Incorrectly charged now threatened with small claim courts

bhavesh27

We detected damp walls and tiles coming off the wall. Plus the floor under the bath was soaking wet. Then decided to hire a leak detection company. I spoke to them on the phone and the customer service agent said they charge £125 + vat to detect leak and fix it.
I was asked to provide them my email address on the phone so they can send job confirmation email.
I however never received this email.
The engineer came out and did his testings and found no leak. They did gas penetration testing still could not find the leak and advised to hire drainage detection engineer. They spent 8 hours at the property.
I had a 2nd call with the company and at that time I was shocked when the agent said it was £125+vat hourly rate. I also learned then that they noted incorrect email address of mine in the first place hence I did not get their email with job confirmation. They sent me an invoice of £1200 which I am refusing to pay on two points.

1. I did not get written job quotation with their T&C.
2. I hired another professional leak detection company who found the leak within 90mins of being in the property and fixed it. It was very evident the leak was under the bath were the floor was shocking wet. This area was tested by the first leak detection company as well.

Why should I pay these guys £1200 for not doing the job they were hired for and abusing their position. 
They say their call is recorded and they claim to have said me it was hourly rate job. But I am very sure I did not hear this as hourly rate job. If I had written quotation of the job by email I would have never gone ahead with their services as most leak detection company operates in fixed price jobs.

I want to understand how strong is my case legally and should I carry on fighting for my consumer rights.

steampowered

They say that they have recorded the call of you agreeing to the hourly rate.

That's easy then: ask them to provide the recording.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Well if you have proof another company found and fixed the leak in 90 minutes I can't see they are going to get far with trying to charge you for 8 hours and not finding a leak. 

m0bov

A reasonable and competent professional should have done the job in a couple of hours. I'd not pay a penny as they failed to complete the job. They also need to send T and C in a durable form.

bhavesh27

steampowered said:

They say that they have recorded the call of you agreeing to the hourly rate.

That's easy then: ask them to provide the recording.

Does it matter if they have recorded verbal communication? Just like I heard them saying or understood it was fixed rate job, their colleague noted wrong email address which I have them correctly in the same call. What I mean to say is written quotation should have been sent with cancellation policy. They say in their recorded call I agreed to hourly rate. Whereas I am disputing as I did not hear that even though it was said.

Sandtree

But you allowed them to get on with the job knowing you still didnt have the T&Cs. Or are you saying that not only did you think you heard it was fixed price but that it was also only payable if successful? I somewhat struggle to see how you think you owe them nothing and clearly were you to pay what you thought that they were meant to be charging 8 hours is almost certainly going to be a loss for them.

steampowered

You say that you thought it was a £125 + VAT fixed price job.

They say that you agreed to an hourly rate of £125 + VAT per hour.

You can't both be right. If they are insisting that you agreed to an hourly rate and they say they have a recording, ask them to prove it.

In addition, it is possible that regardless of what was discussed on the phone that the contract is not enforceable under The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 due to failure to provide you with the required information.

mattyprice4004

bhavesh27 said:

steampowered said:

They say that they have recorded the call of you agreeing to the hourly rate.

That's easy then: ask them to provide the recording.

Does it matter if they have recorded verbal communication? Just like I heard them saying or understood it was fixed rate job, their colleague noted wrong email address which I have them correctly in the same call. What I mean to say is written quotation should have been sent with cancellation policy. They say in their recorded call I agreed to hourly rate. Whereas I am disputing as I did not hear that even though it was said.

How is the part highlighted in bold their fault? What you choose to listen to isn't their problem. 
I could just claim not to hear all sorts in recorded calls if so. 
What matters is what was said, not what you heard. What was said? 

pinkshoes

steampowered said:

You say that you thought it was a £125 + VAT fixed price job.

They say that you agreed to an hourly rate of £125 + VAT per hour.

You can't both be right. If they are insisting that you agreed to an hourly rate and they say they have a recording, ask them to prove it.

In addition, it is possible that regardless of what was discussed on the phone that the contract is not enforceable under The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 due to failure to provide you with the required information.

True... but who in their right mind would allow a company to work for 8 hours to find a leak if they knew it was an hourly rate rather than a fixed job?????

Let alone a company who failed to find a leak that was so obvious and causing so much damage. 

I would get a written report report from the other company stating how obvious the leak was and if you get taken to court then this could be suitable evidence why you didn’t pay. 

bhavesh27

Sandtree said:

But you allowed them to get on with the job knowing you still didnt have the T&Cs. Or are you saying that not only did you think you heard it was fixed price but that it was also only payable if successful? I somewhat struggle to see how you think you owe them nothing and clearly were you to pay what you thought that they were meant to be charging 8 hours is almost certainly going to be a loss for them.

Based on what I heard on the phone call it was understood as fixed rate job. I may have heard incorrectly. I have requested call records from them. I think I do not owe them anything because  1. I was not receive a written quotation. 2. They did not find an obvious leak which another professional company found it.
But now they are saying the job was hourly rated and they still charge if they do not find the leak. This was not mentioned to me on the phone conversation. They did not talk about their T&C on the phone either. I feel they abused their position of being at the place for 8 hours for nothing. 

bhavesh27

steampowered said:

You say that you thought it was a £125 + VAT fixed price job.

They say that you agreed to an hourly rate of £125 + VAT per hour.

You can't both be right. If they are insisting that you agreed to an hourly rate and they say they have a recording, ask them to prove it.

In addition, it is possible that regardless of what was discussed on the phone that the contract is not enforceable under The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 due to failure to provide you with the required information.

If they provide me recordings and say if I have heard incorrectly, does that still mean I have to honor the invoice even though they did not do the job what they were hired for? We hired them to detect the leak but they did not find any leak whereas I have proof in the form of report from another professional leak detection company finding an obvious leak in the property in the area which was tested by these guys.