We are a small family company, and although this doesnt involve a huge amount of money, it is still money!
To be as brief as I can, we were requested to go to do a job at a flat, the tenant is also the managing agent for the block which had 4 flats. I will call him Mr A in Flat 1. He said he had a problem with his satellite dish, nothing specific, just not getting any channels. To get access to the dish, our engineer had to go into the top flat. No problem there, as someone met our engineer on site to let him in and give him access. This is important because we have emails confirming that Mr A had contacted this person as he had work that needed doing.
Engineer goes to job, knocks on door and asks for Mr A. A man comes out, says hello, says he is also the landlord and tells our engineer what the problem is, and what he wants doing. We had already told Mr A that the job would cost £65 if it was a simple matter of realigning the dish, and if it was going to be more than that, we would quote on site. It was going to be more than that, we quoted, man said fine, go ahead. Work gets done as requested, all working fine, man fills in a cheque, in the name of Mr A, hands it to engineer. All complete.. so we think.
A few hours later I get a call from Mr A. He is cancelling the cheque because we have not done the right work.
It seems that the man (now Mr B) who met our engineer was just Mr A's representative because Mr A couldnt get there. (this was not explained to engineer). Mr B is the landlord, that is true. Mr A is demanding we go back, for free to do the job.. and we are now £300 out of pocket for materials and labour.
If you are with me so far, thankyou!.. an exchange of emails has now gone on, between myself and Mr A, with me saying that we did exactly what his representative asked, Mr B was happy with the job, and gave our engineer the payment. At no time did Mr B explain that he wasnt Mr A.
So we are now at a point where he refuses to pay, and we want our money... what do we do next?