Do I pay call out fee if problem not fixed?

Our washing machine broke , screen not coming on, we tried the fuse, resetting it turning it off and on etc nothing. Called an engineer, he arrived just as I was making a cup of tea so made him one too. He turned the machine on and it worked, said to call him back if it happened again. I asked him how much we owed him and he said the brew was more than enough! We have subsequently used him for other things , lovely guy

If he doesn't know, I feel for him. How can he not know how much he charges? Unless he invoices me I would take it that he didn't expect payment.

I wouldn't have known what to do either OP. Did they have a call out charge listed, or anything, like no fix no fee?

He should have just said a figure and qualified it to say its to cover his petrol, or state pay half his hourly rate of £whatever.

I'd pay half depending on size of fee. Really nice approach though, I had a plumber come round from NEXT DOOR who charged me a call out fee to fix a leaking pipe who expected me to pay the fee despite saying he didn't have the right equipment to fix my pipe. CF. Unfortunately I had a newborn and was so sleep deprived I foolishly paid him 😥Something like £170 as well!

We had a local company come out and charge £120 call out fee but couldn’t fix it. We just didn’t pay the invoice, they chased once and then forgot about it.

We got a new boiler.

I had someone come out to fix a leaky tap on my bath. He spent 20mins upstairs then come back to say he couldn’t get to change the taps without ripping all the bath out because of location of taps. I gave him £20 and he left. If your repair man came out and diagnosed the problem then yes pay a call out fee (although you’ve not said if he left any details for you to pay), if he came and couldn’t work out the problem I’d still pay a small call out fee but it wouldn’t be more than £20 cos your going to have to pay for someone else to come out now. The fact he was vague would annoy me he should of just said an amount

British Gas once came out on an emergency call, thumped the side of the boiler and it worked again. 🤣
Nice chap said he would charge us the call out cancellation fee, which was half the call out fee (so £35).
However when he went to try and bill us, his phone said he was there, so refused to charge us less than full price. He said he wasn't charging us and left. He was also going two doors down, which may have made a different than if he'd made a special detour.

So I'd have said around £40 was a good deal, but probably around £70 fairer.

Itsnot unusual to suggest a manufacturer specific engineer comes out - they do a fixed price fix which can be the best route forward when the boiler has a vague or intermittent fault. Otherwise you just have to start with the most likely problem and go from there. That quickly gets expensive when you’re buying parts that ‘might’ be the issue. Worcester do a three parts fixed repair charge service for example.
Your engineer just doesn’t want you to be paying out for lots of random parts - they’re doing you a favour.

I could set up in business requiring a call out fee and not being able to fix anything, a license to print money.

Like I said, I need people to be clear.

If you want a call out fee you need to tell me how much it is when I ask.

'I don't know, you decide' doesn't work for me.

Yes, you would pay a call out fee

The callout fee is to come out and diagnose/fix the problem, if he has neither diagnosed, or coming back with a fix, or fixed, I would not be wanting to pay.

@bobbycock79 how old is the boiler? what kind is it?

Happens quite a lot actually
british gas and domestic and general did it to us and told us to call out the boilers manufacturers specific engineer team.

OP I would just pay call out charge

@Thehamsterthatcametotea

How do you not have heating? Even when we lived in caves, we had fires.

Is it very cold/been below 0 where you are? Did he/have you checked you condensate pipe isn't frozen?

There are lots of youtube videos on how to defrost it, dh had to do it last year for ours - simple poor warm water over the outside pipe, and then check your manual on how to reset the boiler.

Don’t be so dramatic. We don’t have heating (nothing broken we just don’t have heating), you’ll be fine for a few nights.
Buy or borrow a little plug in thing.

Ask him what his normal call out price is or his hourly rate and pay that (double if hourly rate).

Right.

So, how did he suggest you pay?

Yes of course you do.

I think most people who are saying pay nothing is because it sounds like the guy misrepresented himself and is not actually a boiler engineer who could fix it.

I have never known a boiler engineer to walk away saying they don't know and to get someone else in.

The person saying they'd pay nothing 🤯 terrible that! I'd at least give him £30-£40, he should be confident enough in his work to ask you for this, ans professional enough to have told you the call out charge beforehand.

Is he a qualified and gas safe registered boiler engineer or some cowboy who thought he could come out and top up your pressure/de ice you condensate pipe, say he fixed it and charge you engineer prices?

Even if he didn't fix it, I would have expected a diagnosis and a plan for repair. If he has looked and can't work it out, then I wouldn't pay him anything. Because he is just wasting peoples time if he doesn't have the skills to diagnose a heating fault.

£40 - 50.