When he went to Home Depot whose credit was the material charged to?
A few pot lights shouldn't take long to install. I suspect there's more to the story but I didn't pry.
It depends on what the agreement with him was up-front. If you were supposed to pay the cost of materials yourself, he should have charged you what he was charged, no more no less. I don't think it's necessarily wrong for him to take the 5% discount and charge you full price, but he should have been up-front about it rather than trying to hide it from you. He could have just said it was a convenience fee or something for him going to buy the stuff.
So you want him to work for free?
Yes. I was hoping that flashing my boobies would be enough. :roll:
One thing our local guys are always up front about is a change-order fee. Make sure these are spelled out in your contract as well. Maybe you're allowed 1 or 2 changes before the fee applies. Maybe the fee is always a fixed amount, maybe the fee increases every-time you make a change, maybe the fee is based on the size of the change. You need to know this up front.Speaking for myself, I'd be totally cool ith you list though I'd modify the point #2 to:
- The contractor then uses discounts to increase profit.
^^^ Something I can be totally cool with if the contractor told me up front that there was a mark up.
A convenience fee isn't unethical, not telling you about so you can agree or disagree with it is. You are the consumer of a service that has some negotiable elements, you deserve at least the opportunity to negotiate.Agreed.
But is it right to charge a convenience fee with being paid to shop?
Agreed.
But is it right to charge a convenience fee with being paid to shop?
Darling, it always takes longer then expected. A contractor can tell you how long it will take to open a perfect wall, mount some neatly fitting brackets, run electrical line for a modern electrical circuit and install a switch in a circuit which still has capacity to spare....but a contractor cannot tell you what they will find when they open up a wall. Is there mold? Is the wiring out of date and now much much more has to be brought up to code? Is the circuit the new lights are going on already at or over capacity?Because it was taking him longer to do then he anticipated
If he bought a wrong fixture then IMO he should not be charging you while he fixes his mistake. That return trip should be on his dime.He paid for it though I did give him a store credit for $152 because I had to return other pot lights that were wrong. I told him to then to give me a receipt for what was outstanding*.
*: I had already purchased the island light fixture. So basically, wire, marettes and a few other misc items.
Middleground would expect half the value of that coupon to be spent on her before the date was over.It's a non-issue. Some people get discounts that others don't get for some reason. Otherwise, I'd start a petition against AAA or AARP for getting "unfair discounts".
People don't openly discuss discounts they get because it just creates too much crap. Imagine your date paid for your dinner together with a coupon. That guy would catch so much crap.
He went to Home Depot on my dime.
In this case they didn't even have a contract.So what? If you have a contract that he'll perform X service for $Y money then it's none of your business how much he pays for the materials. He does the service, he gets paid what you agree, that's it. If that's not what you're doing, both of you are doing it wrong.
In this case they didn't even have a contract.
I hope Middleground take this as a learning experience and never trusts a verbal contract ever again.
You see a lot of that in general contracting though, it's a business and requires organization, customer service, and discipline but many of these guys just want to pick up quick money and say screw the rest.
Absolutely, when I was an independent insurance agent my mentor told me a good reputation gets you more business and it's easy to lose if you treat people like ATMs. Every business has to be built on a foundation of good customer service and unimpeachable ethics to survive long term.Yep unfortunately there are too many guys like that
whats funny is 75% of the little contracting i do is word of mouth i just do it on the side and if i screwed people of did ****ty work it would quickly dry up.
In this case they didn't even have a contract.
I hope Middleground take this as a learning experience and never trusts a verbal contract ever again.
Bad, bad, bad idea. You always have to have a paper contract that spells out what one side will do and what the other side will pay.
When it goes bad, and it often does, you have to have something to present in court, otherwise you're screwed.
Again it helps, but verbal contracts do stand in small claims court.
We only use verbal contracts for liability when going to the office and drafting a written agreement is impractical.Again it helps, but verbal contracts do stand in small claims court.
We only use verbal contracts for liability when going to the office and drafting a written agreement is impractical.
For example, while remodeling the Alex Johnson Hotel, we had a crane set up to deliver pallets to the 10th and 11th stories. All the permits etc were ours. While there, a sub asked our super if he could use the crane to lift some rather large hand-rail sections. This would save him the time of bringing the sections up in smaller pieces using the building's elevator.
The super had myself and another witness the agreement, our super and he shook hands, the super said something like "do you accept any and all liability for damage, accidental or otherwise, while using our crane, and to pay $200 per hr?". The sub agreed.
That's a verbal contract. A solemn statement with credible witnesses. That's what will hold up in court.
If you had time to have a conversation, you had time to draft the contract in writing.Yes, that is a verbal contract.
If I say the contractor included "painting the walls" in a conversation we had during our verbal negotiations, and, during questioning, the judge finds my testimony credible, that is also a verbal contract. Not as black-and-white as yours, but every bit as binding.
Only if the two parties agree on what the verbal contract said. If they disagree, the contract is largely useless.
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