dog scratches tradesman

[neonlight]

Had a guy round to fix some paintwork on my car. Dog loves people, wants to play with him- for some reason she took a massive liking to him. I put her behind the safety gate, she jumps over. I ask if he is ok with dogs, he says yes, and bends slightly towards her. She thinks he wants to play, jumps up at him, scratching his arm. I put her back inside, he goes to look at the car, asks where the dent and marks are-even though he said they were clear from photos I sent. He suddenly says he doesn't feel happy about doing the car, his arm is too sore, he needs to make a doctors appointment, and off he goes. I later get a text from him, saying if I want to do the right thing I should pay him £250, the price for the paint job that he hasn't done. What do I do?

He sounds like a twat. I would ignore him.

Is the request for money related to the scratch then? Did you see his arm? Was it bleeding?

Ignore him.

And keep the text, sounds like bribery to me.

Hes a fucking idiot! Ignore or reply simply saying

"Ahahahaha ahahahaha '

You did allow your dog to distract him from the job you booked him to do. If your dog hadn’t distracted him and subsequently scratched him would he have finished the repair? Otherwise he’s used his time to effectively amuse your dog and get injured which he didn’t agree to do

"I will not be intimidated attempt to extort money from me. I will contact the Police if you make any further attempt to do so."

"If you Feel you were sufficiently injuredto claim compensation for the scratch then I will contact my insurance company and they can contact your Doctor for a report"

So many typos!

Of course you shouldn’t pay if he hasn’t done the job, sounds like a chancer to me, unless his arm was really hurt, which it doesn’t sound like it was from your description.

However, he may have an invisible health issue and be vulnerable to infection etc, in which case he’s not being unreasonable to seek medical advice if the skin is broken.

Regardless, I would be reluctant to pay up if he hasn’t done the job.

Especially if he views it as compensation, is your dog insured OP?

Hopefully you won’t hear anything else from him, but who knows often people seem to look for a compensation opportunity these days.

OMG that's awful! what a chancer! I'd report him to the company he works for as a start...

I mean its not nice that the dog scratched him but he said he was ok with dogs and bent over to pet the dog so in my opinion he wasn't worried about the dog, accidents happen! why do we live in society where people are out to get what they can nowadays? someone hasn't always got to take the blame and compensate! - what happened to accepting an apology and moving on!

assuming you have a basic contents policy i would do what pp suggested.
tell him he needs to submit his claim in writing, with evidence, and you will submit it to your insurance co.

thanks for all your comments. Phoned police, who seemed to think he was a bit of a chancer, but suggested I take legal advice. Phoned Citizens Consumer advice- very helpful- who said he was in breach of contract as he hadn't done any work. To round it off I phoned my insurers who said if he wanted to take things further they would deal with it, so maybe I can stop stressing about it now. By the way I have got worse scratches cutting down a Pyracantha hedge.