UPDATE:
I was away for three weeks so sent through the invoice when I got back. I received the following e-mail in response:
"Hi Richard,
Hope your well.
I have received your invoice and have tried to call you twice today 6/11/19 to discuss.
I am disappointed in the cost of your work and mentioned my concerns to you around materials via telephone before you went on holidays as we had a conversation about cost and receipts which you were not willing to provide.
We have given you considerable work in our home and elsewhere over the last few years totalling over 2,000 and when I questioned you over the cost of materials you were in my opinion quite ignorant about it. I have no problem with other trades people that I use regularly in regards to receipts.
I keep a record of all invoices for all tradesmen I use and over the period of time your costs seems to have risen for no apparent reason. I feel that E150 labour for a few hrs work is unreasonable ( YYYYYY [his sister] was there during this) and unfair to me as a regular customer. Your Previous bill of £105 for work on the same job was also very pricey however I was happy to let this go as there is an element of good faith in everyone’s price.
I have checked with other qualified/ Registered professionals/stores and they agreed the costs of materials and labour is above and beyond what I should be paying. I asked you for a price before you started and as in previous work you would not be drawn into this, although you did mention 25 per light but did not specify if this included labour or not.
Also you have not finished the job as requested by me and I have one light not functioning inside and two outside not the way I wanted. Candle LED’s should all be dawn to dusk and you didn’t turn up to finish this job when I arranged with Catherine to be available to let you in. You instead went to bigger job for Dominoes Letterkenny. This caused us considerable inconvenience.
At this time I am not happy with this service and would expect you to revise your bill accordingly to reflect a fair price for your customer.
Thanks & Regards,
XXXXXX"
I wrote the following in response:
"Hi XXXXXX,
I was unable to take your calls on Wednesday as I had my annual routine inspection with the RECI/Safe Electric regulatory body and was busy with an inspection on a factory during the second half of the week.
You were quoted Stg £20 - £25 per fitting for the lights (which clearly was a materials cost and exclusive of labour). In actual fact you were only billed €19.85 per fitting – substantially less than the original estimate.
No mention of dusk till dawn lamps was made until after the lamps had already been replaced. When I asked the wholesaler later about the existence of lamps containing photocells they stated that they would not consider these to be a reliable product and therefore don’t stock these.
I am confident that a labour charge of €150 for half a day’s work including three separate visits to site is both fair and reasonable. Most Registered Electrical Contractors would charge far in excess of this.
Domino’s Letterkenny was an ongoing job which was in progress before you contacted me, and I went out of my way to facilitate you regardless. Your job was not completed at your request, and you asked to be billed for works to date which was done.
For these reasons I am unable to offer any reduction in the bill and look forward to prompt payment of the invoice.
Kind regards,
Richard"
