Is it usual now to be asked to pay a deposit?

[ADifferentSong]

We have some damp that needs some attention and have gone looking for a contractor through Check a Trader. One of the contractors has come back saying that they require £50 just to step over the threshold and take a first look, which they will refund if we go ahead with them.
I have never heard of this before and wonder if it is usual now?

Charging for quotes? Not normal where we are

It’s unusual to be asked to pay for a quote in my experience, but I’ve not had any damp work done lately.

Do you have a local Facebook page? Newspaper, flyers through the door?

I have found checkatrade’s quotes very high, like they almost exploit the fact you aren’t getting local or word of mouth recommendations.

I searched for a roofer I think, might have been something else, typed in job, got some responses and eventually got the work sorted out via local recommendation. But the checkatrade calls kept coming, which I thought odd, because good trades are in demand, they may quote jobs but they don’t need to keep calling possible jobs.

so I would search Facebook first. Or local companies.

And absolutely no to a “refundable deposit” for a quote. No chance.

No it's not normal, try someone else.

I’ve had this before and simply went elsewhere. Quotes should be win some and lose some, if you’re competitively priced and have a good reputation then the work will come. If you have to charge, I’d be wondering why.

Thank you. We would pay our regular decorator for a quote, but this is someone we haven’t had before so we don’t know them. From the POV of a contractor, I get that they waste a lot of time giving quotes to people who then go with another quote. But from my POV some contractors can be unreliable in actually turning up in the first place, so I’m a bit reluctant to pay until they get here, which I am still waiting on. Meantime, I think they are waiting on receiving my deposit before they turn up. It’s not a great situation, but we now get so many warnings to beware of scams!

Yes I have heard of this with a local highly rated company. We spoke to the guy on the phone and he asked a few details to make sure he wasn't coming out and costing us money unnecessarily. I don't think it's unreasonable as imagine how much time/petrol you'd spend driving around giving quotes to people who may not give you any work - especially if you cover a large area as damp experts probably have to.

I might be ok with this depending on the company.