hi all, some thing new thats happen today,
i am a service agent for a very popular brand of gas cooking appliance, and today they have emailed saying they wont pay for the gsc i have billed them for.
i was very nice in my reply, explaining how, as of 1st July we are legally required to issue a gsc for every gas service we do.
well they came back saying "yes we know that but we only pay labour, travel and service cost" and that certification is not covered under warranty!!!!
has anyone else come across this yet, and what did you tell them?



Linkback: https://www.plumbers.nz/gas-certification/71/wont-pay-for-a-gsc/1556/

Would you like the Federation to raise this issue with them for you?  Clearly the government requires a GSC under the PGD Act 2006 and under the Amendment 2011 to the Gas and Safety Measurement Regs.  There is a cost to doing a GSC - and I would suggest that the company you work for under warranty will need to pay - they are being small and narrow minded refusing to.  Of course you could bill the homeowner for the GSC and let them rip the shit out of the company.  Explain to any warranty calls that you can't reconnect the appliance (if you have had to disconnect, or indeed fit any fitting that has to do with combustion, safety or control of gas). Tell them that this is a charge that must be passed on but is not warranty.

what's a fair cost for a gsc? What is everyone else charging?

badger, your dead right, not only are gas fitters not issuing gsc to this appliance company but so are the electricians! they HAVE to just like us!
i will be talking to a sparky today who does alot of service work for the big names and i will be asking him.

Jaxcat, thank you for the offer, i will wait for their reply to my email last night and let you all know what they say.
i also do service work for popular water heater manufacturers and they all pay for the gsc....

badger i charge $90 for gsc, coc, gsc/coc. this includes my time and % for liablity and insurance for the next 7 years, and as i have found recently with my visit to the disputes tribunal, i should be doubling this cost, as the risk of being made to pay out is  huge.

i too have had no issues with customers paying for certs, untill now

Hi Concerned - yes we bill as testing, commissioning and certification.  $150 for COC/GSC - includes time to test, write up, type up, enter on data base and for responsibility, storage etc.  I have heard costs of $50 - over $200 being charged.  I know one thing for sure - it should not be free - there is a lot of time involved.

GSC's need to be done for a lot of appliance service work except straight out cleaning - anything that comes under the definition of "gasfitting" as per the PGD act needs to be certified.  The suppliers are going to have to suck it up or run the risk of having irate customers - because if they won't pay the customer must.  The other thing is that you could fix the appliance and not reconnect if the warranty agent won't pay, and get the customer to call them.  Is their argument that you should be doing it for free?

its really hard to do integrated, as i have 100s of customers that i used to not charge a gsc too for there services of their heaters etc.

but your right and i have just had the experience where i have paid out money to go to court to justify my work, its the first time i have had to think about the cost of my certs and my liability.
in the real world we should be insuring ourselves for every job we do!! haha yeah right and major $$$$ that we would then have no choice but to pass on to the consumer!! gee the powers that be have some bloody answering too!!
do you see them sticking THEIR necks out on a daily basis??? HA
we do !!
 

I'm Curious by this topic so have been reading the GSMR a bit closer and could only assume that servicing would be classed as a low risk gas fitting which then wouldn't this fall under section 46.2. A person who does low-risk gas fitting work may, but is not obliged by these regulations to, issue a certificate of compliance for that work.

Don't get me wrong I'm the same as you I believe that we should be issuing certs for anything done on a gas system and would also COC any service especially if any parts are required to be changed.

Apparently, according to ESS, removing lint is not gas fitting.