total waste of time. Avoid.