I have a slipped slate !

[ktech]

Just wondered how others would approach this: We had a customer recently contact us for a system that had been installed 2 years ago. It was a slate install, good quality slates and we used a lot of lead to flash all the hooks. I had called down whilst our guys installed it and was happy with the install. The customer had had no problems until now but then has contacted us to say that he has found a slate on his decking. I can understand the customer coming to us first but the problem arises of is this our workmanship or not. As we know plenty of roofs can get a slipped slate or tile through the life of the roof so how can you tell if this is our issue or not? In a similar way a tiled roof could leak but again this could be from an old tile broken with weather and frost but if a customer comes back to you a couple of years down the line how do you tackle it? I guess the problem with PV is that to do any type of repair you would need to remove panels and with this comes cost of scaffold and labour. We want to do the right thing for this customer and any future ones down the line but this has also got to be fair to us. What would you do?

 

[solarsavings]

We are the first people they look at when something goes wrong.

We have two customers that come to us first when something happens in their home. One in Bedford has claimed that we loosened his down pipe brackets while installing his pv. I couldn't argue otherwise on the phone so drove the 50 odd miles to re-fix it only to find the were no screw holes and that the bracket was held in place with a facia nail. I had the customer come at look why his brackets were loose but he simply replied "oh". I drilled, plugged and screwed them while there and didn't make any charge. That was a big mistake because since then he has phoned to say his tv aerial is playing up, he has a water stain in the rear bedroom ceiling and that his rcd has tripped. Each time I drove to investigate the problem only to find it was nothing to do with us. He phoned again a few weeks ago asking for a service call as he thought there might be a problem with the pv, he couldn't tell what the problem was so I told him any call we make now will carry a £50 service charge. I have not heard from him since.

The second one lives near nemarket(25 miles away) has had us out to reverse polarity his electrician caused(as posted here before) while trying to change the consumer unit. We showed the electrician the error of his ways but made no charge. Since then he has called us about a slipped tile on his extension as we do that sort of thing and and a little while ago because his rcd wouldn't reset. I explained that it would not be connected to our pv installation and asked if he had had any other work carried out recently, an electric garage door last week he said:banghead: I told him to contact them but I would come out and have a look but there would be a minimum of £50. I have not heard back since.

You try to do the right thing but some will try and take advantage so from now on the message is going to be "a charge unless it's is our fault"

 

[Marvo]

This is always a sticky area, the answer usually depends on your circumstances, what was in your original warranty wording, how good a customer they were and how far away the place is to name but a few. Usually I make it clear to the customer that as it's two years down the line there's a very high chance it's not a problem with your workmanship so you're happy to come and see but if you aren't at fault you'll bill them an appropriate amount to at least cover your expenses. I'd also do this by email and keep the correspondence for future reference in case they object to paying. Depending on the variables I listed I might soften or harden my general stance to some degree but if it's an expensive exercise to go and survey I'd at least get some form of commitment from the customer that there may be costs involved that would be for their account.

 

[SRE]

We've just had this happen once after really high winds. We passed it right back to our roofers who sorted it out the same week - unfortunately it seemed to be added to the bill for our next job :-( . It wasn't our responsibility or that of the roofers to be honest but everyone was happy in the end and it costed us about £40 and that's why the extra built into a job is crucial to be able to keep customers happy.