Female gas engineer

[RiverRunsLeftToRight]

Hi all, does anyone know of any female gas safe engineers in the Northumberland area (I live approximately 30 minutes from Newcastle) who would be able to attend to some small repairs on a basically brand-new Vaillant boiler?

The company who installed the boiler are unable to send the female installer back - for multiple, highly discriminatory reasons in relation to a disability I have which I’ll not go into here as it’s not the point of the post - however have said they will cover the cost under their 12 month installation warranty.

I have tried all the usual avenues (British Gas, checking the Gas Safety Register etc) and no-one has yet been able to fulfill my needs.

To be totally honest, the majority of the female engineers I have contacted haven’t even bothered to respond, which is disheartening at best.

I have severe, complex-PTSD and would not be able to make an appointment unless I was sure some basic reasonable adjustments, including the 100% guarantee a male would not turn up to my door, would be able to be adhered to to keep me safe. This adjustment in particular seems to be impossible for British Gas to guarantee, despite being on their Priority Services Register.

Please note, I wouldn’t be able to leave my home to allow a male engineer in, or be able to allow anyone (even a friend) into my home as support. Neither of these options would be safe for me.

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance 😊

Giving this a bump in the hope that someone can help you.

Why can’t they ask the original engineer? Maybe she doesn’t want the job,

Hope you find someone. Is it worth posting this on the Local MN thread?

Thanks everyone for your responses.

This is my first time posting, I wasn’t aware there was a local page @ShallWeDance so I’ll take a look!

Just to give a little background on why the original engineer won’t be returning, though I’m going to try and be as brief and un-identifying as possible as it is now in the hands of my solicitor.

I employed one of the national ‘order online and get installed the next day’-type companies, after they provided me with the option of a female engineer. Before finally deciding on contracting with them, I spent a good few weeks looking through their terms and conditions and setting up my reasonable adjustments in-line with my PTSD. They were extremely helpful and understanding. The female engineer was going to be travelling a reasonable distance to do the job, I gave her ample opportunity to say no, but she was extremely kind when we communicated and I felt “safe” with her, for want of a better word.

When I came to paying (I paid in-full) it was requested that she wanted a not-insignificant sum of money ON TOP to cover her “personal expenses” to do the job. By this point I was desperate for a new boiler so (stupidly) agreed.

Boiler was installed, not in the way in which we had agreed prior. She spent a lot of the day moaning about the distance she had to travel and how tired she was and how it was taking such a long time to install. Various other uncomfortable feelings with her attitude and manner.

Within a short period of time after installation 2 very small leaks appeared on pipes underneath. I contacted the company whose attitude went from day to night. They have refused to send the engineer back, basically citing it was “far too far for her to travel” to come and fix small problems on what they have ADMITTED was a problem with installation. This is strictly against their terms and conditions, which clearly state the original engineer will return if problems post-installation occur - and, was one of the main reasons I contracted with them. All I was told prior was that it was unlikely she could return to service the boiler, but I felt confident I could find someone before that time arose.

Cutting a very long story short, I have made 2 complaints - one verbal, one written - only to be fobbed off, patronised, and on a few occasions told how to manage my own disability (PTSD) which I have found extremely triggering.

This company evidently do not care once they have your money and the job is done.

I’ll say no more as writing this is difficult.

Thanks if you’ve read this far 😊

It might be worth asking the local college if they have any contacts. They may well know of any that they’ve trained.

Won’t let me post the link but go to the Gas Safe Register website.

Put your postcode in here and it’ll give a list of all local GSR engineers. Make sure you put a space in between the first and last part of your postcode or it doesn’t work for some reason.

Maybe look down the list and see if there are any female names/emails that you could get in touch with?

OMG I'm so sorry for how difficult your life must be.

I hope you get decent compensation from the company that installed it. It sounds like it was a vey uncomfortable day anyway, let alone it not being done properly.

I hope you can find someone through the gas safe register to come & repair it for you & that they're really nice too!

I also hope you are getting help for the PTSD
si that your life can be at least a little bit less difficult 🤗

@ScaryM0nster That’s a very good idea, thank you, it would also possibly alert me to someone who isn’t really close (who I’ve likely already tried) but close enough that perhaps they’d be willing to travel.

@Kibble19 Unfortunately, I’ve had literally no luck with the handful of females who pop up in relation to my postcode. However, you’ve got me now thinking that perhaps if I put in a postcode for Newcastle itself that some different engineers might appear on the list, and perhaps they’d be willing to travel… ties in with @ScaryM0nster idea too as the closest college to me is there. Thanks for the nudge!

I think they’ll travel (not sure of the distance you’d need them to cover but you could tempt them with offering to pay for their additional time/travel). I think female heating engineers are probably quite hard to come by in general though.

