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Am I being unreasonable?

skaif

skaif

skaif

Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2014
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East of the Middle
So I had a CCTV guy come around and give me a quote for a camera system and installation. He quoted around £2k all in (10 camera hikvision system with nvr and HDD) and wanted 50% up front.

I agreed paid £1k deposit and was scheduled to start Saturday and he was due to finish cable runs on Sunday. After working on Saturday and drilling and feeding cables he came on Sunday to lift floorboards etc (we are renovating so house is empty) and found rat droppings. We are in the 2 week process of exterminating pests at the property and he was aware of this to begin with. On the Sunday in question he refused to carry on work and said that its not safe working conditions and asked for it to be cleaned up. I said I would get a vacuum cleaner and do it that day but he made the decision to leave. (I still cleaned it up that day)

Anyway, Monday came around and he locked his keys in the van and had to come up in his personal car and did as much as he could then left, barely did half a day. Tuesday was another job he booked and said he would come on Weds. Weds came and he said he had to stay home for some reason.

Last night we were discussing final camera choices (I wanted a few to have mic's) and the fact that Amazon were cheaper and he would price match. He sent me a final quote, this time with an added days labour. When I questioned him he said that it was for the Sunday.

Now between now and Sunday he has sent through multiple quotes non of which had the added labour charge so I started to question him and he got a bit defensive. I stated that if there was to be additional labour charges then surely the customer should be notified first before giving a bill?

He couldnt see my point and its a bit sour now. He was recommended through a group of mutual friends and is a really nice guy. Just not happy with how this situation has played out.

Am I being a pain requesting him to notify me of labour changes when its apparently in his terms and conditions?
 
How many hours did he actually do on Sunday?
And how quickly did you clean up his workspace?

If he turned up Sunday morning, noticed the rat droppings and packed up and left, then arguably he didn't work any hours on Sunday. If he worked half the day before leaving then i'd pay him for half the day. Mention that he didn't work all of Sunday so you'll pay him upto X time.

He can't use the excuse that he was unable to work because the working area was unclean/unsafe and left, as if he was being paid for the full day, then he should have waited around until you'd cleaned up and then carried on.
 
I don't think it's unreasonable to be informed that you're going to incur extra charges before being hit with a bill for them to be honest.

I do think it's unreasonable for him to hit you with a full days labour if he was happy to carry on after you vacuumed them up but decided to sod off home anyway.
 
Semple said:
How many hours did he actually do on Sunday?
And how quickly did you clean up his workspace?

If he turned up Sunday morning, noticed the rat droppings and packed up and left, then arguably he didn't work any hours on Sunday. If he worked half the day before leaving then i'd pay him for half the day. Mention that he didn't work all of Sunday so you'll pay him upto X time.

He can't use the excuse that he was unable to work because the working area was unclean/unsafe and left, as if he was being paid for the full day, then he should have waited around until you'd cleaned up and then carried on.
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It was cleaned up in the evening and he had left by then. He is saying as it was a day wasted he is charging me the full amount regardless of how much time he spent there. He did around 3 hours before leaving
 
tom_e said:
I don't think it's unreasonable to be informed that you're going to incur extra charges before being hit with a bill for them to be honest.

I do think it's unreasonable for him to hit you with a full days labour if he was happy to carry on after you vacuumed them up but decided to sod off home anyway.
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Thats the point, I was not informed before hand and he just hit me with the bill anyway.
 
£2000 sounds very steep imho for a camera setup. why is it that expensive!?

how much of the job has he completed? Is it worth 1K yet?
 
You have to remember you only had a quote, not a fixed price.

How exactly would you like him to notify you? I'd say a bill is a pretty good notification. A courtesy call to let you know? Seems a bit over the top. That day has already been incurred by him (he was presumably unable to work elsewhere), so I don't see why he wouldn't add it to the bill.

I'd put it down to experience and pay the bill. Always read the terms and conditions and get a fixed price if you want to avoid the above. Although a fixed price is always likely to be higher than a quote from the outset as it will take things like this into account before they occur.
 
Had a word with him and he basically told me the following. As he said he would honor an Amazon price match he would do so out of his own pocket. He then said that resulted in him making a loss of £200 so he tacked on a days labour and gave me a load of fluff as to why the labour was there.

I said I would have rather him be honest with me and give me the real reason on the outset. I have now agreed that I will go with his initial quote and supplier as they come with a 3 year warranty so its kinda worked out. Just wish he had been honest up front.

Regarding the comment above, when he went home for the day he could have stated it then that it would incur extra labour, he could have told me multiple times during the conversations we have had. Just seemed a bit suspect that a days labour came out of nowhere when price matching Amazon.
 
skaif said:
Had a word with him and he basically told me the following. As he said he would honor an Amazon price match he would do so out of his own pocket. He then said that resulted in him making a loss of £200 so he tacked on a days labour and gave me a load of fluff as to why the labour was there.
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Guy sounds like a top class plumb.
 
psd99 said:
£2000 sounds very steep imho for a camera setup. why is it that expensive!?

how much of the job has he completed? Is it worth 1K yet?
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The camera set up is for 10 hikvision cameras and an nvr that would cost over £1800 from Amazon and other stores. If he is giving a warranty, fitting them and supplying all the cables then even £2.5k would be decent
 
tom_e said:
Guy sounds like a top class plumb.
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Yeah he comes across as that in this thread but he's actually a decent guy.

Other than this issue he has been completely fine and even re-routed a virgin media coaxial cable to the office.

Explained to me that he's given me a few discounts on bits n pieces already and the fact that it is a very high end system that I am getting for quite a cheap price. I specced up the same system on various other sites and just the cameras and NVR alone are more than what he is charging me. Along with the 3 year warranty it seems to be quite good.
 
If he can't sustain these price matches/little discounts/cheap quote then he should just be upfront in the first place and quote higher rather than bumping it up half way through a job. It seems like he's gotten caught with his pants down and has realised he's going to make nothing on this job.
 
So he lost a days work due to something in your house? Perfectly reasonable for him to recoup at least some of a lost day from you.
 
Also if he couldn't afford to price match to Amazon, he could have just said you buy the cameras and pay him to fit them. Would take all the hassle out of sourcing them, plus any potential loss he might make on them then.
 
Lumeycom said:
So he lost a days work due to something in your house? Perfectly reasonable for him to recoup at least some of a lost day from you.
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I did think this, it was just the way it has been done that has irked me. Be up front with your customers rather than try and play the numbers game.

Anyway, its all water under the bridge now as we seem to have patched things up.

Regarding the imported cams, its legit as far as I can tell, I googled his supplier (cant remember their name) and they checked out plus he offers a 3 year comprehensive warranty so must be legitimate.
 
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dirtychinchilla said:
I thought that too. He could have been working elsewhere.
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Disagree.

If you're paying for him to work on that day, he can't then line up other work on the same day just because there's something that's currently preventing him for working.

I agree that he has his right to request that the workspace is clean/safe, and if that means he has to stop for an hour whilst the OP cleans up the workspace then he can resume after, he still gets paid for that hour waiting around. What he cannot do though is claim the full days rate, and leave after 3 hours because he's waiting for the OP to tidy up, and instead move onto another job.

I don't know what you do for a job, but if i turned up at work and the power went out for example, i couldn't then just say yep that's me done for the day. I would have to wait until the power has been restored, or other measures are put in place, and then continue with my day.
 
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