AIBU to request a welfare check?

[Porkpieandmustard]

I have just submitted a complaint to a company this evening, whose work has caused me to have to pay additional fees to a different company (work not completed properly).
I asked for the money to be reimbursed by the original company.

I’ve received a very angry email back and at the end he tells me that (in summary) he might as well kill himself.

What do I do with that?
Do I phone 101 for a welfare check?

The company are not local to me.

It sounds like a one-man-band company and he’s struggling with it.

I’d probably report it.

Do you have enough details of the guy for someone to do a welfare check or is it just generic company details?

I have his name and the name of the company and their address.

I don’t want to ignore it.

Not your problem if some angry man is making suicide threats. Just make sure you pursue the reimbursement.

I don’t think I can look at it like that.

I would always do a welfare check.

Can’t hurt to report it then, I think you can do it online.

I would report it. Either someone genuinely needs checked on, or a twat making threats to try and put someone off their reimbursement request needs a shock to stop them using such shit tactics.

2 possible outcomes, he's serious and you save him or he's being a melodramatic arsehole and you embarras him which is no more than he deserves. You really can't go wrong

Exactly this.

Agree with this.

Personally I wouldn't. I work in a role where suicide mentions are common though so I've dealt with this kind of scenario many times.

Based on our Company policy (which was developed in conjunction with emergency services), this wouldn't meet the threshold...'I might as well' isn't direct enough to warrant a police referral.

If it doesn’t meet threshold that’s not OPs problem though, she will have done what she can and move on from it. OP isn’t following company policy, she’s following human emotions and decisions

Or the third possible outcome, our overstretched police force send a much needed unit out unnecessarily and it results in awful consequences for someone genuinely in need who has to wait longer.

Calling out emergency services should be done when needed but never lightly. The police aren't there to provide a lesson in humility to some cowboy builder.

Report it, ask for a check, it’s then for 101’s to decide if they feel it’s enough for a welfare check.

I'm aware. Just giving my pov like everyone else.

I wouldn't call and I wouldn't lose sleep over it. It's a common thing that idiots often say mid-tantrum ime.

There's enough in a suicide threat to be worth asking for a welfare check, it's not a ridiculous thing to do at all! Overstretched or not there is potential this is a mentally ill man and men frequently kill themselves due to professional worried over money and status, much more often than women do. It's reasonable to check for that reason. My point is simply if it's not that it should stop him doing it again and actually if someone's making suicide threats idly that isn't really the act of a mentally well person either.

Well, you asked. If the body of the email was, as you say, ‘very angry’, this isn’t suicidal ideation, it’s someone who thinks this is a way of making you back off seeking reimbursement for poor-quality work.

Sorry, that should have been in response to your reply to my post.

Also, are you going to pursue the reimbursement? Because if he’s hot you worried about his welfare and reluctant to proceed, he’s ‘won’, hasn’t he?

Thanks all. I spoke to 101. They were really helpful. I did have a mobile number for the man so I was able to give them his name, company name and address and mobile.
The woman I spoke to said I’d done the right thing and they would take it from here. I have blocked his number as I don’t want him contacting me by phone.

Difficult to know what to do about the
complaint. It’s not a lot of money but also it’s to do with a job involving gas, which was left unsafe, so I was considering reporting to Trading Standards / HSE.

Report it. I did and it saved a life.

Crossed posts, well done. Good decision.

Yes see above @WeewahI am thinking twice about it but as there’s a health and safety element to the work done, I feel an obligation to do something. (He has denied that there was a safety issue. )

If it unsafe gas work, report to the Gas Safe Register https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/gas-safety/concerns-reporting-illegal-gas-work/

The context matters, though.

Saying ‘I might as well…’ to say, your therapist or support worker (or someone else in a helping role where it can be explored and managed) is very different from saying it to a customer / client following a complaint. That has a very different feel to it and suggests someone at the end of their tether. I wouldn’t be comfortable ignoring this.

Cross posted. You did the right thing, OP.