Gas regulator was culprit

Fizz

Comming-off 4 days without heat! Boiler would ignite and cycle-off afterr 2 sec. Steam guy came, checked burner(Wayne), said flame sensor needs to be cleaned, did so, no go, then noticed wire to transformer was loose, concluded sensor and transformer needed to be replaced. Took 3 days to get sensor, though he put new transformer in with original sensor, again nothing. When sensor arrived, installed it and no go, finally he checked flow of gas noting a significant drop-off when running gas hwh from 9.3 to .3 in pressure. Checked gas meter, said it's the gas regulator, and I should call UGI immediately. Did so, they came, replaced meter and heat restored. Question is what should I do as far as upcoming bill from heat guy? His tech said he is fair and will work =out a fair solution.

BobC

i would wait and see what "solution" he comes up with. It would have been nice if they had checked the gas supply before replacing things but life is not always fair. It would be fair if he ate the cost of that last transformer/sensor replacement.

Bob

EBEBRATT-Ed

Maybe pay for the parts as you have new parts and have them eat the labor

Dan_NJ

If you've any more work coming down the line you might go for some kind of credit arrangement on future work. Just a thought. You might get more out of that deal in the long run. After all they did identify the issue in the end. Guessing that tech will check that earlier in the process next time around

Mike_Sheppard

As a service tech I will give you my perspective.

If I messed up, I pay for it. I can't charge you for something you shouldn't have paid for. When I started as a tech many years ago I ended up in situations like this sometimes as I was learning. The biggest thing I learned to do was to check everything. Just because one of the most common problems with flame failures is a bad or dirty sensor, doesn't mean I'm just going to write that up first and not check anything else. I will check all of it. In many cases there are multiple problems, or other parts that will be problems in the near future that I can recommend fixing now. It may take a little longer, but you end up with a happier customer when you fix it correctly the first time.

If the parts weren't too expensive, I'd keep them. Possibly ask for them to only charge you cost for them and remove their mark up. They're items you will Lilkely need to replace at some point anyways.

Fizz

Thanks for advice. All seem reasonable. We'll see what's his solution.

DZoro

It's always easy to fix something after the fix. Young or old all of us have been bitten by your scenario. Will probably be bitten again by something similar.....
Trust me he wanted to get you fixed asap. He wasn't trying to get a bunch of money out of you. Our job can lead us into many directions, electrical, flow, water, gas, circuit boards, weather conditions, home owners help, and the list goes on and on.
His time on your job went beyond just at your house too. Shop, ordering, drive time, consulting....
Yes, hope he will be reasonable with you, and you with him.

D

Fred

He checked and adjusted all the normally suspect items. Yes he was wrong but he did ultimately find the problem and that lead to resolution. I would suggest you be fair with him. I personally think he is deserving of at least his normal service call, which he would get just for showing up and the parts he replaced aren't major expense items and those are worth something (at least his cost less markup). Those parts and adjustments will benefit you as sooner or later the old parts would likely have failed and you would have another "Service Call". JMHO

Fizz

Always been fair with him, tipping his workers, also. He's a good guy, and I will do right by him. Agree with both you and DZoro.