Paying the plumber - AIBU?

[Hanhan22]

We had work done to fix a leak on Friday. Plumber we have used before. He asked we pay within 10 days as is normal (we’ve always paid promptly in the past though).

We thought, great, as we are a bit tight with coats due to Christmas and DH not paid until today. Anyway, Saturday the plumber texts and asks if we can pay any earlier - we apologise and say we can’t until today as waiting for payday. He texts again yesterday to ask again incase our circumstances have changed, we again said no (politely).

We’ve paid this morning and text to confirm which he has read and not replied.

AIBU to feel he was a CF? If you don’t want a delay in payment, then don’t give 10 days for it!

Edit - obviously the title is meant to say ‘Paying’ if someone can change it please. No idea what happened there

[Title edited by MNHQ]

He asked we pay within 10 days as is normal

Then it's perfectly ok to pay at any point up to 10 days.
He can't change his mind later and start asking for the money earlier.
If he wanted/needed to be paid immediately he should have said the bill was to be paid immediately/within 3 days, whatever.

He's probably short of money for Christmas but that's not your problem. I'm self-employed and I'm waiting for some payments coming in. All of them are still within the specified time window, no one is overdue. I could do with the money now but that's not their problem.

As for the accidentally on purpose mistake in the title - a thread about whether to peg the plumber or not would have been much more interesting.

The plumber isn’t a CF, I’m really surprised they allow 10 day door payment after doing the job to be honest. They were probably worrying you wouldn’t pay.

Probably called someone like us who would have given 30 days.

im not even going to be emailing any invoices now until the new year.

I wouldn’t instruct anybody to do work without having money to pay on completion of the works.

Perhaps moneys a bit tight for him too so he is chasing up payments.

This and the guy must be needing the money for Christmas

If that’s the case he should have said he wanted immediate payment from the start.

If the plumber wants to be paid earlier he needs to change his payment terms.

His terms are ten days and you paid him as soon as you could, which was five days. I don't think you did anything wrong!

I agree
Together with a bottle of wine, He fixed a leak before Christmas, fitted you in and hopefully saved you enormous call out fees later on. A decent plumber is to be cherished and he’ll look after you in the future. He certainly isn’t a CF to ask if you could pay a bit earlier. It was only a question NOT a demand.

My serious answer is that, regardless of whether or not you did peg him, you are being unreasonable.

As you said “there is a cost of living crisis” and lots of people are “hard up”, including possibly the plumber.

Don’t book work which you can’t immediately pay for.

I personally pay straight away after receiving the invoice and most independent trades folk do expect this round my way. Only the companies and bigger operations give a long time to pay as they tend to be able to afford the gap more.

Yanbu though as he gave 10 days leeway, he should change his t&Cs. If he does you another job, you may well find he has done.

My friends oh is a plumber and gave three days but the amount of people who strung him along for payday meant he's now on completion. With the exception for friends though funnily friends always pay right away anyway. When he worked as a subcontractor, the company could afford the grace period for every customer but on his own...nope.

I think he is also feeling the pinch and was hoping you weren’t, that’s all.

I always pay on completion. Maybe this will make him change his terms. I do think he was unreasonable to chase again, after you told him when you would be paying - and you were within his timescale.

Do you pay your hairdresser on completion of the job or make him/her wait ten days? Or you window cleaner or gardener? Pay when the job’s done. There’s only one CF here and it’s not the plumber. You should have paid immediately or at the very least when he reminded you.

well if they offered the option of the 10 days then thats the fault of the tradesperson not the customer

They paid 5 days before the deadline.

As I said, neither of them did anything 'wrong'.

He asked if she could pay earlier, they said they couldn't. It doesn't sound like he made a big fuss or became threatening. It sounds like he waited for payment within his terms.

It seems she's now annoyed that he's not replied to a text sent a few hours ago. That is a bit unreasonable I think. To be annoyed at him not replying immediately while he's probably at work. He waited for his money until the OP was able to/found it convenient to pay (within the time limit given) and now the OP feels she shouldn't have to wait more than a few hours for him to be able to reply at a convenient time. This thread was posted at 3pm ish and they'd paid that morning, so possibly only hours before. That's pretty entitled IMO.

He asked her to pay within 10 days. That's what she did.

The window cleaner and the gardener will have their own terms and conditions.

Hairdressers, dentists, vets and so on expect to be paid before you leave the premises and there's normally information to that effect somewhere in the salon or practice.
My vet practice has a notice up saying all bills are to be paid immediately by cash or card before leaving the surgery.

If the plumber wants to be paid immediately then he needs to tell his customers that before doing the job so that they know. This plumber didn't. He said she had 10 days to pay.

Yes it is, I’ve had some utterly ridiculous autocorrects lately.

Why ? The plumber asked for payment within ten days ? If he wanted it earlier he should have said so.

We’re having our second Christmas in a row where work has been done and we haven’t yet been paid. Did an emergency job last December so get a bar owner out of the shit and we’ve still had only half the money. Contractors need money for Christmas too.

Well if the plumber was feeling the effects of the cost of living why did he state his terms as payment within ten days ? OP paid within five. They’ve done nothing wrong.

Exactly. Some people may have been able to pay and would happily do it (tbh I pay all tradesmen immediately), others use the full time given before they pay.
Plumber was clearly just asking to see if people were prepared to pay before the 10 day deadline, nowt wrong with it

Agree. But if things are so tight then the terms and conditions should state payment immediately on completion of the job, not within ten days.

YABU I pay immediately upon receiving an invoice of whatever work I've had done. Stick it on a credit card if costs are an issue.

I was wondering whether you were planning to use his own plunger .... :)