Invoice Dispute With Supplier

NobbyNufc1

Hi,

We recently instructed a supplier to carry out a job on our behalf.  It was a collection of redundant fuel which subject to the quality of the load, we may have got a rebate.  We were quoted a transport charge, a disposal rate and then the potential rebates that may wing its way to us.

Unfortunately, the tank was empty so nothing could be collected.  

We charged our customer a wasted journey as we put this caveat in our terms.  I was prepared for the same from our supplier (of the transport costs) however they have sent us an invoice for 4 times the transport costs by virtue of a wasted journey.  I am contesting this as quite honestly a ridiculous charge.

They say this is to cover their costs as they used another company to carry out the job and are therefore being charged by their supplier!!

There was no mention of a wasted journey charge on the quotation, if it was mentioned it was going to be that high then we would have added a caveat for our customer to cover this.  

They have drawn my attention to the following clause:

"The schedule of work to be carried out has been detailed as accurately as possible. However, should the waste differ from the survey, we reserve the right to re-negotiate the quotation or scope of work agreed."

There has been no negotiation, the person we were dealing with said he would "see what he could do" regarding the charges, but we heard nothing until the invoice arrived.  The waste doesnt differ from that stated, as there was none collected

My gripe is that there was no mention of any wasted journey charges and certainly not 4 times that transport charge.

Just looking for some input before I prepare for legal action

Thank you

Bookworm105

you have a b2b dispute
the solution to those is professional legal advice based on the documented contracts and/or T&C contained in orders issued and received. Quotes may or may not have been formally accepted ....

DullGreyGuy

T&Cs are there to protect both businesses and you should get master service agreement in place with your subcontractors, you can then raise individual SoWs under the MSA such that the master terms apply unless explicitly stated otherwise in the SoW. 

You can then cover off things like if they can subcontract or not as well as things like no show (either side) etc. 

Personally, would have said you should always be very cautious on going forward with a contract which effectively states that we agree to agree for anything that has a moderate chance of ever occurring (such as a variance of a job) without at least some very strong guard rails. 

That all being said, you agreed that you would negotiate if the job changes. It did change, you've had their opening gambit in the form of the invoice, now time to go back and try to renegotiate. 

MobileSaver

DullGreyGuy said:

That all being said, you agreed that you would negotiate if the job changes. It did change, you've had their opening gambit in the form of the invoice, now time to go back and try to renegotiate. 

^ This. The beauty being that you have the upper hand! 

The job has already been done so the supplier has no leverage; you simply keep negotiating (i.e. discussing) and reiterating that the only price you will agree to is the original price. If the supplier is not happy with the price you are prepared to pay then they can always cancel the contract...

If the clause you quoted is the only one they are relying on then I can't see any court in the land finding in their favour.