Possible legal route to deal with unreasonable customer?

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Subcontracted a fencing job out. Job has been done absolutely superbly.

 

The fence is 1.5m high with 1.2 horse netting attached.

 

Customer chose horse netting after I sent him 2 different google images to show what horse netting looked like. At no point did he choose an exact specification of horse netting i.e BS standard, wire thickness, mesh size etc. One email from him says "horse netting as per pictures supplied"... Hmmm

 

So we fit circa a grands worth of high quality horse netting.

 

Customer calls by during week long job and comments that horse netting is less "meshy" than he expected but it will do and please carry on. I rx an email asking to retrofit barbed on back side of posts at top - no problem.

 

2 days later - another email - "you have not fitted horse netting but small gauge stock netting"

 

I reply proving 100% otherwise.

 

He replies, no longer mentioning "stock netting" but saying what we fitted is not what's in the pictures. The 2 pictures are different but he refuses to acknowledge this; merely provided to illustrate the look and height of horse netting. As it happens the pictures are of "non-climb" horse netting with 50mm x 100mm mesh size as opposed to what we fitted which is 75mm x 80+ mesh size (stretches to 100mm if tensioned vertically according to the supplier). He catagorically from the start only specified horse netting, not the non-climb version or any other version.

 

Anyway he wants us to dismount the netting we've put up and re-erect the other brand. This would be a £3k exercise in itself and I'm not prepared to suck it up quite frankly.

 

As the saying goes, I'm too old for this crap...

 

What'ya reckon?!

 

Cheers.

[Kev Stephenson]

you sent him an image then supplied something different (cheaper) and are surprised the customer complained.

 

Post up the pics you sent during quotation and the finished article please

[Goaty]

Do you mind naming brands of netting involved?

[hamdogg]

Surely you showed him the netting before you started erecting it?

[Stephen Blair]

I'm having similar troubles.

I'm not exhausting myself with trying to reason with a professional complainer. I told him he has 30 days to pay invoice, simples.

If he doesn't after another 7 days then

If he wants to give reasons why he isn't paying he can do it in front of a judge.

I'll have my evidence he will have his.

These people keep things vague to trip good guys up, I've been stung 3 times in a row with 3 customers in the last 4 months.

I've had enough!

[devon TWiG]

I never pay for materials myself ... always get customer to pay for / order them ( unless small quantities ) .... Looks like you have landed in an awkward situation to which there is no definitive answer really , just try and negotiate ....does the type of netting make any real difference to the fences purpose , or make injury likely ?

[pycoed]

Horse owner? Unreasonable? Doesn't pay? Whatever next!

 

It's always a struggle when the spec. is "flexible":dontknow:

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

you sent him an image then supplied something different (cheaper) and are surprised the customer complained.

 

Post up the pics you sent during quotation and the finished article please

 

No not cheaper, on the contrary. Will dig out the pics later. The image (2 different ones remember) was always "for illustrative purposes only". He asked for horse netting, that's what he got. He freely admits that even the netting in the pictures looks vastly different in real life. FTR all his emails quote what time mine were received in hours, minutes and seconds!

[Mick Dempsey]

Horse owner? Unreasonable? Doesn't pay? Whatever next!

 

It's always a struggle when the spec. is "flexible":dontknow:

 

Horsey sorts can (sometimes) have their own moral code regarding payment.

[skyhuck]

Some people are out to get you from the start, possibly had one today. The guy I get in to grind my stumps went to a job for me, lady has said there was a stump at the front, he gets there and there are 2 do we grind the one we think is right? and risk her saying its the wrong one and we end up going back to do the second for free

 

We decided to leave it and go back once we are certain which stump we are being asked to grind