Contractor full advance before materials

waitpatiently

We’ve paid 25% deposit to secure slot. The Company doing our Bathroom want the remaining 75% before materials delivery (!).

I’ve suggested 50% remainder before, then 50% after completion and they said no. They already have the deposit.

We still want to use them; what’s a good way to insist we can’t pay the full lot upfront? Stressing  

housebuyer143

Did you get an invoice or a quote stating payment terms? What was discussed about payment before you paid the deposit? Did you pay on credit card?

Why do they need all the money for materials, because 25% should cover those? I would not pay 100% before the works are done. 

FreeBear

And how did you pay ?

Paying even just £100 on credit card gives you a bunch of additional legal protections (as long as it isn't done via a third party like PayPal).

Anthony147

Based on your post i fear for the work they are going to do being done well - Its too late but how did you not discuss the payment schedule before you paid anything (btw 25% to reserve a slot is in my opinion ridiculous, whereas 25% with materials delivered would be reasonable - more than 10% on a 10k job to reserve is egregious).

Unfortunately as things stand you don’t have a leg to stand on, have no leverage and are taking all the risk as whether the job is good, bad, indifferent, not completed or no materials supplied - they will have been paid.

On your actual question - You’ll need to speak with them but they hold all the cards so try reasonableness, their response will be telling.

To be quite blunt - Sounds incredibly dodgy, firing red flags and disrespectful to customer risk parity (you have proved good faith with 25% for nothing to date) and I simply wouldn’t deal with anyone who considered such an arrangement standard. I hope it works out well for you.

Albermarle

When we had our bathroom done. Apart from buying some ( not all) of the materials ourselves, we paid nothing until the job was done.
I would have been OK to pay say 20% after they actually arrived and started work, but this was not requested,

waitpatiently

Well I definitely feel stupid. 

So we spoke to the designer over the telephone (big outfit) and pressed again. They’ve asked us to email our concerns. 

Only saw quote after we paid via credit card.
the payment term was very high level at the bottom of the order.

A friend I’ve spoken to says Magnet and Wren also ask for full payment upfront as he used to work there. But I’d never heard of this before today. I also understood from him that the deposit is also recoverable, which I should check.

I think we’ll email and call again tomorrow to ask our request to be heard. I am so stressed out right now.

waitpatiently

They are a large independent and have been going for years. I don’t think they will do a poor job but it’s more the principle of not handing all the money over before seeing a thing is troubling.

housebuyer143

waitpatiently said:

Well I definitely feel stupid. 

So we spoke to the designer over the telephone (big outfit) and pressed again. They’ve asked us to email our concerns. 

Only saw quote after we paid via credit card.
the payment term was very high level at the bottom of the order.

A friend I’ve spoken to says Magnet and Wren also ask for full payment upfront as he used to work there. But I’d never heard of this before today. I also understood from him that the deposit is also recoverable, which I should check.

I think we’ll email and call again tomorrow to ask our request to be heard. I am so stressed out right now.

You probably have less to worry about if it's a big outfit and you paid some on credit card, so you have s75 protection should they run away or do a bad job, so that's really good!! 

waitpatiently

It’s been escalated to the MD which probably means I don’t stand a chance now! He’s not in today so it’ll be Monday… watch this space.

Albermarle

waitpatiently said:

It’s been escalated to the MD which probably means I don’t stand a chance now! He’s not in today so it’ll be Monday… watch this space.

In my business experience with suppliers etc the Boss tended to be more conciliatory as they had no one to justify their decision to. 

waitpatiently

Big company, but had a call from MD. Had to stew on it all weekend as I hate this kind of conversation! But pleased I did. I avoided being confrontational and it was an amicable conversation.

Pleasant and tried to be reassuring of workmanship and customer satisfaction. After I pushed away a lot of sales chatter and performance data, I only managed a 5% payment to be kept until completion, but seems they’ve changed payment terms in recent years due to people not paying. Apparently they don’t get asked this question a lot despite doing 300+ private projects last year(!). I understand Magnet and Wren do it this way too, and it’s not ideal, but feel safe enough to go with these guys. 

Poor that the deposit terms weren’t clear and equally not accurate to have been given an outdated leaflet we received about the installation process which indicates there is a payment phase at completion. I’ll try to remember to provide an update during and after the build.