We’re in the middle of (bloody stressful!) renovations at home. We had some quotes from decorators and having been let down last minute by one we had booked in (confirmed in writing), we needed someone to start asap so asked each one If we were to go with them, when they would be free. One man looked in his diary and gave us a date. We said we ideally wanted earlier than that and he said he’d pencil us in for then. We said we’d see. He then gave a quote and left. It was very expensive and we chose not to use him so that was that. We had the same with some others. One messaged to ask what we had decided and we told him we had chosen someone else who could do the work sooner. We never heard from this man. This man came on 23rd July and we had heard nothing. Until tonight. He phoned me and asked were we still on to start next week? I apologised and said there must have been some misunderstanding and that we had chosen to use someone else. He said ok but the issue was that he had now bought all the paint for our job! I was in the middle of an appointment so apologised again and said my partner would call him back. I texted my partner who called him within a few minutes. He said he’s really angry and has spent £180 on 3 x 10L tins of paint. My partner said we never agreed. He left the quote with us and that was it. He disagrees and said we agreed for him to do the work. We had never had chance to discuss the quote and he never called before he bought the paint. He says there was an offer on so he took advantage of it and bought the paint. What would you do!? He kept saying he had never had this in 30 years. We are reasonable people and want to do the right thing here, but what do you think is the right thing?
Thank you!