Electrician VS Angry Customer
2023 ж. 2 Жел.
45 159 Рет қаралды
In this video I attend a job in North London to carry out a repair to underfloor heating.
Arriving at the job I could immediately tell that the customer was extremely stressed out. Have a look at how the job turned out.
You can tell from her tone she was going to be a pain in the arse after the first 30 seconds.
wouldn't you have a tone if you told someone they that the floor was done in May and they were basically calling you a liar?
Yes I totally agree I would have gone by then that's not going to be a customer you want
@@leebowley6953maybe she was so cold unable to feel her feet because she cut them off to pop them in the oven.?? I bet she had rolls of paper towel taped end to end to hide the non connection below her dumb bum
or would like one in hers via the endless men called to service her broken old system
She wanted an electrician and ended up with the floor tile police 😂
hahahahahah, I hope your tiles are in good nick otherwise hell be round to rip them up!
Oof 😂
Should of told her to fill a foot spa with petrol step in and strike a clumsy lit match. Its how they survived winter before socks were knitted and got popular.
I'd have been sorting out my exit plan within the first 30 seconds! 😂
Emergency phone call... "Oh sorry something's come up and I've really got to head off. I'll rearrange another time OK! Cheers, C U Next Tuesday!"
No plan needed pal. You just say stick it up your arse
Typical sparky
I noticed he was working his way to the exit route.
Why? She had all the info ready to start investigating the issue.
Imagine having new tiles put down for the electrician to keep on saying they look old 😂
Not sure why the age of the floor is relevant 😂
Im a sparky and seen all manner of deporable bad taste choices..nothing i not seen.
They look like they were made in the 1980s.
😂😂😂
She seemed reasonable enough, why he endlessly went on about the floor not looking new was bizarre
Well known distraction technique, whilst you compile your exit strategy.
@@markrainford1219 He was probably 30 seconds away from deploying a smoke bomb
Invaders enjoy ritually humiliating the conquered. Her people seemingly refuse to put up a fight to their occupation, so their occupiers seem to enjoy punking them.
@@bashkillszombies what are you on about lol
@@bashkillszombies Yeah we're all familiar with the game Space Invaders. It's quite good isn't it. Bless you.
She wasn't the best customer, but fixating on her tiles probably rubbed her up the wrong way. I'd have unscrewed the thermostat and tested the probe and mat to confirm the problem, reported my findings, and charged her for the visit. It would have taken just minutes, I'd have got paid, and she would be armed with the necessary info to go back to her builder with.
@@HeathenGeek as I said, she wasn't the best customer. However, delroy wasn't the best tradesman. He repeatedly refused to believe her regarding the date the tiles was installed. This would get anyone's back up, more or less being called a liar or stupid. It would have taken less time to do what I posted above, than to argue.
yea I agree and the whole thing for him to not charge her makes him seem like he doesn't know what he's doing and can't fix anything so he's just gonna leave.
He didn't want the headache 😆😆 I don't blame him!
If that’s a new kitchen, then she needs to tidy up that crap hole. The quickest way of confirming it was connected is to just take the warm up control cover off. Even it it didn’t have a floor probe, they can work off of air temperature, but that wouldn’t of worked because whoever installed it put it next to the bloody boiler 😂🤦🏻♂️
Andrew you could be right about my fixating on the floor. But you had to be there. I was totally confused I don't think, the tiles were fitted in May. I believe the control was. But why would anyone install a heating system or any type of system and not test it before they left it make no sense .
This customer needed technical support from the installation company, not necessarily an electrician with a fresh pair of eyes. This is why I'm glad I got out of customer facing work some years back.
yea idk what this customer was thinking, maybe she wasn't. Maybe she thought "oh electrical problem, call an electrician" like we're magicians that can solve anything.
Zero customer facing work? Living the dream!
After 27 years working on a chemical plant I retired but took a job in a public building. We get tourists from all over the world and I’m still amazed after 13 years how strange and weird the public are.
From what I understand you were asked to rectify a problem caused by another tradesmen. You absolutely made the correct decision by not getting involved! Rectifying someone else's work always ends badly. Cheers
You’re 100% right on that one pal, it only ever ends in tears for the honest tradesmen.
Mate those tiles looked new. You were being pretty annoying as well. Just tell her to call the original guy and you dont want to be involved. Rubbing salt in the wound. Bit embarassing really.
