Do I pay call out fee if problem not fixed?

[bobbycock79]

More of a WWYD. Boiler has packed up, no heating for 2 days and engineers like hens teeth. Found one today willing to come around and "have a look" at the end of his day. Very nice guy, tried a few things, but ultimately couldn't fix it. He was here for about 35 mins. As he was leaving I asked him what do I owe for call out and he looked embarrassed and said " I don't know, I didn't fix the problem so you decide". Now I feel awkward, I have no idea what to pay or what the etiquette is. Any suggestions of a fair amount would be gratefully received. I'm not on the breadline but like everyone having to be careful and a no doubt big bill coming up. I'm also panicking a bit as it's obviously freezing and I have 3 young kids with no heating, thankfully we do have hot water with immersion .

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.

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

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'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!

Wow thanks for all the replies. It's quite a mixed bag so glad it's not just me being thick/unaware. We are still without central heating but have some electric fan heaters now. To the PP who said I was being dramatic, I live in an old , inefficient, rural property. It's cold at the best of times but last night went down to 6 degs in one bedroom. Anyway we have an 'Alpha' range cooker/boiler and our usual engineer is away on holiday. I am getting quotes to replace it with a more modern/effective one.

I eventually texted the guy and offered £30 , he seemed ok with that and I bank transferred it.

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.

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.

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