Plumber Charging Missed Call Out Fee Even Though I Was In The House?

HillStreetBlues

Appliance_engineer said:

HillStreetBlues said:

Appliance_engineer said:

In these cases where the occupant is at fault, they often try to blame the tradesperson just because they see themselves as hard done by.

In this case, the occupant failed to hear the knocking on the door, failed to answer the phone when the number was given to the tradesperson for that very purpose; he didn't need to call that number but he did due diligence and did.

The plumber did all that he could to make his presence known, and he endured costs in both time and money in attending, and those costs need to be met by the householder.

It's laughable that the OP says that they feel they should claim for having taken a day off work. Just laughable. Really. Some people just want to blame anybody but themselves for their own inadequacies.

You are the only person responsible for this. Pay the man and stop trying to deflect the blame.

Disagree, there was a doorbell that wasn't used.
Just knocking on the window or door is just stupidly if there is a doorbell visible.
It's so simply, ring doorbell first,  then wait a bit then follow with a knock if unanswered, it's not rocket science.

I'd say 50% of doorbells I ring every day don't work. Knocking on the door is a definite sound and should be heard by somebody waiting for a delivery or visit. After all, the OP said that it was a 'small house'.

Pressing a doorbell which may be dead of batteries or disconnected at the other end isn't a guarantee that the person in the house would hear it so a knock on the door is always going to be the best bet. He may well have pressed the bell button in any case, before then knocking, then telephoning.

What more was the bloke expected to do? Stand on top of his van on the drive waving semaphore flags?

I emboldened "just" so it stood out, clearly not enough.
Aren't tradesmen capable of doing both? or is it that an extra charge?

eskbanker

Appliance_engineer said:

Yes, and I'm responding to his denial.

If you want to address OP then do so by quoting his/her post directly, not someone else's, but in any case there was no need to respond to something said right at the start of the thread just because you'd missed it when speculating about what might have happened....

Aylesbury_Duck

Why would any tradesman respond to a call, drive to the premises and not want to undertake the job?  Knocking on the door and phoning is a reasonable effort in my opinion.  If he had rung the bell and got no answer, would the complaint have been that he didn't climb over the gate and try the back door?  Or go around knocking on all the windows?

Unless OP left specific instructions to ring the doorbell, I don't think they've got grounds to refuse to pay.  I doubt the plumber will chase it, but that's not really the point.

PHK

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Why would any tradesman respond to a call, drive to the premises and not want to undertake the job?  Knocking on the door and phoning is a reasonable effort in my opinion.  If he had rung the bell and got no answer, would the complaint have been that he didn't climb over the gate and try the back door?  Or go around knocking on all the windows?

Unless OP left specific instructions to ring the doorbell, I don't think they've got grounds to refuse to pay.  I doubt the plumber will chase it, but that's not really the point.

I agree, as I've said the OPs case is weak. The fixation on not ringing the doorbell is absurd. As is the suggestion that the plumber would travel to them, be there long enough to knock and phone but  didn't want the job so purposely avoided the OP. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

The question is how was the contract formed (I assume at a distance) and whether the trader provided the usual required information, if not the OP isn’t bound by the contract so it’s academic what happened. 

jefaz07

When I was on the tools as an emergency gas engineer were weren’t allowed to use doorbells and knocking on a door/window was the only way. When you booked did you say ‘use doorbell?’ If that’s the means you wanted to be alerted. 

You need to pay up, your name will be around the merchants already most likely and if you do get a plumber to attend you may get a c***t tax where you’ll be paying a lot more for the same job. 

RefluentBeans

In reality - the worker won’t do the work for you. As other traders have said - a one strike policy exists for a lot of these traders, and wasting their time is a good way to get them to refuse to do the work for you. 

You probably should (morally and potentially contractually) pay for the time wasted, but if you don’t it’s unlikely that you’ll end up in front of a court. If you do pay and apologise then the trader may come back to your house. If you don’t pay, the trader will almost certainly not come back. Especially if you go down the tact of ‘well it’s your fault for not ringing the door bell’. 

Choose another trader and make the judgement call if you will pay the other trader. 

outtatune

jefaz07 said:

When I was on the tools as an emergency gas engineer were weren’t allowed to use doorbells and knocking on a door/window was the only way.

Off topic, but is that because of the possibility of igniting a gas leak?

jefaz07

outtatune said:

jefaz07 said:

When I was on the tools as an emergency gas engineer were weren’t allowed to use doorbells and knocking on a door/window was the only way.

Off topic, but is that because of the possibility of igniting a gas leak?

Yeah, that’s right. Point I was trying to make which I agree is probably lost is that knocking on a door works. You don’t HAVE to use a doorbell. 

photome

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

The question is how was the contract formed (I assume at a distance) and whether the trader provided the usual required information, if not the OP isn’t bound by the contract so it’s academic what happened. 

That maybe so but this is the real world. The OP contacted the trader and asked him to do the job, the trader did his  bit ,but the OP didn’t

what happened to common sense