Removals company trying to charge extra and refusing to deliver without payment

scc25

This is in England. Basically the movers are claiming that there was extra belongings and are demanding extra money for a second delivery. (They part-delivered half already but did not have a vehicle available for the second half so advised there would be a delay. They've used this delay as an opportunity to ask for more money.) This is despite them sending a guy round to do a survey as part of the quote process. Surely they are obligated to complete the delivery?

Firstly, can you pay "under duress" and claim it back either via chargeback or court? (Which is the easier option?) Secondly, would I be right in assuming there's a good chance that I'll win in small claims court given that they sent a guy round to look at everything? All they can claim is that a few individual items that were supposed to get sold (so were marked as excluded) came along as well (at the same time, a truck full of other stuff was taken away by a waste removal company so overall there's less than when he came round.) These individual extra items would not warrant an extra vehicle and any costs associated with that.

Thanks in advance!

Herzlos

You can certainly pay under duress and try to claim back later, which is likely cheaper than fighting it out with them and them charging a daily storage fee.

Was there genuinely more stuff on moving than when the quote was calculated? Did the stuff recorded in the quote seem reasonable?

WIAWSNB

"Paid under protest" - to be written across whatever method they are presenting the bill, before or as you pay. What form is this additional bill in? Paper invoice, WhatsApp message, email, Intuit-type Apps, whatever?

They should all have a method of recording your PUP remark, and you want that done either in advance of paying (If the demand is by WhatsApp message, for example, to pay by direct bank transfer, then reply first to say summat like, "I will be paying right away, but it'll be paid under protest." 

Priority is you get your stuff.

Based on what you have told us, you should have little problem MoneyClaim.orging that back from them. But do get your facts together, with as much evidence as possible - photographs of this second delivery, the initial quotes, whether it mentioned two trips, and an exact record of the 'additional stuff' you didn't sell, and also of the stuff that was dumped before removals (assuming they had originally been expecting to shift that too?)

If your new home insurance includes Legal Protection - and surely it does - then it'll be even easier.