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We recently got our kitchen redone and as well as decorating the walls and ceiling, the decorator repainted our hallway, stairs, landing and spindles on our new banister. He did a fairly poor job in the hall so we got him back to rectify it - suffice to say he's fairly incompetent and failed to do a decent job meaning I'm going to have to redo the cutting in and some gloss work myself which involves me having to buy paint (c£30?)
Anyway, he's sent his invoice which is £50 more than the original quote. I queried where the £50 increase has come from and he replied saying it's our mistake and his original quote was £1750 not £1700. The thing is, I've got the original email he sent with the invoice on stating £1700. He's now dropped round a hard copy which he's clearly edited to try to get more money out of us.
If I tell him to **** off, pay the original invoice amount and tell him he's lucky to be getting that, has he got any come back against me?
No. If you’ve got his original quote, stick to your guns.
Depends. Does he have a mono low brow and is he bigger than you?
Ha! Looks like sticking to the guns is the best approach - I just sent him an email reminding him that I've got the original invoice by email and he's replied 'yeah, fair one: £1700 it is.'
A bit of an anticlimactic victory but a victory nonetheless. And it's only 8am...
You’re paying him the full amount despite you having to finish off his work?
Therein lies the next challenge. If I have to buy £30 of paint to do a better job of the spindles on the banister and tidy up the cutting in then how much do I knock off his bill? £30 for paint? £100 if you add in my time? £150 for the inconvenience? No doubt he'd insist on coming round a third time but I've got no faith in his attention to detail so it's easier to just do it myself.
Thoughts?
Cost of paint, equipment and a days Labour.
Had a similar issue which was rectified about a month or so ago. I spent Saturday making a list of unsatisfactory items, had a couple of curtain rails to put up so I said, “look, you do those properly and put the curtains up and I wont write a frustrated review on checkatrade”.
He came back on the Monday and did all that.
The funny thing was that this was upstairs decorating. I did the downstairs myself 2 years ago and despite being all thumbs with DIY seem to be ok at painting. Anyway, whilst in the house he said, “whoever you had to do your downstairs did a very good job, i’ve never see two colours of paint cut in so well, how much did that set you back?”
Rgr - thanks for the guidance. Thing is, I've already got him back once and given him a list of things to sort out. Most were sorted but his efforts in cutting in have got rid of the unpainted bits but been replaced by paint in the cornices. I think he's just a bit crap!
Similar to you, we did our lounge ourselves and he made a similar comment about the quality of the painting...he was a bit surprised when I said it was me and the missus!
‘yeah, fair one: £1700 it is.’
fair one? it's not a fair one if he concocted a new quote at an inflated rate.
not only ham-fisted but dishonest with it.
Where did the original recomendation to use him come from?
A few images of his great work and the invoice debarkle dropped into them could be interesting - assuming they aren't family.
In the grand scheme of things £50 on £1700 isn't much of a concern if it was done properly to your expectation.
However if it isn't, then that £50 could cost him a whole load more if you decide to pass on comments and pics of his 'good work and service' around Facebook and whatever else he uses to generate business.
I'd pay him the original bill, minus £150, hundred quid for labour and fifty for materials sounds reasonable. The paint might be £30 but you need brushes and other sundries,masking tape, sheets etc.
Then just finish the job yourself or get someone else to do it.
He did a poor job and then tried to rip you off, so I wouldn't be having any more dealings with them.
I'd be pretty mortified if anyone had to get me back in to sort out numerous problems, and if they did, I'd go out of my way to rectify them immediately.
Good word of mouth and recommendations areare everything these days.
Original bill minus £150 does sound fair.
Is your house mahoosif? £1700 for h/s/l and and kitchen wall and ceiling seems steep.
I’d pay a maximum of £1550 considering I was finishing the job off for him.
But I would tell him I was knocking £150 off his £1700 bill and send him £1500.
When he complained about my maths, I would say “yeah fair one” and send another £50
cheeky ****er. 👍
‘Pro’ decorators making a good job of finishing/cutting in etc, seems to be the exception rather than the norm. It doesn’t seem to be worth their while as they can get away doing a mediocre job at best, taking the money and moving on to the next job as soon as possible. Whenever I see a well finished job, it’s a DIYer taking their time in their own house.
Pro’ decorators making a good job of finishing/cutting in etc, seems to be the exception rather than the norm
Having worked in the building trade for fairly long time in the past, I would say an actual “pro” does cutting in very well, with little or no effort at all, because they are actually good at it.
But lots of people call themselves a “painter & decorator” when they are actually just “a bloke with some brushes and a van”
Far to easy for an unskilled numpty to pretend to be a trained pro.
Cool, thanks all. Seems reasonable to knock some money off then and see what he does.
As for being vfm or expensive, it was quite a bit more work than I described: paint over new plaster in new kitchen (which has a large breakfast room attached); ceilings throughout; all new skirting boards, architraves, window sills; tiling behind the cooker; walls, ceilings and glosswork in hallway, stairwell and landing; paint new spindles on the banister; and oil 10 x oak doors.
Either way, the recommendation came from the kitchen fitter who worked like 10 men and did a superb job. I'm gonna drop him a line anyway just to say thanks for being awesome...but be aware your decorator isn't up to your standards.
Far to easy for an unskilled numpty to pretend to be a trained pro.
You are not wrong. Fundamental issue with the trades in this country. More people charging pro prices without training/work ethics doing a bad job, than there are proper pros out there. Still calling themselves pros though.
Good word of mouth and recommendations are everything these days.
Absolutely, a mate of mine, who I’ve known since he was a wee lad, went into the print industry, did it for years, then got fed up with all the hassles and decided to set up his own business doing house and garden maintenance, fencin, decorating, kitchen fitting, the works, pretty much, and he’s never really had to advertise, he just has his details on his van. It’s not unusual for someone to ask him to do out a bathroom, say, on someone else’s recommendation, then he’ll get asked if he can do the hall, then something else; he did out an entire house for one customer after first doing the hallway. He did the fence at the end of my garden, and did an excellent job, I want more done, but I just don’t have the money right now.
I would knock some off, especially if you've had to fix his work.
Had the same when our central heating was fitted, heating was OK but they trashed all the floorboards and genere no care of anything else, took ages to sort out. They sent a £6.5k bill, I sent them a grumpy letter and a cheque for 5 and never heard from them again.
Useful point for the OP - if you do pay less send a cheque and make clear it's 'full and final settlement' ,banking the cheque constitutes acceptance of this, same doesn't apply to BACS etc as they can't refuse it, it just turns up in their account.
Andrewh: good tip! Thanks.
Also means he's got to go out of his way to take it to the bank. 😉