SB. Contracting company withholding part of invoice.

gordonstights

Very briefly, we do a lot of work for colleges/police authorities etc in the supply of blinds. However, we are a small business.

Instead of our usual college coming directly to us they had to go through a firm who do commercial & industrial painting, flooring, partitioning etc. They came to us and accepted a price & job was done. Only after the event an issue cropped up upon payment from them.

They sent us all but £58 of the invoice total. They said the college had threatened to withhold total payment to them for us not removing the old blinds that were taken down in preparation for the new.
Very rarely do we get asked to remove old blinds from a site and when we do, it is costed as part of the initial quote (for our time/labour etc). We have told the contracting firm this and their response is:

"We would normally expect a contractor to remove such items without specific instructions or extra charges as part of your normal service".

If we were to go and remove old blinds from the college, we would have to pay a contractor to do so. As it is the total cost of the invoice never included removal or disposal, so we'd be losing money to do this. What do you think we should do? Walk away and take the loss, or on principal, fight this big firm who think they can shaft a small business?

Btw - we didn't make much money on this job in the first place because we always do really good prices for the college as it's regular work; but the contractors got hold of the quote that we gave the college and basically said "re-do the quote to us at the same price & you've got the job" before we even found out that college had insisted we were the supplier anyway!! :mad:

Pennywise

If you didn't say you'd remove them, and they didn't specifically ask you to as part of the tendering/quoting process, then you're right. It is completely irrelevant what they'd normally expect a contractor to do - they've made a mistake and they should pay for it.

gordonstights

This is exactly what we were thinking, but I suppose it boils down to how much of your valuable time you lose fighting for £58 It's the principal of the matter rather than cost (although our business is suffering with this recession already!)

You feel like sending them a nasty letter telling them to stop being such ar**s but in the end you want them to pay up not get their backs up.

vivatifosi

I'd try and find out from the college first whether they were planning to put more work the contractors way. If they are, then I would not consider going after the £58 in case I shot myself in the foot. I also wouldn't pursue the £58 to court, but would consider a "letter before action" reminding them that it isn't a contract term if its bothering you that much - but only if you are sure you are never going to cross paths again.

gordonstights

Yeah I didn't think about asking the college if they intend to use them again. Good point!