Rude store manager?! Take my money elsewhere

[Sellotapeandlime]

Hello everyone,

Had a bit of a shit day but I want to know if AIBU.

I have been to three carpet stores and have been comparing quotes and have decided to (of course) go for the cheapest quote. I get there and I'm ready to pay for my deposit. However, the manager said that I need to pay the rest of the money in cash to pay the fitters on the day of the carpet. I told him "no" that I prefer to pay the rest of the money by debit/bank transfer on the day so that I have a digital record of the payment. I said I was happy to put down a higher amount for the deposit- but it would be too much money to cash out and due to the large amount, I prefer to pay the rest of the balance by card.

All of a sudden he got very angry, face red, shaking and said "NO! You pay all of the money upfront or half on the day in cash or nothing at all". I replied to him "Well, I can see that you are angry and I don't feel comfortable with the way you are behaving, so I'm going to leave and look elsewhere. Then he said "Bye!", and I left.

I mean what the hell???? Can anyone please tell me if AIBU?? Was I wrong to request that I would like to pay the rest by card?

Also! I'm now stuck as my only option is to pay for the expensive carpet place who are known to do a very good job but are very expensive. We need to move into our new home within three weeks. What should I do????????

Just had some decorating done. Didn’t even pay upfront for the materials. All invoices and paid after. This was for an independent self employed decorator.

OP I’ve had similar with our local independent carpet store (rude not about the money).I in the end chose to keep our existing carpet and will go elsewhere when we need to change them. Real shame as I’d prefer to support local.

Yes, I have always paid the fitters in cash on the day of fitting but ONLY when I have inspected it and agreed that it is all ok...........had a bad experience years ago and it took ages to get them to come back.
Never had an issue with paying for the carpet though - maybe it's because the carpet retailer didn't employ their own fitters where I went.

But how did you know until the work was done? I’ve always had the job done, they’ve sent me their bank details for a bank transfer, and it’s only when I input the details that I notice it’s a personal, not business account. I don’t quiz tradespeople about what type of bank account they use before I hire them, and I don’t believe anyone else does either!

No reason to get angry with a customer though. He could simply have explained that because most carpet fitters don’t want to pay their taxes they only accept cash, and unfortunately he can’t do anything about that.

If the carpets are very similar then go back to the expensive shop and ask can they price match or at least give you a discount as you've found similar elsewhere. That's how it works round here, you get quotes in the 3 main carpet stores and as long as they're very similar carpets then you choose whichever one you feel most comfortable with and ask them to match the cheapest one. They'll maybe not match the price but drop theirs a little to get the sale.

And we always have to pay the fitters in cash on the day.

I'd go for the more expensive company so that you know that you have a record and then report Mr Grumpypants to the tax department, tbh. Bastards are going under the counter and not paying taxes. This is how dodgy blokes earn shitloads and get away with paying nothing in child maintenance.

This was for a deposit on a plastering job. My spidey senses were tingling because of it so I pulled out. And I’m bloody glad I didn’t because I later found out a friend had used him and he’d been an utter nightmare, both during and after the job.

I've bought lots of carpets and have always been told to pay some cash to the fitters on the day of completion. Perhaps this is why he is cheaper? Sometimes cheaper isn't better. Look at others from outside the area.

So it’s fairly normal to pay the carpet fitters direct - I've done this in the past too - but not in cash. It’s been a bank transfer. More recently the money has just been taken by the carpet company and passed on to the fitter.

The manager you dealt with was very rude - if it’s part of a chain I’d complain. I also tend NOT to go with the cheapest quote anywhere. I get 3-5 quotes and go for a middling one, once I’ve compared reviews for the product and services. Often the cheapest will give the shoddiest service because that’s where they’re saving the most money - staff/labour.

Whats wrong with a paper receipt?

