Call out charge (without telling me)

GrubbyGirl_2

Make sure you screenshot any posts you made on Nextdoor just to prove he never said anything about a call out charge, just in case he deletes them

mcplumb

Top my mind a quote would be "Hello, I'm thinking of replacing my XYZ can you come and have a look"

This sound like "My heating/boiler isn't working properly can you come and have a look" - not a visit for a quotation. It sound like they diagnosed the problem and provided a cost there and then. You chose not to accept their offer, so surely something is due.

The £260 sounds a little steep. If you arrange a revisit is the initial visit fee waived ? 

Poor communication by the plumber, although most customers would assume a charge for the visit - I can't see this being a "free quotation" situation  

ThisIsWeird

mcplumb said:

Top my mind a quote would be "Hello, I'm thinking of replacing my XYZ can you come and have a look"
This sound like "My heating/boiler isn't working properly can you come and have a look" - not a visit for a quotation. It sound like they diagnosed the problem and provided a cost there and then. You chose not to accept their offer, so surely something is due.
The £260 sounds a little steep. If you arrange a revisit is the initial visit fee waived ?
Poor communication by the plumber, although most customers would assume a charge for the visit - I can't see this being a "free quotation" situation  

I agree with that, McPlumb.

It's all a bit woolly, and I accept what the OP says that he believed there would be no charge if he didn't proceed. But this plumber did provide a service, and he probably honestly believed he should be able to charge for this too, although usually incorporating it into the final quote. So, I feel the OP owes him for this.

On a similar note, what does, "No call-out charges" mean?! If this plumber had had that headline instead, came out, diagnosed the fault, provided a quote, and GazzHam said, 'Non', what would happen then?

I'm sooo confused... :-(

Section62

saajan_12 said:

...

CliveOfIndia said:

Bear in mind, he's taken time out of his day to come round, and that could easily be an hour or more in total by the time he's travelled to your house and back to base again.  So there's an argument to say he's just charging for his time.

Just responding to the above points, I know there's other bits to your post that do agree with me:
If you walk into a shop, get a bunch of help from an assistant but ultimately don't buy anything, yes they spent time, but no they don't get to charge for it. 

CilveOfIndia was responding to the OP's comment that they feel "like £120.00 for 5 minutes (literally it could be even less than this! is quite steep?)"

Without getting into whether the trader can charge the OP, it is a reasonable comment that the £120 would represent more work/cost than the 5 minutes the trader was present at the OP's address.  As a callout to do a job it wouldn't be that steep.

With the shop analogy it would be a bit like complaining you'd purchased something then found out the shopkeeper had a (say) 50% markup and that was "steep" because it only took them 30 seconds of the shopkeeper's time to ring up the sale and take the payment.  In fairness all the other costs associated with doing business need to be taken into account, selecting just one aspect and ignoring everything else isn't fair.

mcplumb

@GazzHam1966

Did you have the work completed by another contractor? 

What are the details of the £290 plus vat quote?

GazzHam1966

I have offered £50 to the plumber so let's see what they say. Thank you all!

GazzHam1966

No reply so far so I am expecting the bailiffs!

ThisIsWeird

Did you 'offer', or did you send/pay/transfer?

FreeBear

GazzHam1966 said:

No reply so far so I am expecting the bailiffs!

It would need to go to court first. And if you lost, there would be ample opportunity to settle long before bailiffs got involved.