Disputing an invoice that could get nasty

magpiecottage

I agree with zzzLazyDaisy

Choosing to charge for a quote is a matter of commercial judgement for the plumber but if he does charge then the quotation is itself the subject of a consumer contract and, as it took place in September 2008 the The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 applybecause they came into force in May.
Regulation 3(4)(b) says a commercial practice is unfair if it is a misleading omission.

Regulation 6(1) says misleading omissions are:

(a) the commercial practice omits material information,
(b) the commercial practice hides material information,
(c) the commercial practice provides material information in a manner which is unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely, or
(d) the commercial practice fails to identify its commercial intent, unless this is already apparent from the context,
and as a result it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise.


6(3) defines material information as:


(a) the information which the average consumer needs, according to the context, to take an informed transactional decision.


If the plumber intended to charge to quote for the work on the boiler then you, as the consumer needed to know both that he would charge for the quote and how much he would charge if you were to make an informed decision.


I would write back telling him that he never told you he wanted to charge for a quotation so the Regulations make it unlawful for him to now attempt to do so but, nevertheless, you find his demands distressing. Therefore, if he makes any further demands, you will make a complaint to the Police that he is committing an offence against you under the Protection From Harassment Act 1997.



As always, if you knew what you were letting yourself in for then you should pay but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

EliteHeat

It's only a quote if a customer telephones and asks "how much to supply and fit part x on boiler y". In these circumstances no visit is necessary and no charge is payable.

If on the other hand, work must be done to determine the fault then this work is chargeable.

Or would you go to work for free?

rachbc

most trades people don't charge for quotes - I'e had 3 upholsterers come out, spend time measuring, advise on work that needs doing and show me fabric books. NONE have charged for this. I'm not sure what makes heating engineers special - other than that most people get twitchy round gas and don't like the cold so they think they can get away with it!

EliteHeat

Because they don't work for nothing but are happy to quote for free. I have no idea why this concept is so difficult to understand.

mikey72

If they told you the call out fee up front, if the diagnosis was correct, if they gave you an invoice for the time spent, if you have a copy of their t&c's, if you signed their timesheet, pay them. Otherwise see them in court.

latecomer

I think it comes down to whether they said they would charge a call out fee. If not then they have no right to charge and OP should refuse to pay. If they did then OP should pay the bill. no point debating whether tradesmen should charge one or not.

dander

latecomer wrote: »

I think it comes down to whether they said they would charge a call out fee. If not then they have no right to charge and OP should refuse to pay.

I suppose the question is, if they didn't state they charged a call-out fee, and the OP didn't expressly state that they were expecting a free quote, rather than a paid for call-out, what is the default expection?

zzzLazyDaisy

dander wrote: »

I suppose the question is, if they didn't state they charged a call-out fee, and the OP didn't expressly state that they were expecting a free quote, rather than a paid for call-out, what is the default expection?

The default expectation is that there will be no charge for the call out. Simply because one party is a business and the other a consumer. It is up to the business to spell out to the consumer what it's terms are, before entering into any chargeable work.

duncan303

I am not sure that all quoted examples of conditions apply when a person is called out to your home.

The very act of getting in van and travelling x miles to a house, and being asked to diagnose a unique installation, when you can tell that the caller has absolutley no intention whatsoever of accepting any kind of quote is jarring.

How about getting 10 differrent people round to explain exactly what the problem is.... then post on this site to ask how to do it..............is that fair??

false pretences and when you get sussed.... why complain?

To the OP have you offerred that the work was done by another local firm, can you prove that you paid to have the work done at that time.

Why do people honestly think it should be free??

Plumbers can afford it.. is the same argument as stealing from superstores... twisted logic no??.


..

jcorbygas

From our point of view (gas engineers) it is unusual for a customer to ask for a 'quote' for a repair. Normally if someone asks us to come and look at their boiler which has a problem we would advise that we will come out and charge them our normal rate of £50 per hour which would include up to an hours work with the result that the problem was fixed. If from our visit we concluded parts were needed and a further visit was required we would then advise the exact cost of the next visit which would be the cost of parts, the labour charge and we would put on a nominal charge for the first visit to cover diesel etc.
If however the customer decided that after we had spent time diagnosing the fault and then they decided to go with someone else, we would give them a bill for the £50 (or probably much less if we were not their for very long on the first visit)
So the company should really have advised of a call out charge and perhaps invoiced a lot sooner but if they are persistent and for the sake of £40 and as you have shredded the paperwork I would advise the OP to pay.