Customer Demanding We Pay For Her Blinds ££££££ Need Serious Advice.

[edexlab]

I posted on here ages ago about a social housing job I did
We were warned about a 60 yr old Woman who was getting people that were working in her house sacked/suspended through claims of theft and damage etc approx 2k in damage to her house etc in spurious claims ie broken cookers and other white goods

I was doing the job with my apprentice and we went in and started the job

She was obviously a bit eccentric and talked a lot of rubbish

We just humoured her and got on with it carefully (took photos of everything before we started in front of her)

She was messing around with a dog outside rolling about like a kid

Then She got ready to go to the shop said "I'll be about 2 hrs"

Shop was 400 metres up the road???

She came out with a neck brace/ knee brace strapped up wrist and a walking frame and hobbled to the shops!

Unfortunately for her my mate had filmed her in the garden and we showed it to the Clerk of works who confronted her with the video and got her to retract all complaints

 

[remedial]

If it went to the small claims court they'd make her pay for the other heaters that were fitted correctly. A customer still have to pay a fair price for any work done correctly. Or even incorrectly! (minus the cost of putting it right).

 

[Pete999]

If it went to the small claims court they'd make her pay for the other heaters that were fitted correctly. A customer still have to pay a fair price for any work done correctly. Or even incorrectly! (minus the cost of putting it right).

From what I can see they should make her pay for work already done, and kick her claim for new drapes over the cross bar, by Owen Farrell.

 

[remedial]

I'm not an expert but i have looked into the small claims court process and i believe this is pretty much what would happen. They would charge her for the correctly installed heaters plus the cos of the other one if she won't let them take it away, and deduct a reasonable amount of compensation for her to find a solution to the problem with the other heater. No way they'd give her the cost of all new curtains or blinds when there are lots of alternative solutions. Common sense prevails even in law (i think!)

From what I can see they should make her pay for work already done, and kick her claim for new drapes over the cross bar, by Owen Farrell.

[automerge]1568564290[/automerge]
Might be worth checking if she has any CCJs
[automerge]1568564582[/automerge]
Depends on how much is involved but i don't think I'd spend money on solicitors. U could just tell her u want paying for the work minus x amount to modify her curtains or move the heater and if she doesn't pay you're taking her to the small claims court. It doesn't cost much and you'll both have your chance to give your side during mediation and then in court if theres no agreement.

 

[WallaceP]

I feel sorry for you. I have had to deal with a few difficult customers in the past but this one seems special.
There is a lot of good advice here already. I think the best way to deal with this would be give her a list of options clearly explaining what was involved with each, ie different heater, same heater new location, old heater.
Ask her to take her time to consider these options and let know what option she would take.
As she seems rather emotionally volatile this may be easier than a real conversation.
Sadly unreasoned customers seem to be the loudest . Good luck with it

 

[remedial]

Correspond in writing and try to get her to confirm that shes happy with the rest of the work. Even txt message is enough for evidence

 

[littlespark]

Let us know how you get on, and what you decide... but I think the overriding thoughts here is she is trying it on, and calling her bluff is the way to go.
Every electrician on here would have done the same as you, and fitted replacement heaters where the old ones were.
Don't let one daft bint put you off.

If the old heaters are now scrap, is there any proof that the new heaters are actually higher?

 

[leo79]

Pass it onto your insurance company.

 

[Flash]

Do you own the heaters at the moment? if said invoice hasn't been paid?? if so remove the heaters and tell her to do one and her so called friends to pay for replacements.

 

[john waters]

how about offer to change heater to a panel type

 

[Pete999]

how about offer to change heater to a panel type

Invoice, and call the Sheriff's if Mrs Woman wont pay,

 

[marconi]

Perhaps a solution is to fit a type of radiator shelf or guard? You could argue the shelf also acts as a convection heat deflector so more heat in the room and less lost through the glass. Make this your last and final offer of resolution and if she does not accept then let her take you to court. Write down your account of the whole sorry saga with dates/times and her responses. My brother-in-law, when a plumber, went to court over a job purely for the experience so that if it ever happened again it held no anxiety - some customer do try it on - he won the case. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. See:

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[oracle]

Probably, but that's why I asked who chose the heaters in the first place, most people would have checked the clearances out, at least my Mrs would have, She would want chapter and verse as would her Twin Sister, and there was I thinking Twin Girls were cool. no chance, double trouble nearly 50 years experience of them believe me. it's no joke, just years of tearing my hair out.

Twins? TWINS? Don’t ask me about dating a twin. She and her sister played tag with me, swapping hair styles, shoes and accessories to confuse me. I tried to mark one with a love bite and they both wore scarves for a while.

 

[Markyd]

Go back and remove heater tell her she cant have one there and to pay the bill immediately..........take a couple of prawns with you and slip them into the lining of the sofa give it a few days and it will stink the place out..that will teach her to try and take the P

 

[WallaceP]

Hey. Did you get any closer to a resolution on this?

 

[Spoon]

I'm also interested to see what happened on this one. Please tell..

 

[Phil L]

Any update on this one?

 

[Weezy]

Sorry its been so long, we had an outcome in about February (2020). So in case anyone else is ever in this situation or people are perhaps still interested as to what happened this is it, I'll try to keep it short.

Letters exchanged via email back and forth, she got a family member to do all the 'talking' on her behalf, they where adamant they would fight against us.

We tried to reason with them with a discounted price/some refund since they wouldn't let us even in the house anymore, however they where insisting we owed them money to fit blinds to the whole of the property's lounge which we stated was over the top.

As we where getting no where we contacted the NICEIC for a possible solution, The NICEIC got in contact with the home owner to say they are on the case, however after seeing the images i posted the NICEIC stated that the matter was so trivial they didn't even deem it worthy to investigate or attend the property. I believe they also gave us a letter that stated something along the lines of it not being considered a problem.

Therefore after this we decided it was time to take the customer to court (hoping they would pay up) However they still tried to fight their case.

Fast forward some more, it never went to court but we did have over the phone mediation. The result... It was agreed that we give the customer a small discount, and when i say small it was LESS than the money back we offered her earlier on in this process and she had to pay up the remaining funds (minus the discount ofc) Not only that she also had to pay the mediation fees. So all in all we where very satisfied with the outcome.

And the cherry on top of all this is the heater stayed in place and if the fruitcake wants it moved now she'll be having to fork out more money for yet another electrician to attend. Ha and a HA!
Thanks all, Peace Out!

 

[DPG]

Nice one. Thanks for letting us know!

 

[ipf]

Five past eight.....we could carry on clapping for that one. Nice.