Plumber is charging me for cancelling!

[Rajster]

Our boiler broke on 2nd Jan and we had a guy come out to have a look at it. He recommended having a new one fitted but he couldn’t fit it for another week. A day later we asked him to go ahead. However, in the meantime another person was recommend to us and he could fit a boiler much sooner - within 2 days. We asked him to do it and it was fitted today and finally we have heating and hot water. We have 2 children under 4 so it was essential that a new boiler was installed as soon as possible. We cancelled the original guy today and now he’s trying to charge us £250 for cancelling even though this was never made clear up front and there is nothing in writing to say we agreed to such a charge. He is threatening legal action if we don’t pay.

Surely we don’t have to pay this? It was an emergency situation that needed resolving as soon as possible.

Please help!

I think the bit where you say: "6th Jan - texted plumber 1 to go ahead but he can only fit on 12th" is key.

Did you follow up with: "Ok, that's fine" or "That's too late for us, we will let you know re going ahead as we may have to look for someone else who can do it quicker."

Or did you just not reply at all? In which case, I think that's seriously out of order and he has it in writing that you told him to go ahead.

@OutToGetYou I apologise as I clearly read your reply wrong.

As a Wife of a Plumber, I can promise you that not every Plumber will have a boiler made available at such short notice, as in this scenario. There's so many reasons why this could be the case.

Sorry to hear about ur experience, I hope it’s all sorted now