Not really sure where to put this - regular but embarrased so changed name...
We had an architect round to give us some ideas - supposed to be a free initial consultation. Chap came, was very jolly, turned out he wasn't an arctitect but a designer, sort of listened to what we wanted, had a look around, tried to find some photos to show us on his laptop 'but I can't find the ones I really want to show you because they are a bit disorganised at the moment', showed us some more although he didn't seem to have that many directories on his laptop, but could have had more elsewhere though.
He'd originally said he'd do some rough sketches while he was there to give us some ideas as to what he was thinking, and then when we were happy he would do plans and CAD drawings.
Suddenly it was time for him to go, we knew he had another appointment to go to, and before we knew it we were paying the first half of the payment for the drawings without having seen any sketches, like idiots we just handed over the cheque.
Talking about it afterwards we realise that he was really a very good salesman, very chatty but didn't actually answer any of the specifics that we started talking about.
Didn't help that our young child was at home poorly and we're all a bit sleep deprived and frazzled about other stuff going on. We just didn't have a chance to talk to each other privately to discuss and I guess we were embarrased into paying without being able to say 'thank you, we'll get back to you'.
Sorry, realise I'm waffling a bit.
Guess my reason for posting (if you've managed to get this far!) is to see if anyone has any good advice - like can I ask him to stop the work (and rip up the cheque!) for now?
And how do I not get caught out again in the future!!!
We'd always planned to speak to 2 or 3 architects, get quotes and then take it further. But not sure that we can afford to do that if we need to pay hundreds just to get their initial ideas
Also - how much does it matter that I need a registered architect?
Thanks!