To want my bloody money back?

[HeyThereDelilah1]

Horrible, violent leak from a burst pipe and a broken stop clock meant that I had to call out an emergency plumber to my home in the middle of the night. My husband was abroad and I was at home with a baby and a toddler with water filling up the bathroom at a rapid rate and pouring into the kitchen below. When I called the agency (head under a sink being covered in hot water) trying to soak as much up as I could, they said they’d be an £85 call out charge and the plumbers fee would apply thereafter - turns out it was £385 an hour and I could kick myself for not asking - but at that moment in time I just wanted the bloody thing stopped. When I spoke to the agent to complain about the £800 bill for an hours work (added loads of tax and other ridiculous charges - it also turns out they aren’t vat registered) he was quite menacing and said the plumber would stay in my house until I paid - it was midnight at this point and I couldn’t see any other option. I’ve since asked for their published rates and they’ve refused saying they can charge any amount per hour, they’ve refused a vat reg number and apparently don’t know the name or address of the contractor who came to my house, they just hold phone numbers which seems incredibly neglectful considering they send their contractors to peoples homes in the middle of the night. Who should I report this agency too? Trading standards seems a dead end thus far! Any advice appreciated as they are top in google for ‘emergency plumber’ and I want to avoid other people being conned if possible...

There are some terrible reviews on Google for this company

I’d call the police now; intimidation, extortion and fraud.

he was quite menacing and said the plumber would stay in my house until I paid

That's terrifying.

I'd complain EVERYWHERE I could think of. Papers, Which?, Trading Standards, Citizen's Advice, Watchdog…

Talk to your bank about the money and don't let your insurers fob you off. I think most people's thought in that scenario would be to call a plumber, not their insurers. They're being unreasonable.

@HeyThereDelilah1 the same thing happened to us on Tuesday! It was with an electrician through emergencyservices24.co.uk; I started a thread about it in AIBU. I was gutted but like you felt we had no choice but to pay, although they asked for £465 and we refused to pay more than £350 - and even then we were ripped off as the electrician they sent out was very apologetic and said he would charge £185 for the same job. So it seems to be an agency set-up and this is how they operate.

It's AWFUL.

this is what you get if you put their email address in google

E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: +442038075378
Address: NextY Ltd, 12 Bridewell Place, Third Floor East, London, United Kingdom, EC4V 6AP

@RedPandaFluff It's the same lot! At least, it's one heck of a coincidence that they have the same address if it's not!

Argh, it happened to me once with a pest control guy

He kept standing in my kitchen and talked about his dog, his mum, his life. I did not want to be rude. He then looked at the clock and charged 2 hrs (30 mins work, 31 mins chatting).... and like an idiot I paid. To get rid of him. £300 for a shitty job of spraying some aerosols

They had 100s of great reviews. How?!

Reviews are a con, these days

Found their VAT Number!

GB 271789169

The address is different. but that's because they recently moved to Bridewell Place.

Report to police, get a crime ref no. Then call the bank and tell them it is a crime and they might be able to put a stop on it.

We run a business. Our invoices have the registered company address, VAT number, company name, phone number and address.

It is illegal, or at least it should be, to charge VAT when you are not VAT registered. To be honest, if they charge that much, they must be over the threshold where you have to register for VAT.

Do other people a favour and report them to every agency going, they are obviously a fraudulent company and I would also be very concerned about the standard of work they did in your house. To the extent I would get it checked by a reputable company.

This is awful. Contact your bank and request they complete a chargeback. You will need to explain the reasons. Your bank can reverse the transaction as long as it’s within 130 days I think.

DF is a plumber and he hates it when he hears stories like this. Poor dad does his best to be a good person and a do a fab job and tw*ts like this give him a bad name. It is illegal to charge someone extra to use a card. The prices are extortion even for an emergency and then to threaten you in top when you have children in the house is disgusting. Unfortunately there are a few of these ‘agencies’ about, dad said loads have been on watchdog. I hope you get it sorted one way or the other :(

Have you been in touch with your bank? Can they stop the payment?
So awful op. BIL is a plumber, he would NEVER do this to anyone. There are some disgusting tradesmen out there.

Most bizarre no info on a who is look up either, I think them putting Nexty Pty Ltd on their website is them just popping any old limited company name down Nexty are a design co so seems odd they'd branch into scam plumbing. Definitely take it up with your bank and police, its duress

Have they provided any sort of bill? Who did you pay?

Looking at the general terms of service, nexty ltd is only providing a 'venue', to put customers in touch with professionals (plumbers). I assume that's the £85 fee. You then have a separate contract between you and the plumber for the plumbing services. Thev £385 per hour will be a fee that he sets, and it's up to you to agree it with him. He is supplying the service to you, so he would need to be VAT registered and would charge you VAT. From memory if you received a bill/invoice from Nexty the shouldn't be able to charge VAT as they aren't providing the plumbing service anyway (unless it's only on the £85). My memory of the relevant VAT notice is rusty and its not worded in a straight foward way. I could be wrong.

Is there anyway you could post redacted copy of your bill?

www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-costs-or-disbursements-passed-to-customers

If you had been billed by nexty the plumbing services/associated costs should be treated as a disbursement.

Get a copy of the bill and speak to HMRC re the VAT.

As PPs mention, CAB re the other issues.

What a horrible experience . So sorry for you and the kiddies

Contact the merchant services provider for the plumbing company. Charges can only be added for company credit cards and cards registered abroad

Have you got legal insurance on your house insurance?

I know that you said that they weren't interested as you didn't make them your first call for the repair, but if you do have legal insurance included (lots of policies do have it) then you may well find that they could help you with the process of reporting them or sending them a snotty letter, without the need for you to pay out more,

It might also be worth pointing out to the insurers that it wasn't clear from their literature that they sent to you that you needed to call them first - and if they only send out documents by email, point out that having this info electronically can be great but when a crisis hits, particularly one that involves lots of water gushing around and a need for all the electricity to be off, it's very difficult to access policy documents or know what to do... So please could they provide an app and/or a paper / laminated paper 'what to do in an emergency' document! might get you a little back in compensation...

I’d be very surprised if the insurers hadn’t provided all manner of emergency procedure and 24 hour contact information at the same time as they sent their policy document. The problem is that people don’t tend to read it.

from what you've said they'll be way over the VAT threshold (approx 100 days work per at that rate).

Personally I'd pay what I thought was reasonable (ask another plumber or work on £100 call out and £40 per hour based on my own experiences) and let them go legal to recover the rest.

Worst case scenario they have to get a solicitors letter or threaten you with court. You can then choose if you pay or not before going to court. I suspect they won't bother pursuing you for the balance as a court will see them as being unreasonable given you've paid a sensible amount already.

If they charged you VAT and they aren't VAT registered you should report them to HMRC

Thanks so much for everyone’s help, it’s actually been a real comfort and restored my faith in humanity. @RedPandaFluff I’m so sorry to hear you’ve been done over by the same company. If we both complain to Witch, Watchdog and CA they might just get pulled up on this. After speaking to the agency and threatening HMRC they’ve now asked the plumber to pay me back and are apparently refunding him separately - it’s all incredibly dodgy but the £120 has reached my account which is something. Insurance will potentially refund me for some of it, they’ve asked for the invoice and are investigating. What I really want is to stop this company getting their hands on more vulnerable people - I’ve also contacted Google, will keep you updated!

Sorry just for the tax not full amount!!