@Amelie2025 Thank you so much for your lovely message of support, I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate it 🥹

I have family in the north east. If you want to pm me your town I could ask for you

Try contacting the Register of Tradeswomen, or StopCocks Women Plumbers: https://registeroftradeswomen.com
stopcocks.uk

Whilst you’re obviously upset with good reason, I’d try and take a less emotional view of the former company. There are fewer than 400 female Gas Safe engineers in the U.K. so it’s difficult for a company which only employs one to guarantee she can return: she could be off sick, on maternity leave, have left the company, have herself said she doesn’t feel safe in your home and have expressed a wish not to return. Ultimately, it’s a real reason to encourage more young women into trades, as there’s a clear market for them.

I advise NOT using this company. They ripped me off.

Stop Cocks, women plumbers, may have someone?

That’s a shame to hear, I’ve had pretty good experience with StopCocks when they were a contractor with a housing association I used to work with. But I suppose there are no guarantees.

It’s a franchise system - so different areas will be under different management.

May help the OP to give an idea of whether you’re in a similar area to them or not.

@ComtesseDeSpair @Summerhillsquare
Thank you but unfortunately I’ve already contacted Stopcocks and they don’t have engineers listed in my area - infact, they told me that if I found someone, could I possibly point her in their direction!

With respect to the original engineer, I’ve spoken to her in-person and she confirmed that the 2 reasons she can’t come back are (a) that the main company I contracted with (who use sub-contracters like herself) have refused to cover her costs to send her back and, most importantly, (b) because the 12 month installation warranty is with the parent company and not herself, she doesn’t want to go against their instruction as such, especially if it means my warranty could be in some way invalidated.

It’s all a bit more complicated than I’m explaining here, I’m just trying to keep a bit of anonymity!

Despite her manner on the day, she has admitted to her faults and agrees with me that the parent company are in the wrong, particularly seeing as I went through all of the terms and conditions with them in detail before contracting and was never told that this would be an issue.

@Letstheriveranswer
I’m so sorry to hear you had a bad experience with them.

Can't you just pay her personally to come and fix it, it just sounds like some joints need tightening. It could be just between you and her no need for anyone else to know.

Have you asked her if she knows of anyone who could do the job. Have you tried your local Facebook pages? Our FB page can usually find an answer to every query

Such tricky circumstances, OP. If you have used other tradespeople in your home that you trust, I would perhaps drop them a message and ask them if they know anyone, and if they don't, could they perhaps ask their colleagues if their colleagues know anyone.

I was looking for an UFH engineer a while back, and someone in a local FB group had suggested in a previous post to go round all the plumbing hardware stores in our area and ask them who they'd recommended. According to him, the people in these shops always know who the best people are. Worth a punt? Even if just on the phone if you're unable to leave the house.

If you get a wall of 'sorry, don't know any ladies', I would say 'thanks anyway, if you remember someone later on or have a brainwave that might be able to help me out, can I please leave you my number to get back in touch?'

There will always be someone who is willing to go the extra mile to help someone in tricky circumstances - I'm confident you'll find someone in the end.

I would definitely phone around folk in County Durham too, they're good people, and it's not that far.

@dogcatkitten Unfortunately, she lives not an insignificant distance away from me - hence the “extra costs” I originally paid. I’m not prepared to pay personally for her to travel again on the sly, when I assumed my initial payment would have covered this possibility. I wish she was closer, otherwise it maybe would have been an option 😊

@Redglitter I don’t have FB personally but a friend has posted on my behalf - every person who has been suggested has never bothered to respond to an email or a phone call/text message! This in itself has actually significantly triggered my PTSD, it’s unbelievably disheartening!

@KievLoverTwo Thanks ever so much for your kind words.

That is a brilliant idea with hardware stores - I wouldn’t have the confidence to speak to anybody personally, however I have an advocate who helps me and I can definitely ask her to try a ring-round at least.

That is also a very good thought with respect to County Durham, thank you.

Having had PTSD since I was a child, which has latterly developed into C-PTSD, I have actually taught myself over the years how to do most jobs, but gas is definitely a step too far! This has resulted in me having a super-small pool of contacts as, you name it, I can do it myself 😊

Prior to this situation, I have always relied on British Gas, but after various issues with them sending male engineers when I specifically asked for a female (which has resulted in extreme PTSD symptoms), coupled with them “accidentally” installing a smart meter on my gas supply (long story I’ll not go into), all trust in them has gone.

@RiverRunsLeftToRight No problem. And don't be too disheartened by the people who have yet to respond. I've had to ask for 'special' jobs twice in the last few years whereby I made it clear that it was not going to lead to any more work, more that it was investigative to help me out, and both parties came good and didn't charge me much money at all - it just took a while.

I think they have to prioritise the easy to get to, well paying jobs first, then when they get a spare moment they can consider the other people who have got in touch about other types of work/help.

This was their central office. They were listed as a charity but charged a 'referral fee' fee for recommending a heating engineer, which was not mentioned up front and got charged back to me via the people they arranged. They then tried to 'smoke and mirrors' convince me it just been itemised on the bill and not really charged to me, however it was a clear additional charge.

There were also separate issues with significant overcharges by the company that came out.

We got the (male) heating enginer to install our Vaillant boiler through the Vaillant website. I wonder if they could help?