Dear Quentin,

I read your response to the reader who had an issue with their central heating system and was reluctant to pay twice for what they regarded as the same problem (“My heating engineer didn’t fix my radiators on his first visit. Do I pay him a second time?”). I have a similar complaint, but this relates to a toilet that is malfunctioning. 

The cistern on my toilet has been constantly refilling and making a hissing noise, so I asked a plumbing company to send someone over. Unfortunately, I seem to be flushing my money away on this problem — or at least that appears to be what the plumbing company would like me to do.