Letting agency call out charges - arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!.........

[LaCerbiatta]

We live in rented accomodation and the other day our washing machine stopped working. It had happened before but it would come back to life after being switched off for a couple of hours. This time after 5 days it still wasn't working. I checked it several times a day, every day, and it didn't work. So we called the agency who sent in someone to repair it. They couldn't find anything wrong with it and say it was working fine and when I got home, strangely enough it was....
Now the agency want us to pay the call out fees of the repair people.... Do we have to?
What else could I have done with 2 children and a huge pile of washing?...
I'm not sure what happened, I'm guessing that the rest sorted it out, but how was I to know?

Any advice much appreciated, thank you!

bump

I would refuse - say that the machine had not been working for five days when you called them and that it is not your problem that the fault is intermittent.

See what they say in return but my bet is they're trying it on.

Thanks, I have tried but I don't think I've worded it very well.
I always get nervous talking to them, they' re so horrible!

I'm a big wuss as well! But truly it's not your problem that their engineer couldn't find a fault.

You KNOW the machine is faulty. Tell them that you will not be paying because the machine had broken down and therefore requesting an engineer's visit was completely appropriate. Also how do you know it's fixed? All you know is that there is an intermittent fault which they failed to find - why should you be penalised for that?

I would also say that next time it breaks down you would like them to come round and verify that the machine is faulty in order to protect you from this happening again.

as an aside - would it be worth posting a description of the fault on MN and asking if anyone who is a plumber/washing machine engineer could guess what it is?

Then you might be in more of a position to say "did you engineer check it wasn't X, Y or Z that was the problem"?

When it doesn't work, what happens? The machine is literally dead, or it tries to start but can't get going, or what? Does it stop in the middle of a wash or just refuse to start one?

Thank you! I've just emailed them again, inspired by your words! I'll let you know what they say!

It starts, but as soon as it starts pumping in water it stops and the red 'service needed' light goes on.

good luck with the email!

I really think they would have a bloody cheek charging you because their engineer failed to find the problem. That's so NOT your fault.

But as belt-and-braces, I reckon you should start a new thread headed up something like "anyone know about washing machines?" and ask for specific advice about your problem. You never know, someone might be able to pinpoint it and/or tell you what to tell the engineer if it happens again (quite likely from what you've said)

You should definately not have to pay the fee! I would take a picture of the machine that shows the service light and e-mail them with you reply and a picture to back you point up.

Have you emptied the filter recently?

Thanks!
Yes, I have emptied the filter, but it didn't make any difference.

The agency are now sort of agreeing with me, as in I was right to call them, but not saying anything about the fee. I think I'll send a cheeky email thanking them for taking care of it!

Ah! ok! If it stops again then call them out again until something is sorted and yes they should pay the charges.

It's their responsibility to sort this sort of thing, and pay for it. That is the deal with renting, if the appliances are provided. If it were your house, you would have sorted it yourself (or bought a better machine in the first place!). In return for not having that choice, they have to sort things for you.

They are cheeky feckers. I would be careful with them in future. Excellent idea about the photo, elsiemarley!