Hi, I would like to ask the plumbers community of their views and advice before I bring my plumber to the dispute tribunal to make right a few issues that doesn't seem right to me.
I have recently engaged a plumber to install a 180L hot water cylinder. The whole job costs me $2604.75 inc GST. What I get was a
1) HJ Cooper enamel coated steel 180 L water cylinder. He delivered this instead of a Rheems standard model from his email quotation.
2) new valves (changing from a low to mains pressure). This is suppose to be free from their website.
3) Workmanship for 4hrs.
4) electrical wiring from the switch to the cylinder.
My question is, looking at the above list have I been ripped off? Because I have checked the retailed pricing, a HJ Copper "stainless steel" model only goes for $1285. The Enamel coated I believe would go for much lower? The Stainless steel model has a 20 years warranty and the Enamel coated has a 5 years warranty.
Do they have the right to just change a model without my approval?
The invoice they has given just have one item on the list stating "Quote", now they said that they have missed out of the electrical work charges of $189.75 and billed me for it. As the first invoice mentioned only Quote as a single line item, what should I do with the 2nd invoice, as I am unable to verify what was charged in the first invoice. Is it a normal practice to put a single line item on the invoice?
I have since paid them for the first invoice of $2415 inc gst and I am awaiting their response on my request to provide a full detailed invoice before I paid them for the 2nd invoice. Speaking of GST, how would one interprete +gst? including? or excluding? Wouldn't it be better to put in words like inc gst or excl gst? Simply because -gst has the same meaning as +gst in this case.? I am asking this because I was confused by the +gst.
They have threaten to blacklist me (which I believe they already did, as I am not getting a response from plumbers in Auckland) and send debt collectors against me, when I tried to settle the issues with them before payment. It is not even 3 days after the job was done.
As most of my transactions are done over the phone, there is a lot of "Me said, He said" issues that I will not be mentioning here, as I cannot provide any proof or facts to back me up on it.
I am pretty stressed from this encounter and I would like to seek your advice, opinions and views, before I bring my case to the dispute tribunal.
Thank you,
Thomas
PS: I have sent them an official request to settle the issues we have and have given them a 1 weeks timeframe to respond. Not really sure if they will respond, as they have yet responded to my recent 2 emails to them, one of which is the request for warranty information.
Linkback: https://www.plumbers.nz/ask-plumbers-public/2/have-i-been-ripped-off/1235/