Problem with electrician - advice please

[shirleybrown]

We have a good electrician who we have worked with for about five years but recently something happened that had left me pretty annoyed. I asked our electrician to come by to move a plug socket in the kitchen fairly urgently. He came the following week. We hadn’t agreed a price. I was at home but upstairs with our tiny baby pretty much the whole time. He turned up with another electrician and my understanding is that they installed the plug very quickly, perhaps within an hour. My husband was liaising with the electricians. It turns out that rather than leaving when they had done the plug they asked him if there were any more jobs that needed doing while they were there. They ended up moving some light switches and installing some lamps. I then got an invoice for £600. I queried this with the electrician and he said he billed me for two electricians for a whole day. I am upset about this as I feel taken advantage of. I wasn’t available on the day yet I am the one who is now expected to pay for all of this, and ultimately I only asked for a plug socket to be installed which took one person less than an hour. I really think it’s unreasonable to be slammed for an invoice for £600 and that the electrician has kind of taken advantage of a chaotic post-baby household. What should I do?

To move one plug about two meters? Not more than £100

No neither of us asked for the work to be done, they kept asking for more stuff to do. While we are here, shall we do this etc

I wasn’t really sure who was coming and going. I was upstairs the whole day with the baby and there weren’t any materials.

OP it’s your house, you were paying the bill, had said hello. Why were you not talking to them on the day if you were there?

You’re saying that DH didn’t ask for these jobs? Did they know what future work you were wanting to carry out or did they make random suggestions your DH didn’t refuse???

Wow you are a horrible person, do you realise how sexist you are? Would you be asking a working father why the mother of a five month old baby isn’t working?

Aye so your husband says , you weren't there . I'm not sure , you say he has been fine for 5 years now he is trying to rip you off , seems unlikely. Is your husband vulnerable? Do you normally deal with tradesmen because this has happened before? He could have said no nothing else needs doing.

DH isn’t an idiot and he didn’t ask anyone to do anymore work. They put him on the spot.

And if he isn't infact an idiot, he should have just said "No, thank you". Still perfectly polite.

I engaged them not my husband, frankly I don’t think it’s any different than if they asked my cleaner for permission to do more work

Oh please OP. Surely you don't actually believe this? Unless you gave the electrician a prior instruction only to deal with yourself then your husband is also an adult occupant of the home capable of making decisions about what work was to be done. He also happens to have been the only person available for them to ask after you disappeared...

You said in your OP "my husband was liaising with the electricians". What did you mean by this? Liaising usually means dealing with them/going between you and them. Maybe they assumed (rightly) that seeing as you were unavailable to ask directly they were to ask your husband (equal partner)? And why was you husband unable to say "I don't think she needs anything else done, let me check quickly before you do anything else"?

So it’s their fault your husband told them that yes there was more work to be done and they did it? Your husband isn’t a child, he’s a grown man, if he didn’t want more work doing he could have easily said “no that’s all thank you”. Your anger is misplaced.

I think it’s sexist actually when I engage and pay for trades and then they try to go over my head to my husband

you were upstairs with your baby. Presumably your DH was available for them to talk to.

it is entirely his fault.

For crying out loud, op. None of this is going to fly in a small claims court if you are trying this moral outrage on for size. Your husband commissioned the work in addition to your initial request and you are both responsible to pay the invoice, regardless of who is working and who isn't.

They put him on the spot. He is really polite and hates conflict.

How is it impolite to say 'no, thank you' when they asked if there was more work?

He's sentient adult who lives in the house surely?

do you realise how sexist you are?

Do you? Are you saying your husband wasn't in a position to say no to extra work just because you had engaged the electricians & were paying?

If it was a wife dealing with the electricians, would it be ok to say 'she couldn't say no to the electrician because her husband had booked them?

Would you be asking a working father why the mother of a five month old baby isn’t working?

You said you were upstairs with a 'tiny baby' so I thought you meant days or weeks, not months.

I would generally expect a father in that situation to be working, unless ill etc, if the mother was on maternity leave (which is what you said: I am on maternity leave)

So many drip feeds from you, it's practically a waterfall.
Anyway, YABcompletelyU, as is your H

Your Husband has as much say over workmen as your cleaner?

Sorry op but this is on you/your husband

you should have agreed a price with the electrician upfront and been present when they carried out the work to know if 1 or 2 people were there, and clarified the cost of the extra person there and then. Your husband shouldn’t have randomly agreed to extra work that wasn’t previously discussed as obviously no one works for free. He should have at least clarified the price of the extra work.

obviously no one likes to be lumbered with a larger bill than expected, but this could have been avoided if your household took more care with the transaction

I don’t think it’s any different than if they asked my cleaner for permission to do more work

😂 We are the misandrists when you don't consider your own husband capable of acting like a grown adult?

Did the job require two people? I would be passed off that he charged for two people. Could he have done a the jobs on his own in one day? If so he shouldn't have invoiced for two unless he warned you about that. You and your husband are also at fault for not getting a quote first.

I would say it's pretty standard when dealing with a married couple to consult either of them about work that's being done, whether it's a cleaner, electrician, or any other tradesperson. It has nothing to do with being sexist, if only one of you were present, to deal with the person there. They might have been pushy, but it was your husband's prerogative to either say no or to refer them back to you.

I think the only recourse you have is to look at the actual work done and try and assess how many man-hours are likely to have been involved. If two of the people were twiddling their thumbs then clearly the charges are OTT and you could argue on that score. But, frankly, if your DH agreed the work without asking how much it would cost, I don't hole much hope of you getting a reduction.

Also you can’t get annoyed with them asking your husband instead of you if there’s any other work you wanted done. You said yourself that you stayed upstairs and didn’t bother with them, so they couldn’t ask you as you weren’t there with them.

If your husband was in any doubt about a lack of consensus on the work he commissioned, surely he could have done something drastic to double check, like shouting up the stairs?

So you're paying the price for your husband's inability to say no.
Your anger is misplaced. Live and learn.

If you thinking this is bad, wait till you hear that marriage is a legal contract that comes with a huge number of financial decisions your husband is wife is authorised make on behalf of both of you! Hint - he has a few more rights to do this than your cleaner!

I'm confused, but only have hazy memories of dealing with tradesmen with a young baby.

Weren't you not a teeny bit puzzled why a 30 minute job required repeated drilling/chiselling for most of the day? Did your DH not think to explain what was going on if you weren't at home?

I don't think you can ask them to cut the bill "because my husband is an idiot".

I love the idea of OP’s DH being so polite that the electricians keep moving random plugs because he can’t tell them not to.

It reminds me of the episode of the thick of it where they ‘buy a bank out of social awkwardness’.

In future then, you should probably tell any tradespeople how come to your house to not engage with your husband as he is not capable of saying no, and to ignore anything he asks to be done and to confirm with you first, if he doesn't have the capacity to make decisions you agree with. I'd pay and take it as a lesson he shouldn't engage with anyone you employ.

Why didn’t you notice the electricians were there much longer than you expected? You can’t have just stayed upstairs for the whole day with a small baby - you would have needed to come downstairs to get food and drink and at the very least you would have heard them doing their work!