Made bank transfer payment to plumber, says its not received. What can I do?

Archi_Bald

If you are sure you have used the details they provided, you have done everything you can be expected to have done.

Don't pay the guy any more money until this issue has been resolved.

mickym

i had said to them that i was happy to pay them the rest of the balance minus the missing the £300. as the job is now finished and we are happy with it.

Any reason why I should not do this now? They need to register the work they have done with appropriate authorities.

If they want the £300 that has gone missing then ill have to ask them to provide me with a official statement for the last week to assist me in sorting it out.

Archi_Bald

If the £300 have gone missing, then any additional money paid to the same account would go missing too.

You don't want to be left with being accused to not having paid an even larger sum, when you know you have paid it.

Don't do it. Get the mystery about the £300 sorted first.

Your plumber cannot undo the work he did (unless you give him access to your property). If the work needs registering, they also do need to register the work they did whether you paid them for the work or not. If they fail to register, they risk their professional accreditation, which could mean they risk their business and livelihood.

Do not let yourself get intimidated - the whereabouts of the £300 need to be established before you can be expected to pay anything further.

BTW, do you have a receipt for the £300 you paid cash?

mickym

I was intending to pay the remaining balance in cash or cheque, to avoid any hassles again with the bank transfer.

Archi_Bald

If you do feel you do have to pay him for the remainder before the whereabouts of the £300 have been clarified, don't do it in cash. You do need proof you paid him. You already don't have proof that you paid him the first £300 in cash, and another £300 you paid has allegedly not been received. You are £600 down so far.

A cheque would give you proof for any further payment in theory, though he could still say he never got the money, and it would take you months of hassle to get your bank to confirm the cheque has been cashed by the plumber's bank.

For an outsider, it looks like your plumber might be trying to take you for a ride. Don't let him.

mickym

Just to clarify I have an email that states 'thank you for your deposit of £300' so i take that as my form of receipt for the initial cash paid.

I think I will pay the next amount via cheque so its traceable, as I agree thats a wise move.

I may ask them to provide me with an official bank statement of the last weeks activity that shows account number and sort code when they come to pick the cheque up. I can also say i'm happy for them to scribble out the balance if they want to keep that private.

What do you think?

Archi_Bald

Yes, under the circumstances it seems perfectly reasonable to ask them for a copy of their bank statement. They can blank out the balance, and any amount against transactions that, from the transaction description, are clearly from/to somebody other than yourself.

Make sure the statement they give you clearly shows the sort code and account number you were given.

mickym

Thanks for your help its much appreciated.

maninthestreet

Sounds like the money has gone down the drain.

mickym

Not quite.

Had some good news today. I had a call from the Tradesman just as I was going through the trace process with my bank branch.

They had just received a proper printed statement from their bank in the post that lists the payment I made to them last week.

it seems the sms service wasn't showing it, and when they called the bank, they didn't acknowledge it either.

So all sorted now. the remainder will be paid in old fashioned cheque.

Thank you for all your help, it was much appreciated, and next time I will definitely be doing a test amount first before transferring larger sums.

I think that should be promoted by banks more as a safer way to make transfers.