No not at all ! She ( like most women these days ) had an attitude . If you pick that up in the first few minutes , then why continue?! More agg than it’s worth . Wasn’t a 10k rewire - silly call-out and someone else’s shite to boot - no ta.
There are times when you just need to walk away from a job and that one looks like nothing but trouble .In the trades you have to be able to read people otherwise it'll going to cost you .
She lost me at “I told you”
She was very condescending and impolite.
Definitely a sign she's playing the blame game. She's probably a JSO protestor lol
She did tell him. She had to re tell him numerous times. And he's still writing that the floor isn't new in the comments.
I’ve got to admit, when someone says that it annoys the Tits off me!
‘’I told You’’ That’s when i would have walked away……..
What a disgusting attitude she had from the start. Taking out all her anger on you, and delaying you talking about connection issues etc etc etc. Thank god you just WALKED
What anger😂😂. A snowflake is it?
She was a Cnut ! Been a sparks 22 years and you do get them - not worth the agg! If im not offered a cuppa in the first 20 seconds it’s a red flag .
Just tell the customer that you are not familiar with the system. Let the system experts do the installation.
Well done going with gut and running a mile because any old problems will become your new problems 😂
The original builder is still rocking back and forth on a chair after this job.
It was me
I am amazed people get so far in life with a attitude like that from the start. What a dodge
Love the videos but not sure why it was important that the tiles didn't look new? I'm a bit perplexed what she would gain by lying about how long it had been installed? Its definitely one of them jobs that isn't suited for an electrician but repeatedly mentioning the tiles not looking new just seemed a way to annoy her then bounce
I thought he was half doing it on purpose to wind her up about her 70s tiles!
She said that the underfloor heating was new, that means the floor tiles should look new. She was definitely being dishonest and that always rings alarm bells to a tradesman.
@@jimbobalob2491 It was installed that year and it's never been used because it's been warm she was perfectly clear about that. If that rings alarm bells you clearly aren't a very experienced tradesman. Delroy bottled this one, he could have easily whipped the cover off and done some testing proved the presence of the Thermostat probe etc and charged her accordingly. Sounds to me like he just couldn't be bothered or he doesn't know what he's doing when it comes to UF heating.
This is the funniest video I've seen of yours🤣🤣🤣 Taking the piss out of her floor😂😂😂
She seemed like a reasonable customer who simply wanted help from a professional as she didn’t trust the original installer. You came across as someone who really wasn’t confident you could do it. Why you couldn’t politely explain that to her and suggest where she could go next is beyond me. As is your constant harping on about her floor. You really could and should have handled that better.
You’re talking utter nonsense Steve. You must suck ass all day every day if you think she was reasonable. She was vile ! I would have said Ok - money up front please before I do a thing - once money is obtained she would have been asked to leave the room as she was extremely annoying ! Once I’d confirmed I’m unable to do the job , which would have taken all of 6 minutes- I would have called her back in to give her the awful news of either - more money for further investigation or get the cowboy back who installed the rubbish - ooorrrrr rip it all up and start again - your choice babe ??! .
What would you know
@@mattroberts3331 Clearly more than you 😂
100% agreed! I had a similar experience - called out a heating engineer to fix a leaky radiator valve. Made the mistake of mentioning my Hive controller intermittently disconnecting from WiFi (I am an IT engineer with 30 years experience). From that moment on, he was obsessed with fixing my Wifi / Hive device, babbling condescendingly in his annoying Abuja accent and fiddling with my boiler. No matter how many times I told him to *fix the goddamned valve leak* he wouldn't catch on. Turfed him out. This guy did the EXACT same thing! Fixating over a bloody tiled floor instead of tracing the sensor to see if it was connected or not. Clearly he is clueless and was lining the customer up to pay for something he didn't have the competence to fix. Amazed he didn't pull the race card.
Your absolutely clueless to how tradesmen work then. Roy has gone to this house (without any initial payment) realised that the work he could do may not satisfy the customer and as it’s his time he still needs to be paid for it. He’s already been there 10 minutes + and been on the phone to the supplier of the system to gather info that should be known already. He informs the lady of the 2 options as why they are the 2 options. The reason for him mentioning the floor is something tradesmen use to try and extract info out of people, we’re not saying they’re lying it’s just she may not be telling the full story. If you’re not happy with that then you should do it yourself…..
