Bad trades people

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slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
I never fail to marvel at the standard of tiling/plumbing/electrics in the basement toilets of budget restaurants. They all seem (and smell) to be slightly closer to a sewer than any other places I visit.
 

HF2300

Insanity Prawn Boy
Look at that invoice. It has been done on an app anyone can download. The VAT number is most likely bogus. There's no Landline and it's not done on a letter head style. It just all stinks.

I think you may be winding yourself up about it too much now. That there's no land line, no letterhead and it's done on a standard app is neither here nor there; a lot of people don't use landlines, many small traders don't use letterheads and these apps are there to make people's lives easier.

Focus on the real issues. Do you have specific concerns about the conduct of the job? Do you have specific concerns about the quality or safety of the finished job? Do you feel they overcharged (in which case, perhaps you should have argued at the time)? Have they really charged you VAT (that isn't a VAT invoice)?

Then decide if you can be bothered to address those specific concerns or whether you're better off putting it down to experience. If you can be bothered, decide the correct courses of action - which is complain to the trader, raise your concerns with Trading Standards and / or raise your concerns with HMRC - and take them.

TBH, £130 for 2.5 hours work including parts may not be too out of the way, though I don't know what the going rate is in your area (I suspect probably £80 - £90 might have been nearer the mark?). The £120 call-out is a bit eye-watering though, and I'm not sure why he's charging a call-out at all - or was it done as an emergency job?

What I'm not clear on is was your £50 VAT charged on top of the £250 and if so, why isn't it shown on the invoice?
 
OP
OP
Milzy

Milzy

Guru
I think you may be winding yourself up about it too much now. That there's no land line, no letterhead and it's done on a standard app is neither here nor there; a lot of people don't use landlines, many small traders don't use letterheads and these apps are there to make people's lives easier.

Focus on the real issues. Do you have specific concerns about the conduct of the job? Do you have specific concerns about the quality or safety of the finished job? Do you feel they overcharged (in which case, perhaps you should have argued at the time)? Have they really charged you VAT (that isn't a VAT invoice)?

Then decide if you can be bothered to address those specific concerns or whether you're better off putting it down to experience. If you can be bothered, decide the correct courses of action - which is complain to the trader, raise your concerns with Trading Standards and / or raise your concerns with HMRC - and take them.

TBH, £130 for 2.5 hours work including parts may not be too out of the way, though I don't know what the going rate is in your area (I suspect probably £80 - £90 might have been nearer the mark?). The £120 call-out is a bit eye-watering though, and I'm not sure why he's charging a call-out at all - or was it done as an emergency job?

What I'm not clear on is was your £50 VAT charged on top of the £250 and if so, why isn't it shown on the invoice?
He was terrible at the job, struggled and said he'd fitted new longer cables when he clearly didn't. Just not professional. It wasn't an emergency I called at 11am and he was 50 mins out returning from a job in Sheffield. My wife can't even use that to put through her business. It's like you say but it down to experience or report for VAT fraud.
 
OP
OP
Milzy

Milzy

Guru
He doesn't even seem to be NICEIC registered as well as using other people's vat number.
He says he's got offices in Liverpool, London, Glasgow and Batley with managers running them. The chump has an old berlingo van and lives in an old pit terrace house in a rough town for crying out loud.
 
OP
OP
Milzy

Milzy

Guru
If the total bill is £250 the VAT should be £41.67 unless the trader is paying into the HMRC Christmas party fund.
You do know we've been paying 20% for years now not 17.5%. Also he calculated vat into his bill of a total of £250 then emailed me that invoice.
 

vickster

Squire
You do know we've been paying 20% for years now not 17.5%. Also he calculated vat into his bill of a total of £250 then emailed me that invoice.
Why has he not shown the VAT separately which is the correct way to do it
 
OP
OP
Milzy

Milzy

Guru
He won't be fair. So I'll have to report.
 

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