Chargeback success but merchant not happy

Rav68

We had a dispute with a builder, they didn’t complete all the work and the work that was done was done to a very poor standard. We instigated a chargeback through Amex. After submitting evidence Amex have ruled in our favour and credited  our account for the disputed amount. The builder is unhappy with the ruling and is now threatening to take us to court. We wanted to know what we should do if anything as Amex have ruled in our favour

Aylesbury_Duck

Sit back and await the builder's next move.  If he's going to take you to court, he needs to notify you first.  He may be bluffing.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Rav68 said:

We had a dispute with a builder, they didn’t complete all the work and the work that was done was done to a very poor standard. We instigated a chargeback through Amex. After submitting evidence Amex have ruled in our favour and credited  our account for the disputed amount. The builder is unhappy with the ruling and is now threatening to take us to court. We wanted to know what we should do if anything as Amex have ruled in our favour

Where there is an issue with the service you eventually have the right to a price reduction. 

You should, to the best of your ability, calculate the cost of the work not completed, calculate the cost of correcting the work that was done to a poor standard and take that from the original full price. The difference belongs to the builder so if any amount is due you should pay such to ensure you are acting reasonably. 

If after this the builder wises to go to court the court will review the information from both sides and decide the outcome, the more documentation you have to show what wasn't complete/done correctly the better, for correcting poor work ideally a couple of quotes to show the figures are reasonable. 

We can't really comment on the details as there aren't any in the post If you wanted to say what the job was, how much it should have cost and show us what the problems are I'm sure there will be a few opinions on where the matter lies, but ultimately it's all opinion and the only one that matters is that of a court. 

DullGreyGuy

Rav68 said:
The builder is unhappy with the ruling and is now threatening to take us to court. We wanted to know what we should do if anything as Amex have ruled in our favour

AmEx acts as judge jury and executioner but is not empowered by law to make an ultimate ruling. All the chargeback really does is move it from you having to sue the builder to the builder having to sue you. When you deal with big firms then it's rarely economical for them to sue customers over a £50 item but the smaller the company and the bigger the monies involved the more likely litigation will follow.

What was the original quote? How much did you originally pay? How much was the chargeback for?

Assuming you've recovered all the monies paid to date its really up to you if you either want to come to a negotiated settlement with the builder or sit back and see if they take you to court or not. Gathering evidence that all of their work was useless, none of the materials are usable etc would make sense if you reclaimed all the monies. Evidence would be in the form of a report generally rather than just photos 

Rav68

DullGreyGuy said:

Rav68 said:
The builder is unhappy with the ruling and is now threatening to take us to court. We wanted to know what we should do if anything as Amex have ruled in our favour

AmEx acts as judge jury and executioner but is not empowered by law to make an ultimate ruling. All the chargeback really does is move it from you having to sue the builder to the builder having to sue you. When you deal with big firms then it's rarely economical for them to sue customers over a £50 item but the smaller the company and the bigger the monies involved the more likely litigation will follow.

What was the original quote? How much did you originally pay? How much was the chargeback for?

Assuming you've recovered all the monies paid to date its really up to you if you either want to come to a negotiated settlement with the builder or sit back and see if they take you to court or not. Gathering evidence that all of their work was useless, none of the materials are usable etc would make sense if you reclaimed all the monies. Evidence would be in the form of a report generally rather than just photos 

Thank you so much for you reply. 

The total we paid the builder was 32K 
we have claimed back £20K 
we feel they have completed about £12K worth of work. So I’m our opinion the 20K is justified. 

We did send all our evidence photos and text message exchanges to Amex. Would we need to get an independent report done? 

Thanks for your help 

sheramber

we feel they have completed about £12K worth of work

What do you base that on?

Have you had an estimate of how much os required to rectify and complete the work?

Rav68

Thank you for your reply, we have haven’t had an independent builder go in to do an estimate yet to verify the amount. Should we get this done now before it gets to the next stage? The builder has sent a text today saying he will refer it to a debt collector

DullGreyGuy

Rav68 said:

Thank you for your reply, we have haven’t had an independent builder go in to do an estimate yet to verify the amount. Should we get this done now before it gets to the next stage? The builder has sent a text today saying he will refer it to a debt collector

Its really up to you if you want to sit back and call their bluff... many threaten court and few proceed, or if you want to get your ducks in a row and ready in case he does carry through with their threats. Naturally any cost for getting a report or such would be yours to carry unless it goes to court. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Rav68 said:

Thank you for your reply, we have haven’t had an independent builder go in to do an estimate yet to verify the amount. Should we get this done now before it gets to the next stage? The builder has sent a text today saying he will refer it to a debt collector

20k is a lot of money OP. 

Getting everything you need in place in case the builder takes you to court would be prudent, if the builder does go to court it would be necessary to defend your position. 

What was the builder doing for £32k?

DullGreyGuy

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Rav68 said:

Thank you for your reply, we have haven’t had an independent builder go in to do an estimate yet to verify the amount. Should we get this done now before it gets to the next stage? The builder has sent a text today saying he will refer it to a debt collector

20k is a lot of money OP. 

It is also above the Small Track limit and so likely to end in Fast Track which makes court more of a gamble as legal fees start being admissible 

Rav68

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Rav68 said:

Thank you for your reply, we have haven’t had an independent builder go in to do an estimate yet to verify the amount. Should we get this done now before it gets to the next stage? The builder has sent a text today saying he will refer it to a debt collector

20k is a lot of money OP. 

Getting everything you need in place in case the builder takes you to court would be prudent, if the builder does go to court it would be necessary to defend your position. 

What was the builder doing for £32k?

They were doing a full refurb including a full damp course downstairs