Been charged double... Or have I?....

[NafemanNathan]

Just short of £230 total.

Not worth bothering with Household Insurance then.

Did the chap on the phone tell you that Sunday call out is double time and that you would be charged travelling costs? If they are operating a 24hr emergency service, then i would have thought there would have been a fixed rate for emergency call outs, regardless of day or time of day.

Do you have any Legal Expenses cover under your Household Buildings/Contents Insurance? They may be able to give you some advice. CAB are poor from my experience, i have clients at the receiving end of claims brought against them due to duff advice from CAB, i wouldn't put much faith in their ability to give you relevant advice.

No, my excess is only just less than that

And no, they never mentioned any costs or rates over the phone. I asked the guy when he was there how much I should roughly expect it to be and he just said it's just for time and materials ( ), so I had no indication, I could only see that the connection he used was only worth a couple of quid

I also can't find anything W&W's website referring to costs. I'll have another look later though.

Well CAB couldn't really give me much advise... Only to write a letter to W&W expressing how much I feel is reasonable to pay for their service, so I was going to half the cost (so it's back to standard rate) and then plus the coupling cost. That way I'm still paying for the travel time (... Which surely isn't right. What if he got stuck behind an accident or got lost?)

[2lude]

in my opinion travel time is a joke whats stopping them sending someone from 300 miles away then charge you so i wouldnt pay it my self double time again no they pay thier staff not you it should be a set rate per hour from when he arrives at your premises and knock when he leaves your premises to the nearest 15 mins

as for names then yes you have a big leg to stand on as you have not been invoiced do some googeling on this one

[vanzep]

I think the misspelled name doesnt let you of the hook - your too honest for that and its not really a reasonable excuse for dodging the invoice even for a while - go straight to the heart of the matter which is double time. You have fair cause to query this as it is no longer standard practice for everyone to be paid double time at weekends. You can also argue over travel time as this wasnt made clear to you over the phone but you will probably have to pay it. Good luck.

[Shiny]

The name means nothing, they will just reissue a new invoice in the correct name.

Just make sure in any correspondence that you are not refusing to pay for the work, but are querying the amount due before making settlement. This will hopefully delay any potential court action as a result of non payment.

[NafemanNathan]

Ok, cheers guys. Going to do a bit more searching and then put a letter together with much of what you've already hit on over the weekend.

Cheers again... Knew I could dount on you lot. You've given me a bit of confidence... Though I still won't go expecting a change lol

[secla]

230 for 3.5 hours at double time ? So this guys normal hourly rate is £32 + an hour ?

[Shiny]

There is more than just wages in an hourly rate! There is company Ni, overheads, clerical wages (to process calls and Nathan's lovely bill) and of course profit to pay the directors enormous dividends.

[mercutio]

they should have shown you or told you of the scale of charges otherwise whats to stop them putting any amount down i would go through the process as shiny has told you

[Shiny]

It's a difficult one though, it was an emergency line. It's not like you can ring up and say, "I've fractured a gas main, how much is a call out?" And then say "ok I'll try someone else" or "I ring back on Monday if it is double time today.."

[NafemanNathan]

How does this sound?...

I am writing to you in reference to the invoice I received from you on Thursday 26th April 2012 (Invoice number ########). My reasons for writing to you are that I don’t agree with the sum I have been charged on two accounts: Firstly that I have been charged for travel time as apposed to a set call out fee; Secondly that I have been charged a rate at double-time.

The way I see it, is that in today’s society utility companies will have a set call out fee if at all in order to cover travelling expenses and time spent to get to a location. It’s hardly fair that it’s advantageous to live closer to your depo (or your employees location at the time of call). What happens when your employee gets caught behind traffic at the site of an accident or in rush hour, or simply gets lost for example. This time wasted would be reflected on my bill.

Then in reference to charging me double-time…The employer may choose to pay their employees double time for working unsocial hours, but in what industry are these costs then passed on to the customer? For instance, just because a checkout assistant at a supermarket may be paid double-time for working a Sunday, it doesn’t mean that whichever customers go through their checkout are charged twice as much!

I had a browse on your website to look at your policy for rates charged, but had no luck. Although your callout was in response to the emergency call I made, so I had no real choice in the matter anyway, which makes me feel even more like you’re taking advantage with what you are charging me. At no point when I spoke to your depo were fees/rates or the fact I’d get charged for travel time mentioned either.

Having said all of that, I have also noticed on the invoice that although the amounts quoted are that of double time, that they have actually been described as “@normal time”, suggesting that I should have been charged at your “plain time” rate. So I don’t know whether I should have simply been charged at that rate from the start and that the double time charges are simply a mistake or not (???).

As it is, the invoice breaks down to:

£130.20 for labour (@ £65.10 per hour)
£2.12 for the coupling
£97.65 for travel (@ £65.10 per hour)
£229.97 Total

I’m happy to pay:

£65.10 for labour (@ your plain time of £32.55 per hour)
£2.12 for the coupling
£48.83 for travel (As you don’t appear to have a call out fee)
£116.05 Total

I hope you can appreciate my views on this issue and I look forward to resolving this fairly.

Kind regards,

Nathan

Is there anything else you think I should mention? And do you think my examples (ie. the supermarket assistant and call out fee speech) are a bit whiny, or they ok to get my point ahead?

Cheers again boys