Contractor billed full amount after tenant didn't respond.

teaselMay

Sounds as though the plumber should've turned back and done the job with that further info, maybe charging for an extra half hour.

Baldytyke88

Sokratees9 said:
I had a plumbing company pencilled in to flush the radiators for an apartment I own.  The tenant and the company had agreed the time to do the job (basically it's an all day job, starting at 9am).

A full day to flush the radiators, and a service I assume. I have never had it done, but does it really take a full day?

ThisIsWeird

Sokratees9 said:

To clarify the situation a bit further, I started the conversation with the plumbing company about the flush, as it had been recommended during the last service of the gas boiler.

To avoid trying to get a person in the middle (me) trying to co-ordinate between two others, I asked the tenant if I could pass on his details to the plumbing company and they could arrange it for a time that suited him.  I believe the tenant works from home a lot, so he didn't seem to mind.

The tenant said he was there, but that he got no phone calls to let the engineer in when he arrived.  The plumbing company sent a WhatsApp screenshot of that fact that they called him a couple of times between 9:00 and 9:30 and sent him a message.

My tenant did call them back at 9:37, which seems to indicate he noticed at a certain point that he had missed the calls.  They refused to do that job at that point.  I asked him about the intercom system and he said it is not working, something I am not aware of, and I'm following up with building management to find out if that is the case.  I'll be visiting the property next week to check.

Anyway, thanks for the replies.  This has been a bit of a pain, and I hope I can come to some sort of compromise with the plumbing company.

It sounds like an unfortunate combination of circumstances; tenant missing the calls (for whatever reason, but assume honest mistake), and door bell not working (D'oh!). Bladdy annoying.
But... the plumber is charging full whack for missing a whole day based on this? That's a Mickey-take, tho' you may struggle to argue it.
It's a mick-take 'cos the job almost certainly wouldn't take a 'whole day', or close. Seriously - they reckon it's a 9 to, what, 5 task? Ma botty. Not even 9-4, unlikely or even 9-3. So, whatever nice early time they were actually hoping to end their day, they'd just have to extend it by that 40 minutes - and still finish before what most folk consider is a true 'end' of a 'full day'.
So, what actually happened, I wonder?! Were they looking forward to a nice mid-afa' finish, and that was scuppered, so they refused to return in a fit of pique?! Or, did they contact another customer as they departed, so weren't going to change their new plans when the tenant finally got in touch? (Which means, of course, that they didn't lose a day's work...)
I'm going to speculate that you have a somewhat tetchy plumber, and many others would have just sighed but then accommodated you for such an unintended mistake.
What to do is largely up to you. Obviously try and appeal to their fairer nature and see if they'll give you a reduced rate next time, but if that fails your choice is to just pay up and rebook them, or put your argument as outlined above (they couldn't possibly have lost a full day), and offer them a fair sum for the loss of, say, a couple of hours as 'full and final' payment for a missed appointment. I think they'd struggle to claim more against you, but if course you'll never have them again...