Rogue Customers

malcindebt

I need help for a friend, I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section.

My friend is a plumber/CH installer and is having problems with a customer refusing to pay part of his bill.

Essentially what has happened is that my friend estimated a price for the job, but when he did it he found many problems that could not have been predicted when he went to price up the job, incidently the job took an extra day and cost nearly £200 in extra materials, therefore the final bill was £320 more than estimated.

On my friends paperwork that he writes the estimates on it contains the following decleration.

THIS IS AN ESTIMATE OF THE COST OF THE PLANNED WORKS BELOW ONLY AND IS BASED ON THE VISUAL SURVEY CARRIED OUT ON.................................... THIS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE ACCORDING TO CIRCUMSTANCES ARISING DURING INSTALLATION. ALL EXTRA WORK WILL BE NOTIFIED PRIOR TO TAKING PLACE AND WILL BE DETAILED ON YOUR FINAL BILL.

The customer is now refusing to pay for this extra work and is claiming the statement on the estimate is illegal. Does anyone have any advice I can pass onto my friend.

bryanb

Perfectly legal. Also an estimate is not the same as a Quotation. An estimate is just that. A quote gives the final agreed price.

roses

malcindebt wrote: »

ALL EXTRA WORK WILL BE NOTIFIED PRIOR TO TAKING PLACE AND WILL BE DETAILED ON YOUR FINAL BILL..

Did the plumber inform the customer of what the extra charge is before he carried out the work? This must be done and agreed to beforehand. The customer must be given a chance to say no as he may not be able to afford it.

System

did he keep the customer informed of the additional cost ?

Canucklehead

Good afternoon: Rogue customers and rogue traders aren't bothered by legalities but for those who are see the advice on Business Link

HTH

Canucklehead

malcindebt

did he keep the customer informed of the additional cost ?

Did the plumber inform the customer of what the extra charge is before he carried out the work? This must be done and agreed to beforehand. The customer must be given a chance to say no as he may not be able to afford it.

The extra work was notified to the customer, but he is claiming that this should have been included in the original estimate, the customer has now said that he is refusing to pay for any of the work that has been done. I assume in this instance my friend should write a letter requesting the money and if it is not forthcoming start a claim via the courts? (the bill is for approx £2950)

baldelectrician

Could your friend not accept the lesser amount (without predjudice) and then argue over the rest

If the client is refusing to pay anything then this will not look good when it goes to court.

Send invoice
Send reminder
Court