Good and very professionally done delroy weldone for avoiding that minefield 😂😂😂
so she or the company never once tried that system ever since it was installed to see if it even worked from the day it was installed very odd
Exactly,she’s talking bollocks.
@@richardjones3112or she scared the original installer away before he’d finished 😂
This women was a nightmare but he really didn’t help the situation by being fixated on the flooring
What made her a nightmare?
That customer was letting all her anger out on the electrician who has just turned up to try and help her. Her original builder probably ran a mile from her.
@@vincebeirne503 where was the anger ?
@@reajo622 she was quite clearly being a bit of a bitch
You must remember vince , there are some sparks that take this kind of attitude all day every day from customers because they are weak as pi£s and probably have a Cnut wife !! Hence some of the comments in this thread - I like you on the other hand will not tolerate even the slightest remark !! Far too much cream work to be had to take such nonsense.
Just spin the cover off and check the mat and connections ... how did he make that so hard .
Just the way she puts herself across explaining the problem, I’d of been out the door straight away. I think you made the right decision on this one. When you’ve been in the trade for a while you get a 6th sense for nightmare customers.
Absolutely ridiculous! It's clear that there is an issue with phone pairing and connecting to the stat and you're there talking about her tiles 😂 Chances are that's a quick reset and she'd be up and running
You did the right thing by walking away delroy she's looked a weird woman and sounded it. I'd run a mile. Let the guy who fitted it sort it out!😅😂😂
This is the type of customer that has plans drawn up for planning permission but does not expect to pay anything if the plans are refused...
You basically accused her of lying. And more than once. Thats what rubbed her up the wrong way.
You did well Delroy. She was a tricky customer. I think you did the best thing.
Pink book phone case. Cats. Crazy hair. 70's floor tiles. Rude demeanour. An absolute car crash of a client!
With an attitude like that , let her do it herself . What a self absorbed women . You done the right thing walking out . I have had a few customers like this and done the same thing .
Karen well dodged
Your a very patient man sir well done 😊
He's patient while she repeatedly answers the same question he gives her? And he's patient?
Can’t stand customers like that. Her attitude was crap from the start
She did seem like she had an attitude from the start of the video but we don't see from the start of the visit so it's hard to judge. But come on the whole floor thing was extremely condecending from you. Like if someone literally had their floor replaced I'm sure they'd know and it's not something you wouldn't trust someone over. You're pretty much saying to her the floor looks too dirty or old or something to only be a few months old and that would annoy people if they've just spent a huge amount of money on it. If I had someone come over and I showed off a renovation and they kept saying "are you sureeee this room was redone recently??" I'd be annoyed and I'm sure most people would. I mean you couldn't even tell if it was tile or not until half way through. The whole probe bit kind of seems irrelevant at that point anyway if the phone app can't even connect to the control unit. Even if the underfloor heating didn't even exist I'd still expect to be able to connect to the control unit. It's a shame we didn't get to see the control unit, like what was it even saying on the screen? Either way it's only a few months old and the original installer should come back and reconnect it for free. If somethings a few months old just get the original person back instead of messing around with verious contractors. I'd actually like to go check this one out in person if i was nearby.
She lied about the kitchen units being new so I'd say she was lying about the floor being mew too.
@@jimbobalob2491 Why are you assuming she lied about the kitchen units? She points to the side of the kitchen which has a different and more modern style than the side Del was working on and says they're new. Again you're being rediculous like Del by not believing if someone knows if they've had a new kitchen kitted or not. Plus when questioned about the floor for the 3th time she literally pulls up the website and listing where she bought them from. Why would she have the listing for a very specific type of floor tile ready on her laptop if it hadn't recently been fitted? Even after that he still didn't believe her. It is offensive and pretty terrible customer service to talk to a customer like that.
@@walker1054 None of those kitchen units are new, you can tell they are the old brown units which have been painted dark blue. All the handles are the same and she has even had the door leading into the kitchen and it's frame painted in the same blue colour. I'm a decorator and I have done plenty of these old kitchen cupboards and I know old units from new ones.
Tell me I'm wrong but we all had a customer like this ! 😂
Ex customer.. I have one just like her, I avoid her now. Don't even reply to her messages. No need for attitude like that.
I think she is misunderstanding the "missing internet" I think it refers to the unit controlling the system which needs access to her internet connection for the app to work. She needs to contact the warranty provider not a third party electrician.
I think you are onto something there.
