Am I being unreasonable?

[Marthavan]

I'm looking for some advice. A local van conversion person has been doing the electric and gas install on our T6? They re doung it over 2 days and finished 1st day yesterday. I had a look in van last night and they had wired in gas pipe along left wall and then sealed up the interior panels and asked me to do carpet lining last night I then realised they hadn't put any wires behind.

They re going to work on it tomorrow so I asked why the wires (for battery, inverter etc) aren't inside behind the panels and this is their response:

'If you are now wanting everything hidden then I will have to revisit costings, as mentioned before this will start to grow larger and larger. I absolutely want to keep you happy however it is now changing. This will certainly take a huge amount of extra time. Let me know what you think.'

I had assumed hiding wires is pretty standard so now they want to charge me more for it? They could have done it easily when interior panels were off for gas pipe etc.

Am I right or wrong?

Thank you!

 

[Grim Reaper]

So, this is the problem with going to a 'conversion person'.
Unless you have seen another van they have done and said 'I want one like that' you pretty much get what you're given, unless you gave them specific instructions on what you wanted beforehand.
When you say left hand wall, do you mean behind driver's seat or passenger seat?
If it's behind driver's seat, are you getting cupboard units fitted there (which begs the question why the carpet) if so, the multitude of wires can be run inside the cupboards where you won't see much of them, though I have seen some 'professional' conversion works on here that beggar belief with the shoddy spaghetti wiring, poor connections, and unsecured leisure batteries.
A lot of 'conversion specialists' were set up on a whim when covid lockdowns kicked in and every man and his dog wanted a campervan, some of them had never converted a van in the past and thought they could match the experts and charge just as much.
It's a minefield out there.

 

[Salty Spuds]

I'm looking for some advice. A local van conversion person has been doing the electric and gas install on our T6? They re doung it over 2 days and finished 1st day yesterday. I had a look in van last night and they had wired in gas pipe along left wall and then sealed up the interior panels and asked me to do carpet lining last night I then realised they hadn't put any wires behind.

They re going to work on it tomorrow so I asked why the wires (for battery, inverter etc) aren't inside behind the panels and this is their response:

'If you are now wanting everything hidden then I will have to revisit costings, as mentioned before this will start to grow larger and larger. I absolutely want to keep you happy however it is now changing. This will certainly take a huge amount of extra time. Let me know what you think.'

I had assumed hiding wires is pretty standard so now they want to charge me more for it? They could have done it easily when interior panels were off for gas pipe etc.

Am I right or wrong?

Thank you!

It all depends on what you agreed & what was offered beforehand.:-

as mentioned before this will start to grow larger and larger

This would seem to suggest that the converter had some kind of discussion with you before the work started. I’d say it would be unreasonable to assume anything tbh. You need a clear written quote on what is being done & what you are paying.

 

[Marthavan]

So, this is the problem with going to a 'conversion person'.
Unless you have seen another van they have done and said 'I want one like that' you pretty much get what you're given, unless you gave them specific instructions on what you wanted beforehand.
When you say left hand wall, do you mean behind driver's seat or passenger seat?
If it's behind driver's seat, are you getting cupboard units fitted there (which begs the question why the carpet) if so, the multitude of wires can be run inside the cupboards where you won't see much of them, though I have seen some 'professional' caonversion works on here that beggar belief with the shoddy spaghetti wiring, poor connections, and unsecured leisure batteries.
A lot of 'conversion specialists' were set up on a whim when covid lockdowns kicked in and every man and his dog wanted a campervan, some of them had never converted a van in the past and thought they could match the experts and charge just as much.
It's a minefield out there.

Thanks for this. Yes I mean behind drivers seat and along that wall. Putting furniture all along that wall so cables will be hidden a bit but still all visible and open inside the cupboards. Just seems v strange as would have been v easy to tuck them behind MDF panels when they were off yesterday.

I didn't specifically say I want wires hidden as just seemed so obvious to me. But obviously not. Now wondering if it's just a ploy to get more cash.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Have they done sound deadening and insulation as part of the 'conversion'? This is a must do first thing, otherwise it's going to be almost impossible to do it after all the inside fittings are in place.

 

[Marthavan]

It all depends on what you agreed & what was offered beforehand.:-

This would seem to suggest that the converter had some kind of discussion with you before the work started. I’d say it would be unreasonable to assume anything tbh. You need a clear written quote on what is being done & what you are paying.

Yes I agree with you. We had full discussion and quote just says work for full electric install.

 

[Marthavan]

Have they done sound deadening and insulation as part of the 'conversion'? This is a must do first thing, otherwise it's going to be almost impossible to do it after all the inside fittings are in place.

I did sound deadening and insulation myself and panels were off when he started.

 

[Deaky]

Surely your cupboards will have solid backs in them so the wires will run between the back of the cupboard and the side of the van?

 

[Marthavan]

Surely your cupboards will have solid backs in them so the wires will run between the back of the cupboard and the side of the van?

No there's no backs to the cupboards as they're flush against van sidewall