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Do not, under any circumstances, damage their property. :hand: This includes postcrete in the toby, quick setting down the pan or anything to do with expanding foam! :tounge_smile:

The owner, admin and mods do not condone this behaviour and is specifically not recommended by UKPF. :devilish:

Take the legal route, always. :rofl:

They make such a difference...
 
To dispute your invoice she would have to produce expert witness, another plumber, to say your charge was excessive. In London £120 seems reasonable for call out alone.
 
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I never know where the law actually lies with these little jobs..
I got caught out early in the year verbal telephone agreement done the job and finished and she decided to pay what she felt like it which was less than verbal agreement.

It would be your version vs hers without some type of written agreement.

Law is simple on small or larger work, - unless there is any claim of bad workmanship or damage. If a customer says the work is too expensive or cost is not what they agreed to, then they need proof or they must pay full amount. As long as charges were reasonable and fair. That would probably mean £60 an hour perhaps reasonable, but not perhaps £200 per hour for a plumber.
 
If you send a nice letter headed letter from a local law firm or send her a email saying you sending the court papers off in x amount of days she might give in to save her self the hassle
 
Two hours chargeable for trying to clear a toilet and then having to remove the loo and clear blockage + refitting, sounds very within reasonable time and actually fast. So £60 per hour she was advised is fair. She is totally out of order and I suggest you email her with a carefully worded letter informing her of her demands and that she agreed to £60 per hour.
Frankly, I think the law allows you to charge that cost unless she had been given a quote from you for much less

Exactly, I was fast and it wasn't straight forward. Read many of the post and it's like I agree with them all - concrete down drain(would never do that btw) legal proceedings etc.

i know what will happen though, I'm angry now but will just write it off as a loss as time goes by. I am pursuing it by not losing my temper, emailing , phoning and texting her and being polite and professional. I think in these circumstances if you go to their level it makes it a lot easier for them to justify their actions.

Also leaving bad reviews is a 2-way street. She can start doing the same to me and judging by her character she will prob put a lot of effort into this!

i know what some guys are saying about if I let her get away with it she'll do it again more easily but these people usually alienate themselves and in the end will only have the big firms to try and mess about.

So I have demanded my money and stated my case to her and now she says she's on holiday and will talk to me when she gets back...lol

so I have no option but to go there today to demand payment. I'll let you guys know what happens
 
So I have demanded my money and stated my case to her and now she says she's on holiday and will talk to me when she gets back...lol

so I have no option but to go there today to demand payment. I'll let you guys know what happens

I think this is a mistake.

A) How will you demand money from her if she's on holiday? B) it weakens your position if she can claim that she or her staff felt threatened by you turning up making demands with menaces. You may not be menacing but she could claim to have felt threatened.

And if she refuses point blank? Then what? Will you smash the place up? Hit her? Take her possessions? No. You'll walk out of there humiliated because your bluff will have been called in front of witnesses (assuming you're going to the shop).

Send her a final demand, by recorded letter, giving her X number of days to pay, otherwise you will start small claims proceedings, which can include interest, admin fees, court fees etc. Do it right and you will win. Start playing outside the legal system and you won't. Simple.
 
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I think this is a mistake.

A) How will you demand money from her if she's on holiday? B) it weakens your position if she can claim that she or her staff felt threatened by you turning up making demands with menaces. You may not be menacing but she could claim to have felt threatened.

And if she refuses point blank? Then what? Will you smash the place up? Hit her? Take her possessions? No. You'll walk out of there humiliated because your bluff will have been called in front of witnesses (assuming you're going to the shop).

Send her a final demand, by recorded letter, giving her X number of days to pay, otherwise you will start small claims proceedings, which can include interest, admin fees, court fees etc. Do it right and you will win. Start playing outside the legal system and you won't. Simple.

Very sound advice, please take it !!!
 
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What I would do is leave it 21 days after the job finished and post a reminder saying they have 7 days to repay the debt. Also state that (as been said) it is a business to business debt and you have the right to add additional charges to the final invoice.

After you have given them 7 days send out a revised bill and keep doing it until it gets paid.

Send everything by recorded delivery.
 
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That's rich: She is probably charging £80 + per hour on my misses hair cut; and don't have to go anywhere near unpleasant bum waste.
 
