Recompense: Still awaiting a response from GivEnergy to this emailed request...

01 November 2024
To GivEnergy
cc Installer

Re: charging battery + EV at same time.

Dear GivEnergy/xxxxxxxxx

As you are aware your EV charger failed to charge both EV and battery at the same time right from installation on 10th October.

As a consequence of this throughout the 14 days afterwards simply in order to get both units charging at the same time as per design spec, we were obliged to spend in excess of 15 hours (day- & night-time) acting as both researcher and mediator between the installer xxxxxxxxxx and yourselves – see attached pdf ‘xxxxxx EV charger issue timeline’.

On top of this the process of GivEnergy diagnosing and resolving the underlying cause (described in your email below) was delayed by the failure on 24 September of your own engineer xxxxxxx to have arranged with the installer commissioning of the replacement inverter.

In short, to cover our time spent (using the installer’s hourly rate of £75/hour exc. VAT) we calculate that you are due us in excess of £1,125.

Bearing this in mind what recompense do you propose to offer us for this same time spent simply to help you get your EV charger working as per design spec i.e. as it should have done right from installation?

With kind regards

sugarfree FWIW...

You won't get anywhere near £75/hour.

If you take it to court then the going rate is (IIRC) £27.50/hour (or it might be £37.50, been a while since I looked).

To get more than that you have to prove actual financial losses or provide relevant professional qualifications - ie you're an electrical/electronic/software engineer who gets paid more than that per hour.

My personal opinion is that you won't get very far with this should you take it to the small claims track but I am not a solicitor.

Thanks Vestas for your comment which given the incomplete information supplied is perfectly understandable.

For the sake of clarity I need to let you know that the journey from EV charger installation to working as per design spec was a two week long pantomime of events and the email although accurate in content (with timeline) was pretty much mischief-making.

sugarfree
I’m no solicitor but I think you are extremely unlikely to get anything from GivEnergy, and if you try the small claims court I think that’ll be unsuccessful as well.

You might have a better chance of success if you pursue your installer for recompense as its they that you have a contract with to supply “a working system” that’s “fit for purpose” and all that legalese.

The fact that they didn’t have sufficient knowledge/inclination to do so and you ended up diagnosing the problem directly with GivEnergy support is a failure of your installer.
If the inverter had to be replaced then again that really lies as a responsibility of your installer. They may back it off to GivEnergy to do the work or they may swap out the inverter and then pursue GivEnergy for the warranty replacement, but that’s their choice.

Your contract is with the installer not GivEnergy. Its like if you buy a brand new car from a garage and the car doesn’t work right, you take it back to the garage you bought it from not to the manufacturer.