Just so you know. Paying by bank transfer as you wanted to do is the same as paying cash and you have no protection once it's left your account. ( I work for a bank). So you have cost yourself more money for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Totally normal to pay cash to the fitter, they are usually sole traders, they don't work for the carpet store.

Where I live the 'cheap' carpet shop is a different business to the carpet fitter. You pay for the carpet in the shop, either take it away yourself once it's been cut or the shop arranges a fitter.

Fitter then charges for collecting it and fitting it.

As opposed to our decent quality shop that does all the organising for you, you do get what you pay for. I also fell out with the cheap shop years ago!!

If you're a sole trader you can use a personal account for business transactions so I've no idea why you would choose to not use a tradesman for that reason

I feel that you’ve dodged a bullet here. The saying buy cheap, pay twice comes to mind.
when I had my carpets fitted I paid the balance on the day they were fitted by card. Sounds like a tax avoidance tactic to me.

cash to pay the fitters on the day of the carpet

Totally normal to pay the fitters in cash on the day.

Im thinking you’ve misunderstood him, he wasn’t asking for you to pay the rest of the carpet money in cash, just the fitters. In fact was it just a deposit you were paying for the carpet, because that would be pretty unusual? It’s generally pay in full for the carpet and then cash for the fitters on the day.

Well, as I said upthread, my instincts were right with this particular person as a friend had a nightmare with him. Whereas the plasterer I eventually went with had a business account, didn’t accept cash, and was really good and trustworthy. Bit more expensive. Annoyingly has moved 60 miles away as we need a different room doing now!

All the big companies (Carpet right, Tapi etc) do this and have always done so, at least since I bought my first carpet (1982). The fitters are self employed and don't always need to be paid in cash. The most recent time, we carpeted and floored a whole house (3 storeys) and couldn't have got hold of that much cash because there are no banks here.

There is already lack of funding. Those who can get away with not paying tax or paying less tax already do. Especially big corps. They know all the loopholes. I’m not about to get all worked up about Fred the builder not paying the right amount of tax. Whatever. He can pay whatever he can get away with. Until the big corps pay all the tax they are due Joe blogs saving himself a few quid isn’t going to make the slightest difference

They are cheap for a reason. The fitters are paid in cash and probably don't pay tax on their income.

I would always go to a shop where you can pay by credit card or at least debit card.

To all those people saying it is normal to pay the fitters on the day in cash, your experience is not universal
I have, over the past ten years, had six separate lots of carpet fitting
Not one of them required the fitters to be paid in cash
All from one company had to be paid on the day via bank transfer, all from the other two were paid to the company upon invoicing

We paid for our flooring upfront, then paid the fitter on the day. However, even though they say cash, all the tradesmen I’ve come across in the last couple of years- which is a lot because we’ve had so much work done on the house & garden, we’ve paid them all via bank transfer, they all requested that’s how we pay. So there is a legal financial trail because they all come up that you’re paying a business & not a personal account.
When they say cash I’ve found they don’t mean actual physical cash, just they don’t accept credit card payments, just bank transfers. Whereas the shops themselves you can pay that bit on a credit card if you so wish.
However the manager at your shop you went to @Sellotapeandlime sounds totally unhinged!!

• “HMRC estimated £5.5 billion lost due to tax evasion in 2022-23 – 81% from small businesses (up from 66% in 2019-20).”

www.nao.org.uk/press-releases/small-businesses-evading-tax-leave-hmrc-billions-out-of-pocket/

It is not normal to pay fitters in cash unless it is cheap.

I always use a carpet company where I pay the full amount to the shop.

And how many billion from huge corporations?

Fitters are always subcontractors and generally not on "good" wages. They are often working with other contractors and cash always splitting of payment for the job. Paying cash doesn't necessarily mean they are dodgy but of course there are always a few. But why is that your responsibility? The reason they get het up and angry over these interchanges is that what happens is that when the client is not happy with a job for whatever reason - justified or not they usually are the ones that don't get paid rather than the responsibility being with the shop