To have called out my gardener

I would consider reporting him to both Trading Standards and the police.
He has absolutely defrauded you.
They do it because they think they can get away with it.
Report every time.
I have.

I agree with you completely. He's charging by the day/half day. So I'd pay him for the one day only. He was being very devious.

Then why pay for tasks not done?
Any why be condescending in your comment?

Did he have someone come with him to help?
He’s quoted you £600 for the work. You’ve then questioned the price because he said he’d possibly need 2 days but only needed 1 so then he reduced the price to £500.
So you’ve actually paid less than he quoted for the job so I don’t see the problem

Ignore the silly billies OP, you are obviously not being unreasonable or "tight".

It's a shame given that you are happy with his work, but he's clearly not to be trusted.

Hopefully you can find a gardener like mine, who does a very thorough job to a high standard, for a very fair price with never a problem.

If he'd taken over the 2.5 days, would you have paid him extra? Probably not because you'd be saying he said it would only take X amount of time
He's charged you appropriately.

If you finish all your work early, you expect to be paid because that's your hours.

My joiner has a daily rate, if he finishes early I pay what we agreed and if he finishes late, I pay him what we agreed

I see you've paid him , that's the right thing to do xx

Sorry to hear that you paid him OP. Hope you find yourself a new gardener coz this guy was clearly taking the piss. Very short-sighted of him to con you like that. Hope the £250 was worth it for him.

Since there’s a dispute with the cost, I’d ask to see a receipt/full breakdown of the costs of materials and labour etc. If he feels justified to charge £500 for his work, then the receipt should show proof of that. If not, he should be adjusting the price according to the work he has actually done.

I think he should have adjusted his invoice allowing for the fact that he didn’t need to come and water it as it rained.

100% - OP doesn't want opinions, she wants to be told she is correct.

In your shoes I would’ve done exactly as you have OP, paid him and look for a new Gardner. The trust has gone. Hope he understands why.

Someone on another thread was quibbling about paying a cleaner an extra £25 for work she'd actually done. You're well within your rights to expect not to pay £250 for work that hasn't been done.

@FoggyFriday he didn’t get the job done quicker than expected. He knew it was a smaller job than he said, and he was trying to get as much money as he could.

He's a CF. And you've taught him that FAFO is real. He would have made more money if he'd compromised because you'd have kept him on.

He's an idiot.

Of course you shouldn't pay him £250 for work he hasn't done.

He obviously thought he could get away with it. Didn't bank on you having a ring doorbell.

If it leads to needing to find a new gardener, they're 10 a penny. Why would you want to continue to engage someone whose tried to screw you out of £250?

Take no notice of the bitchy comments. I totally understand why you feel lot down.

Btw I just asked DP as he’s a gardener. He quoted a 10m diameter circle last week. Seed and materials came to c. £250 + he’s also on £250 a day. No hourly rate that’s the price for a visit.

materials included 10 bags premium topdress, wetting agent and a big bag of premium seed plus some complimentary prep on previous gardening visits of weed killer in preparation. 10% mark up on material costs.

No after visits

So depending on the size of your lawn it doesn’t sound far off tbh.

I would pay him £250 and tell him I didn’t need him to come back, then find another gardener. If he had asked for £500 but immediately explained that as it rained he planned to come back later to maintain the lawn or whatever then I would pay him £500 and continue with his services.

Wow… my DH reseeds the lawn himself (big job this year as we were away for 2 weeks in the heatwave and it killed 50% of the lawn). It took quite a few hours one afternoon (quarter of an acre lawn) and regular nightly watering for several weeks afterwards. Even the reduced rate seems a bit steep, unless it also included the seed? But then, that’s £10-12/25sqm.

I’m afraid I’d find another gardener as my trust would be gone - the lying and the overpricing would undermine our relationship hereafter. Hate dishonesty.

I’d be annoyed too OP. He must have known how long it would take him, and he deliberately exaggerated how long the job would take. When you challenged him, he backtracked and said the extra 1.5 days was actually for the watering element of the job. But then it rained every day, so he didn’t need to water it. Again he would have known that in September it’s likely there might be rain. He also lied to you about watering the garden, and you only knew that because of your Ring doorbell.

He’s a dishonest chancer, who knew you didn’t know enough about gardening to question his initial fee.

I would tell him that I was unhappy, that I would pay him because I had agreed to, but that I no longer wanted his services, and I would definitely not be recommending him to anyone.

This is why you agree an hourly rate with people. Our gardener comes out for 3 hours on Tuesday and 3 hrs on Thursday every week at £20ph.
I just let him get on with it, he knows what needs doing. He's actually a God send and helps out with jobs that aren't really in the bounds of gardening such as splitting logs for the wood burner.

What does the quote say?

Was he just labour or did he quote the job and supply the seed/ any required machinery / top dress etc.

I think you are probably being unreasonable here but I don’t know without the details

Why would he water the grass if it has rained every day?

And “call him out”? Seriously…how old are you? That’s playground talk.

Unless you live in a small stately home I’d get a new gardener - £600 for reseeding sounds a lot.

I don't know if I'd pay him or not but I'd certainly not keep employing him.