Electrician’s billing my newly widowed mum - is this reasonable?

YesItIsAPyramidscheme

I wonder if I could have the benefit of your thoughts about this? there is a bit of an emotional backdrop to it which might be clouding my judgement.  Sorry it’s a bit long.

Back in February my elderly parents had a quote (fixed price not an estimate)  from a local properly qualified electrician to replace an electric bathroom fan. The old fan was working but not that efficient. The price he quoted in writing was based on him having full access to view the old fan and to go into the loft above to check what needed to be done.  At the time my father was very ill, on oxygen and receiving Hospice at Home care, so a stressful time.  My father emailed to accept the quote of £220.00 and ask the electrician to do the job as soon as he could.  The electrician turned up three weeks later, by which time my father was in the last 10 days of his life and without the energy to communicate. As you can imagine this was a really difficult time.   I happened to be present when electrician turned up, he was  in a bad temper when he arrived and he got progressively more ratty about the state of the 10 year old wiring in my parents’ loft as if they’d deliberately given him a difficult job. It was obviously a bit of a nightmare job for him and he spent a considerable time whinging to the hospice nurses about how hot and unpleasant it was in the loft etc etc which wasn’t really appropriate as he could see my DF on oxygen and clearly gravely ill. We were pretty happy when he left after about 4 hours.

Later that evening my mother went into the room and found that though the fan was now working better the lights over the basin didn’t work. This appeared to be related to the electrician’s work as they’d been fine that morning.  My mum called him to tell him and he said he’d come back and look the next day, but he didn’t turn up.  About 6 days later my dad died at home, it was a horrible time and deeply traumatic for my mother after 60 years of marriage.  It’s a whole other story but suffice to say we forgot that the electrician needed to come back.

He turned up out of the blue unannounced a few days after my father had died. He was around for about 15 minutes and established that the lights didn’t work because of a switch [he’d left off] wasn’t switched on. He asked where my father was because he wanted payment for £220 and my mother told him he’d died.  Two hours later my DM received an email invoice which was now £220 plus another £80 for his 15 minute visit to put right his error on a job he’d quoted £220, he never told her he’d charge for the visit. Then over the next few days he sent her two curt emails reminding her to pay the £300 she now owed.  She went ahead and paid as she was feeling quite harassed and was already upset.   Then two weeks after the lights started tripping as soon as she turned on the bathroom lights/fan, so she was left in darkness.  This kept happening and so she called the electrician to ask him to sort out yet another problem that had only started to happen since the initial job.  My DM is a very polite person and really not asking much but he was pretty snappy with her despite knowing that she was just widowed.  He came again today and was there for about 20 minutes talking bulbs out of fittings and putting them back and he’s said he can’t fix it without coming back in and he can’t come for a week and tonight she’s been sent another £80 bill with demands for immediate settlement.  He’s no doubt planning to charge her next time too which he says “will need two of us for half a day”.

I may be being unreasonable because I am feeling very protective of her, but I think if you give a fixed quote for a job based on having full access to assess the situation and having the opportunity to price accordingly you then do not charge more to “fault find” faults that have only been occurring since your first intervention? Though he’s implying they’re total separate issues.  He’s !!!!!! me off anyway and if I’d known about this she wouldn’t have paid him yet.  But I’m also getting the sense that he’s spotted a cash cow.  

AIBU about the further charging? My understanding is you can’t charge a call out without explicitly stating it beforehand and £80 seems high. Surely he should be remedying the new fan without extra charge anyway?  My DM is upset and feeling out of control and worried about money and doesn’t need this hassle.  What would you think was reasonable to say to the electrician?  Any electricians out there who can give me a sense of what is reasonable from their point of view? 

m0bov

The £80 was already paid, I would not have paid, given the highly upsetting time, on would question why a non essential item like a fan was being looked at.
I would just put it down to bad experience, if the sparky was grumpy and rude I would have asked him to leave there and then. Sounds like he did'nt want the job.

IvanOpinion

I don't think he he should have charged either of the £80 call outs since it sounds like it was his own incompetence that caused the problem.  My concern now is that the man is obviously incompetent and I would really be looking another electrician to have a look and check what has been done - including writing an independent report if it is found the job was bodged. 

YesItIsAPyramidscheme

Yep, I agree with you both, I wouldn’t have paid either.  Nor would my dad. My mum paid because she felt intimidated and not sure of her ground.   My dad decided he wanted the bathroom fan updated because it was working but not very efficiently.  Now we have a brand new fan that trips the lights!.  I wasn’t sure whether to tell him we don’t want him back at all or to hold him to account to correct the original job with something fit for purpose.  I don’t think he’s incompetent as such (as I know about his work for other people) but I just think he could tell my mum anything about why the fan doesn’t work and end up charging loads.  I think I’ll get a second opinion on the original job.

Lomast

Is he a member of niceic or similar if so they may be able to come out and inspect his work

pinkshoes

The only fee that is due is the £220 for fitting the new fan.

He CANNOT charge for subsequent call outs to fix what he did not do properly in the first place.

I would be writing to him demanding that he return the first additional £80 within 14 days, as this was to complete work that he did not carry out properly, and also state that no further money is due because it is still the same job that he is yet to finish to a satisfactory standard.

I would then remind him that could he please arrange a suitable time within the next 7 days to attend the property and finish the  first job for which he has already been paid.

photome

pinkshoes said:

The only fee that is due is the £220 for fitting the new fan.

He CANNOT charge for subsequent call outs to fix what he did not do properly in the first place.

I would be writing to him demanding that he return the first additional £80 within 14 days, as this was to complete work that he did not carry out properly, and also state that no further money is due because it is still the same job that he is yet to finish to a satisfactory standard.

I would then remind him that could he please arrange a suitable time within the next 7 days to attend the property and finish the  first job for which he has already been paid.

I agree, but doing all of the above is not likely to get the lights fixed.

sheramber

I wouldn't want him back to complete a job he botched in the first  place. It may end up being worse.
I would tell him I would not be   paying the £80 invoiced now as the £80 charge fro  'correcting'  something he omitted to do should not  have been made. His services are no longer required.

`I would then employ another electrician.

m0bov

sheramber said:

I wouldn't want him back to complete a job he botched in the first  place. It may end up being worse.
I would tell him I would not be   paying the £80 invoiced now as the £80 charge fro  'correcting'  something he omitted to do should not  have been made. His services are no longer required.

`I would then employ another electrician.

It’s already been paid.

sheramber

m0bov said:

sheramber said:

I wouldn't want him back to complete a job he botched in the first  place. It may end up being worse.
I would tell him I would not be   paying the £80 invoiced now as the £80 charge fro  'correcting'  something he omitted to do should not  have been made. His services are no longer required.

`I would then employ another electrician.

It’s already been paid.

 tonight she’s been sent another £80 bill with demands for immediate settlement.  
The OP hasn't said the second bill has been paid.

TuppenceWorth

Very sorry for your loss and your mother's loss OP.

I agree with others. Don't pay anything else. Also don't waste your energy on this incompetent chancer. 
It's not nice to have to pay someone else to put things right. But I would rather that, than have the original tradesman back. Best wishes.