Advice on dealing with tradesman (aircon)

benson1980

Risteard said:

benson1980 said:

FFHillbilly said:

I think it's too late for the OP but lessons can be learnt from this. mainly, if you are so bothered about the precise positioning of equipment then you ought to go to the trouble of providing detailed plans and drawings before the work starts. 

they asked for it to be centred. Since when does that need a detailed drawing?

lesson learnt for the tradesperson as they are £400 down.

The tradesmen won't be down the money though, nor should the company be. They literally sought approval beforehand.

I really don’t think it matters. The verbal contract specified that the unit was to be centred. It is 8 inches off centre so a fair way off. When the customer was asked to check the position, he/she was reasonably entitled to believe that they followed this basic instruction in my opinion without getting a tape measure out to micro manage and check their work. They are the skilled installation specialists after all. Certainly the installer did not bring it to their attention that they installed it off centre when they were asked to check. 

can you provide any case law examples to back your assertion up? Genuinely interested. I think the OP has a good case here that the job wasn’t completed with reasonable care and skill as per the verbal contract. I cannot see a court agreeing that detailed drawings should have been provided under these circumstances hence why I believe that a balance of probabilities case will find in favour of the OP and whilst there may be debate regarding the amount withheld, £400 actually appears to be a reasonable amount for day rate plus materials for making good. There is no counter argument made by the company that this amount is excessive as such. They simply want payment in full. 

andre_xs

I'm on the OP's side here: The instruction was "central unit" and not central drilling hole. That's one reason why I ask craftsmen to do the work, so that I can trust them they know what to do and get the measures right. That they know that if I want a unit centrally attached and the cables come out off-centre, that the hole needs to be off-centre as well.

And to be honest, I find the question "is it here ok" not fair to the customer, in particular if they asked it to be centre. I would also assume that they centred it (or hold it up only roughly and will centre it when finally fixing it).

I would feel patronizing to the builders if I would say "Wait, hold it up for another 5 min, I'll get my tape measure". Would be a lovely picture seeing an 75 year old granny doing that...

And BTW, in my work context, where we communicate a lot with people who's gender we don't know, it is absolutely standard to use "they" as gender neutral pronoun. This is not woke, this has been done for ages. And it's just easier to write and smoother to read than he/she or she/he or s/he. For example. "The client asked for the information, and we have provided it to them." (if  the client is a single person).