Disputing an invoice that could get nasty

Canucklehead

jcorbygas wrote: »

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.

Hi...that is exactly what we do.;) Advising terms and conditions before a call-out usually identifies those just looking for a 'free' diagnosis.

HTH

Canucklehead