Her firewall / router is blocking it is my guess. But she's dealing with Indian tech support and invader / occupier techies instead of natives.
If you had taken on this job you would have been inundated with untold calls texts etc.. You have a wise head after being in the game for so long. The 'Builder' is probably in another country by now 🤠 Good call to walk away..
Nicely done mate. Life’s to short to put up with people like her mate
New installation, direct her straight back to the people that installed it, and walk
After picking up the callout fee of course !! Not travelling for nothing pal.
She asked for an electrician and got a floor tiler, maybe if she calls a floor tiler an electrician might turn up.
Looks like the control panel isn't connected to the WIFI that's all. That is why the manufacturer cannot connect to the unit. She even said BT have been out a few times and the router is sat on the dining table. My bet is that the install was OK and BT have come around and swapped out the router and the control unit is no longer connected to the internet. If I ever change a router over, I will replace like for like and I will edit the SSID and password to match the old router and 9/10 all the appliances in the home will synch up happily without having to go around them all.
Fixing someone else’s bodge up is too risky especially when the client is easily agitated.
The floor is new, I done a job where the same type of floor installed in kitchen & bathroom same style…
You dodged a bullet right there mate, that one was trouble with a capitol T
She really should give the original builder the opportunity to put it right first, but maybe she pissed him off throughout his time working there.
that's what it probably is
Agreed. And as soon as another trade touches anything, the original installer can quite rightly blame any faults on interference. Lady should have no.1 have called backed whoever did the work, before calling out anybody else. Something like that should be under guarantee, likely at no cost. If they refuse to return then by all means call out someone else. Also whatever the job is, at least try it out not wait X months later to realise something doesn’t work properly.
You absolutely did the right thing. Good move. If she's like that on the first visit then she's got issues. Get the hell out of there!!!
You're a good man for walking away with no charge. Most wouldn't I'm sure.
YOU DID THE RIGHT THING 😊
The old "Last Man On Site Scam" . Seen this so many times. Never, ever try and rectify another persons dodgy workmanship. The customer will sue YOU as you were the last person onsite and under the law YOU are liable.
Right move. That builder has to come back to sort out his rubbish installation.
Maybe listen to the customer rather than worry about the style of the floor and cabinets
He did listen, the builders mate dunit. Stay well away.
He didn't listen though she told him at least three times the tiles were new, he just didn't like her style off tiles
@@liamfenwick6320they are shite though
The customer is always right, 😅
I think on this occasion you dealt with the situation wrong. There was no need to be fixated on the age of floor tiles (its irrelevant) you were right in saying about getting the original installers back and covering yourself by explaining that she could be spending money without any success.
We live in England where waffling is commonplace, there's no excuse for attitude like that
Of course the age of the floor was relevant, the underfloor heating mapping is under the tiles.
Does it take a current? Does it pass a leakage test? If so, fit a sensor and a control unit and it will work. Problem is that he's then installing an unknown quantity that he didn't supply and doesn't know how it was fitted, so it's a tricky situation regardless of how old or new the heat mat is. @@jimbobalob2491
Call out fee is mandatory. She’s the type of person who wants “Tell me what’s wrong with it and I’ll get it fixed for nothing” sort…… MANDATORY call out fee is the way to keep on top of this, take no crap from any client and tell them straight. No issues.
you done well to get out of there mate , that would have gone pearshaped big time , sometimes you just know
why on earth were you trying to tell her the floors weren't new? i'm with the lady on this one
Why would she lie about the tiles?
Nice one mate made me laugh😂 keep the good work up.
Easy diagnosis, potentially easy fix... Del was just out of his comfort one dealing with the IT stuff.
I get she hadn't needed to use it because weather was good up until now, but when it was installed, did she not get a run through with the installer at the time? Then she would know if it was working or not at time of them leaving with the final payment.
You sure dodged a bullet there. I suspect that even if you fixed it, she would say that her fridge wasn't as cold as it was before you came so what did you do to it? You are well out of that one. Heaven help the next spark that visits.
Pity the next spark she calls who will get the story of the builder, the person who installed the heating who she doesn't trust and now the electrician who came and argued with her about the age of the tiles!! A basket case pure and simple!!
So her telling the truth about her experience makes her mental?
I have this thermostat, and you can go in the settings and work it off air temperature if the probe is non existent or faulty.. 😊. And I could be wrong, but would the air sensor be accurate sat next to the hot boiler and pipework?