For her to advise her clients to avoid you is slanderous if you have done nothing wrong - ie :- honest & good workmanship and reasonable agreed hourly rate.
You should advise her of that in writing, stating that it will damage your good reputation and cause you great loss of money and you will sue her for this.
She stated after the job was done that she only had a £80 budget for the job. As you told her at start that you have a £60 hourly rate, that means she reckoned the time would be 80 minutes maximum. Ask her how she came to the imaginary time scale, especially considering her lack of knowledge of plumbing.
 
For her to advise her clients to avoid you is slanderous if you have done nothing wrong - ie :- honest & good workmanship and reasonable agreed hourly rate.
You should advise her of that in writing, stating that it will damage your good reputation and cause you great loss of money and you will sue her for this.
She stated after the job was done that she only had a £80 budget for the job. As you told her at start that you have a £60 hourly rate, that means she reckoned the time would be 80 minutes maximum. Ask her how she came to the imaginary time scale, especially considering her lack of knowledge of plumbing.
 
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I had something similar. Went to an appointment, nobody in, but spoke to two blokes removing an emergency generator. The place was off the beat and track and would only ge there if you were going there sort of thing. Anyway, bloke phones a couple of days later, its disgusting that you didnt turn up, etc , etc. Said I was there, but nobody home, spoke to the blokes removing the emergency generator etc. He told me that he would tell everybody that I was useless and didnt turn up as planned. Touch of red mist hit me, said I would rip his head off and crap down his neck and actually went down there but he wouldnt open the door. Two days later I had plod on the phone about my threatening behaviour. Apparently the bloke had left all the detail out about the conversation with regard to the bad mouthing. Plod asked me to be more diplomatic in future and were going back to give him a bulling.

Upshot is, keep it firm, keep it, clean and keep it legal. But chase it down.
 
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I had something similar. Went to an appointment, nobody in, but spoke to two blokes removing an emergency generator. The place was off the beat and track and would only ge there if you were going there sort of thing. Anyway, bloke phones a couple of days later, its disgusting that you didnt turn up, etc , etc. Said I was there, but nobody home, spoke to the blokes removing the emergency generator etc. He told me that he would tell everybody that I was useless and didnt turn up as planned. Touch of red mist hit me, said I would rip his head off and crap down his neck and actually went down there but he wouldnt open the door. Two days later I had plod on the phone about my threatening behaviour. Apparently the bloke had left all the detail out about the conversation with regard to the bad mouthing. Plod asked me to be more diplomatic in future and were going back to give him a bulling.

Upshot is, keep it firm, keep it, clean and keep it legal. But chase it down.
 
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I had something similar. Went to an appointment, nobody in, but spoke to two blokes removing an emergency generator. The place was off the beat and track and would only ge there if you were going there sort of thing. Anyway, bloke phones a couple of days later, its disgusting that you didnt turn up, etc , etc. Said I was there, but nobody home, spoke to the blokes removing the emergency generator etc. He told me that he would tell everybody that I was useless and didnt turn up as planned. Touch of red mist hit me, said I would rip his head off and crap down his neck and actually went down there but he wouldnt open the door. Two days later I had plod on the phone about my threatening behaviour. Apparently the bloke had left all the detail out about the conversation with regard to the bad mouthing. Plod asked me to be more diplomatic in future and were going back to give him a bulling.

Upshot is, keep it firm, keep it, clean and keep it legal. But chase it down.

Twice In an hour? that's just not on....
 
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Sounds about right - report your van or garage burgled you cant get to see plod for love nor money
 
Only been to court once. Total waste of time and effort.
I had emails from an estate agent asking me to do the work and agreeing with my price of approx 200 quid. Everything was in writing.
I employed a credit recovery company who charged me roughly more than the bill with letters and what not. I spent 2 days in another town an hour away, where the estate agent was situated. Still got nothing.
They can say anything, and they did.
'The person who issued permission to do the work shouldn't have done and she doesn't work here any more'.
'We don't look after the house anymore and its even been sold.
'We have no proof that you've done the work you said you did'.

Get as much money off her as you can. Then issue an invoice for whats owing.
For the sake of forty quid I wouldn't worry about it. Learn from it and have people sign something before you start work
 
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'The person who issued permission to do the work shouldn't have done and she doesn't work here any more'.
[/QUOTE]
Surprised this defence was accepted as:-
It is an admission that work was approved by someone who was an employee at the time.
Employers have vicarious liability for the acts or omissions of their employees. ( As we all know if apprentice damages clients property.)
 
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