Contractor lying to me about price of materials

[Stouffer123]

Is it normal practice for contractors to lie about the price of materials? I’ve got a contractor putting up some fencing for me, it’s costing a large amount in total. The agreement was I would buy the materials and get them delivered to me and then I would ‘own them’. He ordered the materials through his trade account and he gave me the price but when I rang up the merchant to pay, the price was significantly lower (about £300). I queried this with him and he said it was an ‘error’ but when I rang the merchant back they told me it was a trade discount. I wasn’t aware of this so feel a bit silly. I just paid it because I didn’t want to cause a fuss, but am I being unreasonable to feel that he lied to me about the price? Is it normal for contractors to do this or is it normal for them to pass the saving onto you. Just want to know if I’m being taken for a ride.

When we have paid the bill direct with the merchant and had the materials delivered straight to us we have paid the bill with trade discount. Tradies often do this so the goods don't go through their books so they don't end up paying VAT and it also means they don't have stuff outstanding on their account, so it's a bonus to them. If you were paying the merchant direct, how could you be expected to pay more than the bill??

Scamming cunts

Then as a customer why be expected to pay for materials at all, can the tradesman not afford this overheads for his business?

id assume the conversation regarding the customer ordering and getting the best price would include this discount, otherwise matey should be ordering everything he needs for the job and we settle at the end.

It's normal for tradespeople to charge profit and attendance on materials. It covers the time spent measuring for products, ordering products, going into merchants to discuss orders, collecting orders, dealing with merchants for anything faulty ect. If the discount is trade price, it wouldn't have applied to you anyway. For many projects, this is the only way to make the project viable to builders.

My bathroom fitter let me have his £600 trade discount he got. As a result I asked him to refit my downstairs cloakroom too.

To be honest good contractors are really hard to find. We have been using the same people, probably 5/6 different trades,for years and years. We get a price for the job and if happy, which we usually are, we agree the job and the timetable. What discount he is getting is his business we only care about total price, timetable and quality. As a consequence we can always get work done and have never had a bad job. I’ve no doubt at all we could get work done more cheaply sometimes.

What she is SAYING, and people are not understanding is this:

He told her to buy from this supplier, even though he does not have to pick it up or anything else. So WHY did she need to buy from there and not her choice of material suppliers? Answer: Because he wanted to make money on top of the money he makes for doing the job.

She could have shopped around for the best price but got stuck buying from the place her contractor said. So now, not only does he make labor costs, but also makes money on her purchases. He should have let her buy where SHE wanted to buy because I would bet money that many places were cheaper. The contractor is being sneaky and deceitful.

My DH was a contractor for many years. His clients paid what he paid for materials and delivery. If he got a discount, so did they.

I agree. If told it's cheaper to buy from store "A" by the contractor, then I would expect the bill to be cheaper, not the same as if I went to store "B" or "C".

Some contractors are very, very greedy and it shows.

If he didn't want to give the OP a discount, he should have quoted her a price for materials from the place he buys and let her choose where to buy them. Maybe the contractor's price would have still been cheapest, but maybe not.

OP--I'd call around or go visit some building supply places and get prices on the same quality fencing and see if it is cheaper or more expensive.

LOL! Hogwash! Insurance, fuel, measuring, ordering etc, all gets covered by the contractor fee, the difference in labor costs (what he pays versus what he charges) and many other little "ways".

As to your "other post", which was totally clueless. The contractor TOLD her to pay the supplier directly. That way he gets ALL the benefit of what she bought and the discount, but SHE would have been responsible for any problems with the materials.

SMDHATSOSP. faceplam

@Stouffer123 posted this FACT: * The agreement was I would buy the materials and get them delivered to me and then I would ‘own them’. *

@beanii Do you have any reading comprehension skills at all?

Don't bother. I already know the answer.

YES!! All tradesmen have this big scam going on where they charge you a big mark up on any stuff they buy for you. So if you have a bathroom fitted, you really should buy the bathroom suite yourself and then pay someone to fit it.

But it's not that easy to buy things at the 'trade' price.

I had no idea until DH and I bought our house 20 years ago and had to virtually renovate all of it. DH registered as a 'tradesman' with a wholesale firm in Bristol, and we were amazed by the differences in prices! We were given a catalogue showing retail prices which a tradesman can show to their customer, and they choose their fixtures and fittings. For example - we bought a bathroom cabinet to fit around our basin - it was about £45 but the price in the catalogue was more like £120!

So these rip off merchants will quote you £200 a day - or whatever - but will also be making a massive mark up on anything they buy in for you. It's such a con......

I can imagine he’d be thinking he’d had a lucky escape tbh.

@Humannat Some may do it this way, some may expect the customers to look around because they might have come across a customer who has complained about the materials or the quality of them.

So they give them a chance to shop for the materials themselves to ensure their liking.
Who knows?

He’s a CF, we have just had our fence replaced & I shopped round for fence posts & panels.. would have cost us more through our guy doing the job, according to his quote.

It depends on the tradie. My tradie DP always passes his discount on to the customer, but some don’t. If they don’t, they’d usually bill you for materials via their own invoice rather than get you to make a payment against their account as things like this happen!

No he won’t 😂😂

He’ll just tell his partner about you and laugh at you. My DP has happily walked away from jobs where people have this attitude and he’s better off for it that’s for sure!

I think what is dodgy here is the fact that he convinced the OP that it would be cheaper through him and to not mention his £300 kick back. That’s not honest. Op was perfectly willing to get her own materials. I’ve had this loads in the past - builders trying to bully me to use howdens which is more expensive than I could source elsewhere and of course they get their kick back. If there’s nothing dodgy then they would have be transparent about it.

When I've had stuff done I've only been charged the trade price - plus then time etc for collecting would be reasonable. The benefit of ordering through the tradesman is that they can get stuff cheaper. If they are in any way getting commission or profiting themselves they should make this clear.

Or I've ordered it myself when there has been no difference.

I agree, YANBU.

We charge 15-20% mark up on our materials. They get put onto our credit account and paid at the end of the month. It helps to cover our overheads (there is work involved in putting the quote together and getting the list of stuff needed etc.

The discount only applies to items that we as a company buy through our trade account. If a customer wanted to pay for their materials individually then the supplier would charge them normal retail price. The supplier obviously made a mistake quoting the trade price to an individual customer.

There's no indication she was bullied. You're just making stuff up to fit your narrative and draw a comparative situation.

You didn’t buy the materials as he ordered them on his account. So, why would you expect to “earn” the trade discount when you didn’t take the risk of purchasing the materials?