No
Half a year old installation? What about some form of warranty?
Europe has an out of sight warranty once the contractor is out of sight the warranty is over lol.
@@wizard3z868 I am from Europe and that's not a thing. Maybe UK only .. :) but here in CZE you have your 2yr mandatory warranty on these services and installations.
Just because you can still buy the tiles doesn't mean anything. You could still buy vintage looking tiles if you want. A well dodged bullet, mate 👍
So what your saying is the floor could have been laid 6 months ago because you can still buy the tiles?
Well done! Is your camera on your head? What kind is it please? I need one since we do get some ‘difficult’ customers
Why on earth didn't you just unscrew the controller and see if it had a probe connected. You spent ages talking about it rather than 2 minutes actually doing something. You struck me as not having a clue what you are doing. Of course the floor is new if she said it was. You do know that you can heat all types of floors, not just ceramic tiles don't you? I think she is the one who had a lucky escape there.
So it must your fault Delroy 😂😂go back to your builder love and stop blaming other people. Entitled people everywhere these days
Good shout! She was mental.
Ok im starting the video already the spark seems to have a fixation with the tiles. And doesn't like the fact hes wrong. 😂😂. Looking forward to to the rest. You questioned her numerous times. She answered numerous times. You acted surprised each time. Quite dismissive. Then mentuoning that you didnt want to argue. I mean what😂😂. So the customer seems to know the issue before you arrived. I like your attitude with the charging and not charging. The attitude you have is actually very strange otherwise. Its a new floor. You didnt fancy the job delroy. She wasnt a difficult customer at all. You simply don't believe her and thats your issue.
😂 once you get mixed in the pickle your all in that was a tricky situation dealt with properly
Great video................... Thanks.
She doesn't stop , I'd walkout straight away, arrogant and won't listen, call out installer would be the obvious thing but I expect they have given her a wide birth
she needs technical support should have been tested in may! starting would have caused you a world of pain
I'm not gonna argue with you - followed by the repetitive question of, are these titles new? What I have learnt watching this channel is Delroy has habit of thinking out loud. I feel he thought out loud once too many times with this customer. She even goes to the website to prove you can buy them but he still doesn't give up. It's in these situations he needs his son to be with him to be peace negotiator.
Delroy, you would have been better off just dropping the programmer of to see if a floor stat had been fitted or if it had been connected correctly. It could have been an easy fix. If a stat hadn’t been fitted you could have taken a photo of the rear of the stat to cover yourself. You could have walked out being the hero. After all it would have taken you less time than you spent discussing walking away, plus you would be able to charge for the visit.
Can we get a close up of the floor 😂
Blimey, she is definitely a school headmistress 😅😅
Even the dog is wining because it's sick of her..
Bless you Delroy for your patience. I would have fired that customer much sooner than you did!
It’s Delroy
Delroy was part of the problem. He was more worried about the age of the floor than actually looking at the issue. It shouldn't matter to him if the floor was in 6 months or 6 years. I don't think you or I would be too happy if a tradesmen was telling you the age of the floor in our property.
@@abdulseaforth6930 thank you, fixed
The age of the floor does matter - if it's very old, there's a higher likelihood it won't be fixable, and in any case the customer failed the attitude test and in my eyes gave the impression she would be more likely to be a problematic client despite Delroy's best efforts.
@@AlexGreyhead No it doesn't matter fault finding and testing would be exactly the same irrespective of age. I could be a week old or ten years old but if the heating elements or temp probe have failed you'd need to rip up the floor. Delroy's best efforts,are you kidding me? He didn't want to know he was out of his depth here and just looking for a way out. Very amateurish....
Delroy I think it is you that's lost the plot here. It matters not how old the chuffing floor is to a technical person? 1. Establish that if the installation is still under warranty then anything you do could invalidate that warranty and any future issues may not be covered by the original installer or the manufacturer? 2. Any work you under take is in isolation to the majority of the installation and only these repairs and not the whole installation are under your control. 3. You charge x pounds per hour to investigate the issues. And these investigations may not result in a full resolution however you will provide a report that the customer may take to either the installation engineer or the manufacturer, depending on what you are able to establish. 4. Del I've watched many of your videos and I think your a bit uninformed and incompetent. I say this as a electrical engineer with 44 years experience.
