Fair or unfair?

[Peter 1955]

I felled some regrowth thorns for a customer, and burning them onsite wasn't possible. They were in a paddock belonging to someone else, I'd felled them from the dyke bank. 

Having decided that removing them with a trailer was going to take a long time, and be very unpleasant, so client and I decided to hire a chipper. At my suggestion, one was hired from a local company who he had an account with, due to them having taken over the clients from a company who were no longer trading. 

We got a Timberwolf 190 with a diesel engine, and it performed far better than the Greenmech Quadchip 160 we had used on a job for another client. 

So far, so good. Only problem was, when feeding it, a branch whipped round, and knocked the emergency stop button off the intake hopper. When I returned it, I told them immediately, and was told " oh that's no problem at all". 

Customer rang me today, and isn't happy. He's had a repair bill. £3.50 for the oil the engine used, ( in less than four hours ) £3 for a cartridge of grease to regrease the machine. Now the dubious bits- £100 for the stop switch, and £90 labour. Customer now faces a £200 bill on top of the hire charge, and is not a happy bunny.  I am not flavour of the month either, as you might guess. 

Have we been turned over, or is it par for the course? No contract was shown before hiring. The company is a big agricultural dealer, but the hire side is growing so fast that it appears to be run by a sort of " arms length " company. 

Your thoughts would be appreciated. 

[Mick Dempsey]

It is fair from the hire company, it was damaged by you, and it wasn’t a consumable.

 

The relationship between you and the client, is….between you and the client.

[Joe Newton]

7 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

It is fair from the hire company, it was damaged by you, and it wasn’t a consumable.

 

The relationship between you and the client, is….between you and the client.

Charging for oil and grease it taking the piss. I know it's not the expensive bit but still.

 

Why is the end user being charged for the maintenance of the machine that should be factored into the hire price

 

Re: the e-stop I'd be asking for proof of the cost of parts and the time to replace. Seems excessive.

[Mick Dempsey]

12 minutes ago, Joe Newton said:

Charging for oil and grease it taking the piss. I know it's not the expensive bit but still.

 

Why is the end user being charged for the maintenance of the machine that should be factored into the hire price

 

Re: the e-stop I'd be asking for proof of the cost of parts and the time to replace. Seems excessive.

I’m suprised they didn’t add sharpening of blades tbh.

 

Excessive? Prolly, but them’s the breaks on hire machines.

[Mesterh]

Seems very petty to charge for oil and grease! Ok on the stop switch as that does need to be paid for but it does sound a little excessive. But who knows, it's probably an arb switch which will cost very mucho moneys compared to say standard switch.

 

[NJA]

2 hours ago, Joe Newton said:

Charging for oil and grease it taking the piss. I know it's not the expensive bit but still.

 

Why is the end user being charged for the maintenance of the machine that should be factored into the hire price

 

Re: the e-stop I'd be asking for proof of the cost of parts and the time to replace. Seems excessive.

I agree I wouldn't pay the grease and oil, that's maintenance which should be covered by the hire company.

Maybe a quick bit of research or a call to a timberwolf dealer will tell you if the price is reasonable for the switch.  If they've got to source it and get it in it's probably reasonable they have a small markup on it.

 

In future get hire insurance, an extra cost to the hire but no nasty surprises at the end.