booked to do a job. customer changes mind. who covers the costs?

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

Soldato
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i'm going to summarise here some what to keep it simple.

we're a service company.

customer couple years back booked us to do a load of work. told us to do the work we need x certification.

we got it, it took a couple months, but we got it, did the work out 6 months and all happy and done.

then we asked about when they will rebook, was told in about 1.5 years, so we let the certificcation renewal lapse as it's £1000+ per year to have and only for them.

they then request to rebook in summer this year, we told them we can start october, all fine. so we start the certification proccess again, pay the £1000+, and work through that. we're now a few days from getting it confirmed, this is now mid october, and the customer emails to say they've gone with another supplier as they need the work done in october and we're taking too long.

now there is one issue in that, it was still october and they should have got in touch to say they want us to start and if we don't we lose the work which they didn't, but also that because of their email (no contracts in place) we paid the £1000 required to get certifiied so we can do their work.

what are peoples thoughts on this?

we could have reminded them of the certification costs but they knew of it the first time around and waited for us that time, and also we could have emailed them with updates, but the work hasn't ever been time sensitive (it's just doing little oven cleaning jobs in their hostel style properties), and we agreed october which we were still working towards. and they could have also updated on more on the need to start, the fact we'd be losing the work if we didn't start by x date. none of that happened and now we have this £1000 cost created because of their email renewing the work with us.
 
Without a contract (written or verbal), it's not possible to hold the customer liable for those costs. You can't imply what costs are - you have to state and agree them between both parties.

Now, if you have an agreement with them (written is obviously better - verbal is hard to argue) that they would be taking on any upfront costs, or being subject to cancellation fees, or so on, then you have something to hold them against.

For the cancellation of the booked work in Oct - is there any elements in your paperwork that you can use to recover any of the cost you've incurred? Cancellation fees, for example. Unless your paperwork calls out what the appropriate terms are, what the charges are, and it's countersigned by both parties, it's going to be hard to argue your case.

Morally, though, it's a very different story. Not informing you of a deadline or that they were looking at another supplier is not in the spirit of good business; it's definitely how to **** people off and damage relationships. This is why contracts are so important - to ensure everyone sticks to what they agreed to and incurs penalties if they do not do so.

Edit: Of course, there's nothing stopping you from sending them an invoice and seeing if they pay it. If they don't pay it then getting them to do it would be challenging without paperwork.
 
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I assume there is purchase orders and quotes involved. I'd be surprised if there is £1000 certification costs but there is not correct official paperwork elsewhere.

If so then you go through the terms and conditions of your quote and what was agreed.

If there is a purchase order and the quote is clear and detailed you can recover the costs incurred due to the cancellation
 
The customer has done nothing wrong. The certification requirement makes you less agile to respond to their needs when requested, so you should factor this in in annual costs if their business is important to you.
Contractual agreements with this company in future should either factor in pricing for it to be worthwhile for you to keep remaining certified, or quote them for work including cert renewal or time periods to make it profitable.
I'm any case it's a bummer but really down to poor management of the situation from the business side. Customers will customer.
 
No chance. See it as a payback for all the times people arrange for someone to come round to do a job and take time off work etc for them just not to bother turning up.
 
I didn't understand if the certification was for you to perform the task(so independanet of customer), or specific for them and would have been an itemised item on their bill.
if the latter then, as said, a contract required - if you have performed the job for many years and they knew your up-front costs perhaps you could suggest it was a verbal contract.
 
A mate of mine runs a company, and his rule is that if a customer wants something that requires him to buy kit, that's baked into up-front costs.

So if he needs a £500 saw or a £1k certification, he doesn't buy it until they've paid up front for materials or whatever.

Obviously that loses him some business, but he's made peace with that. At least this way it avoids him getting thoroughly ****** off when stuff falls through.
 
Thekwango said:
why are you having to ask this question online......surely there's someone in the business knows how to run the business. or at least i'd hope there is :p
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Why? Do you think you register a company and then know everything? This isn't a hard thing to learn but some how you've failed with a score of 0/10. I feel for your family over Xmas if this is the type of stuff you come out with :p
 
If you've got an order/contract then enforce the terms agreed.

If it was only a verbal instruction and you've spent £1000 on the back of that, then more fool you, don't do things until orders or contracts are in place.
 
OP gonna have to suck this up without a contract. At least it wasn't mega money.

I was reading yesterday about a small business that had to make some improvements/adjustments for a disabled employee. spent just over £17k and they quit a week later!!!!
 
You should have written a contract which stated that you will get the certificate (at your cost, or theirs if agreed), providing you are awarded the job. You could have then held them liable through the small claims court if they backed out. Or better, they pay upfront for your training cost, and that comes off their final bill.

Unfortunately, as you didn't do this, you don't really have a viable case against them.
 
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