Yeah it's a lot of dodgy stuff. Only just finished apprenticeship in Sweden, different standards etc here. But he seems hesitant not to solve this for some reason
She fits this lyric “ ignorant fools ignorant minds down in the ghetto of the city “.
Imagine spending all that money on an underfloor heating system, not testing it or even understanding how it works when it was installed. Best walked away from because that sort of client is highly likely to be an ongoing nightmare.
was the controller box setup configured to the router before setting up the app on the phone
I actually feel for this lady, as she never wanted some smart app thing, she just wanted a little screen where she could set it up and turn it on and off... If not prob has been installed though that's a bag of worms.. Sounds like the builder has left her although I know its been warm but the last time I wired up underfloor heating was for my old man, first thing he did was turn it up to feel the warmth on his feet... Surely everyone would want to at least test it, especially on tiles that are normally cold.. I think that was a potentially no win scenario as if it needed a probe even if you eventually found that out the customer would not be happy as they have already paid once, that's why you never want to go in and clean up somebody else's mess..
All the time you’ve gone one about charging and disappointment you could of undone the stat. Checked the probe and element and have given her a diagnosis.
This did not look like a job for an electrician to me. The installer of the heating system would he responsible to get it working, possibly together with technical support from the manufacturer. This heating system involves gas (?), plumbing, networking, WiFi, software apps, electronic sensors and some electrical mainly to power the system. Is it the job of the electrician to figure out proprietary electronic controls that apparently even depend on an app?
The tile critic wasnt impressed 😂
Red flag customer 😄
Honestly, not sure why he’s banging on about the floor tiles. Yes the room looks dated. If he doesn’t want to do the job, say, ‘I have no idea luv’. Her demeanour isn’t conducive to good working relationship, there’s no doubt there. But this could’ve gone smoother for him.
Mate I'm due to exchange on a property next week. Any chance you could pop by and give me a rough estimate of the age of the tiles in the downstairs cloakroom??😅
Delroy, as a self employed spark its down to you not the customer to decide if you want to take on the work. Sometimes it is more difficult to deal with the customer than the job itself, and on some occasions like this one you will see this very quickly. You were honest with her, and outlined that you were happy not to charge for the visit, but as soon as you started investigating the fault/issue there would be a charge regardless of the outcome. With regards to the tiles, if they were not new, and the customer kept implying that they were, you may then wonder how accurate that other information that she gave you was. Its easy to comment on what you should have done, until you are in that position and have to make the decision on whether to take on the work.
She probably owes the builder a few quid and doesn't want him back
As always, a recently finished kitchen that looks pretty on the outside with shockingly bad basics. I've lost count of the amount of times I've been asked to look at electrical problems after the builders have legged it. When you mention missing earth bonding to the stop cock (that's under that tiled floor miles away from the supply), or gas supply bonding, RCD etc they don't want to know and just look at you like you're the problem. Recent one was 2.5mm supply to 9KW range cooker on 40 amp breaker. 'It's been fine' says the homeowner, the inference being I don't know what I'm talking about, the reality is they've not had both the ovens on at the same time yet. Let her be cold Delroy!
a little obsessed with the floor tiles,lol. 1st warning of problems is that shes already had someone else look 2nd warning was when she didnt want the original fitters back 3rd warning was her abrubtness to you. she will be lucky to get anyone to fix it.
I don't normally comment on these videos and the KZhead algorithm decided to suggest this. Tradesman want to go where the money is, but end up dealing with people like this, and it's usually the ones with the most money. Yet I'm on the other end of the scale, and can't get a tradesman to do any work because they're already judging because of the area I live in, make up some bs stories, then don't answer the phone or respond to emails when you want a quote!
What difference does it make it the floor is new or old.
Del Boy you of all people should know some people are nasty and their new floor can look ten years old after six months 😅
Did you even get the customers permission to record them? Did they even know that you were recording them, inside their property? Do they know that you've uploaded this footage for the public to see?
Think David Savery ran into her a few months back
Leaving aside the tiles which may or may not have been new but essentially that is irrelevant if it's a resistive heat mat that just needs to be switched on and off (and thermostatically regulated). This is always a difficult one. I get customers with very old central heating systems who want me to improve them without changing the boiler and, while this is often possible, it entails working out how the existing system is controlled, and making suggestions that often seem to be very expensive for the improvement that is possible. All of which takes time and often represents poor value for money when a boiler is on borrowed time anyway. Managing customer expectations...