An honest robber? what do you think.

[princess peach]

The other day i answered my door to a young lad in uniform asking to service my boiler(no rude remarks please!)
I let him in as he looked completely genuine.He changed the connector on my gas bottle(as a ball bearing has come out,which i knew about)cleaned the boiler,turned on the taps to ensure the flame whooshed,took about 15 mins from start to finish.Then he proceeded to write out a bill on the pre printed gas pad,i asked him if he wanted paying now,he replied yes!..embarrassed i told him i had no euros,only 100 pounds. (the bill was 139.00euros),okay he said i will take 100 pounds and get it changed and call back tommorow for the rest.I got him to write me out a reciept on plain paper and sign it,which he did and wrote a breakdown of the bill too.
With that,he went.Never to be seen again.

My gas company have no record of this,but then they wouldnt if i hadnt paid the full amount
He was dressed in green and orange,complete with case full of tools and parts,pre printed gas pad etc.
I didnt ask him for iD my own stupid fault
I feel completely stupid writing this,but if it saves someone else from dishing out money to "gas men"
thats fine.

If he was a crook why would he bother to change a part and be out of pocket?
What do you think Genuine or not?

[silver]

princess peach do not let anyone in your house..this is a typical con been going on for many years..even before the brits arrived... a lot of Spanish fall for this one too...

I didnt ask him for iD

would you know what one looked like??
Dont open the door is the best..but if you do say you have not been informed and have no money..they will go

[princess peach]

I will never ever do this again
and no,i wouldnt know what a spanish gas id card looked like.
I didnt answer the door to him,he rang the bell outside the gate,and i opened my window to speak,with that he came in the garden.
I spoke to my neighbours to warn them,and they said they had also been done a couple of years ago when they first moved in,the "gas man" took all their gas contracts and money with him.
I feel very stupid.

[Laslomas]

I have decided that if anyone calls on me for a so-called "gas check" I will ask them to produce their ID and then ask if I can take a photo of them holding their ID. Then I will arrange a date in the future and see if they come back.

[Jool]

The honest ones also carry an authorization from the Junta de Andalucia, a copy of the business escritura, their id and qualification number, and can offer you a 902 phone number to call to check the person on your doorstep is genuine.

[redsoxbrit]

Oh poor you, but don't beat yourself up over it - it also happened to our Spanish neighbours who consequently warned us, if not, I think I would have let him in as well.
Thank God it was only your wallet and pride he hit, could have been worse

[Julie]

Well ! if he fixed the boiler and at the time you thought the price was ok, I suppose there is nothing loss, having said that 100 quid is cheap, when you consider he could of slit your throat and left you for dead Lol.

I think most people would of done the same, its the uniform that makes people think that it is ligit

[Devils Advocate]

That's one good point for Spain then.........you get more for your money from an Honest Robber than a British gas engineer

DA

[spanish_lad]

when we first moved over we actually arranged to have them call because we wanted to contract gas, and they came out, changed all the bits, contracted us 2 gas bottles and cleaned the boiler etc...

but as i say, we asked for them to come. we´ve still got the contract downstairs and the repsol man deliveres, which he wouldn´t do until we showed him the contract

[Paula]

This scam must be one of the best hourly rate paid jobs in Spain. I imagine in current climate they will be out in force.

[hillybilly]

If he was a crook why would he bother to change a part and be out of pocket?

He's most definitely IN pocket if he only changed your regulator (10€ max, prob a lot less if he's buying them cheap in bulk) and spent 15mins there! And I'm sure nobody "genuine" would accept pounds...

[redsoxbrit]

And I'm sure nobody "genuine" would accept pounds...

mmmmm, exactly what I was thinking

[Wicksey]

You won't believe this but we have just had a man in an orange shirt come to our gate waving an 'ID' card and saying he is checking the butano connections! We live in the middle of nowhere at the end of a long private track - it's the first time it has happened to us. What a coincidence! Luckily our gate is kept locked so he couldn't come to the house, and my OH told him we didn't have any gas only electric.

[silver]

OH told him we didn't have any gas only electric.

thats the best way out

I feel very stupid.

join the club..there are thousands who fall for this that is why its so common.. They tried me 3 times this year alone..I got caught out many years ago...and in all the years I have been here have never had an oficial visit.. and dont know of anyone who has...in any case they would inform before.

[oliveview01]

Last November our neighbours (Spanish) got caught by a couple of very smart men (dressed that is) who said they needed to check their water for contamination....proceeded to tell them the water here was very hard and they would suffer with kidney stones and charged them 43€ for the test (I think they used the pills that are used to check the chlorine/ph levels in the pool) The men charged the couple 43€ a month for another 29 months (as they are pensioners they could pay over a longer period the man said)
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I got a Spanish friend to come and sort it all out and we cancelled the payment at th ebank. The men then returned the next day to fit the filter that wasn´t needed........... I had to stand guard at the gate for an hour till I could get hold of my Spanish friend to tell them to b*gger off!!
For plumbers they were dressed like they were off to a church service or an expensive reataurant- not rumage about under a sink fixing a filter!

[mhic]

Had a scruffy looking idiot call on us a couple of weeks back wanting to check our gas fittings I just called down to him that I had changed hoses and valves a few months earlier and they were fine. I watched as he was sent off with a flea in his ear from my neighbours place but an hour later he was back banging on my door. I told him to P--s off he did start to argue but then he saw my dog and off he p----d.

Mhic.

[princess peach]

I too am with you about him accepting pounds but as we live so close to Gib and with things the way they are ,i thought maybe he would do as he said and change it into Euros...worst thing was,i had the remaining 40 euros(balance left to pay)waiting for him the next day.Gullable stupid fool.

Anyway,for the record and for anyone else that wants to know-The lovely ladies at the Gas Plus(Repsol)office(after the incident)said they only service the boilers once every 5 years,and they would have telephoned me for an appointment!

In future i will tell the lovely robbers,i only have electric.and no gas!(good one that)
Just glad i shut my two dogs in the back garden,where the guy could see them.If i had left them in the house he wouldve seen how over the top friendly they were and maybe robbed the place at a later date.
I feel very uneasy,as im waiting for him to come back for the rest of his cash.
If i can stop one of you from getting conned its worthwhile posting this foolish episode of mine.Im just glad it was me and not some elderly person that it happened to.

[oliveview01]

I know just how you feel Peachy, when I was ´guarding´ the neighbours gate and stopping the con-men from getting i, the neighbour (tuppence short of a shilling at times) told the men that I was in the house alone, hubby was in England! I was worried for days! At least I had taken down their number plates so if they came back I had the numbers to tell the police!
Just give me a yell and I´ll be over to guard your gate for you

[alaninspain]

Peachy - was he a good looking young lad, is that why you let him in?

[princess peach]

Peachy - was he a good looking young lad, is that why you let him in?

Actually Alan he was!!
plus he had all the right tools in all the right places. you have me sussed!