Been charged double... Or have I?....

[NafemanNathan]

Where do I stand with refusing to pay a company's invoice when they've charged me for double time as they were called out on a Sunday and also spelt my name incorrectly?

Short of it is, I was digging the foundations for a retaining wall and kind of ripped through the gas mains to my house (Yeah I know. Shut up! )

Wales & West came to the rescue after I'd registered my emergency call. Took about 50 minutes from when I registered the call to his arrival. Took 10 minutes for him to fix it with a poxy plastic coupling that cost £2.12, but then a further 1 hour 20 minutes for him to do his tests and take pictures and generally mope about.

I'm obviously fine with the fact I should get charged for all the tests to be done as well as obviously fixing the damn flimsy pipe! (I found the old metal gas pipe... It lifted the digger when I tried pulling on it!!!) but when the invoice arrived yesterday, I also discovered I have been invoiced for 42 minutes to travel to mine and 48 minutes to travel back again... And most annoyingly, that I've been charged double time!!!

My grievance, is that I obviously it's the employer that decides whether they pay their employees double time or not, so it should be them that takes the hit and not the customer, surely? (Just because a number of the checkout girls at the supermarket aren't contracted to Sundays so are getting paid double time when they do work a Sunday, doesn't mean every customer that goes through their checkout gets charged double does it?)

Anyway, I don't know enough about this at all and can't find anything whatsoever to help me online, so knowing some of you are rather switched on with some of this stuff I thought I'd try here

Also, another thing is that when I filled in the paperwork I signed and printed my name in the box, and I printed my name undenably clearly, yet on the invoice they sent me they've spelt my surname wrong. So technically they've not invoiced me, they invoiced someone with a very very very similar name to me at my address. So although it's blatantly obvious it's just a typo, is that reason enough for me to not pay it until they realise their mistake and re-invoice me with the correct name?... Or is that just asking for trouble?

Even if it delays things it would be a help as money is very tight at the moment

[indigolemon]

I think you'd be within your rights to contact them and ask for a revised invoice, as well as query the totals on the invoice. You may still end up paying it, but you could certainly delay things as you'll undoubtedly get lost in their massive system as you try and get the information you need.

[Duo]

If they run like most of the water companies I know of they have people specifically assigned to be on 24 hour call on a rotating shift, usually something like a week on then 6 off so they might be able to do a call out charge but I doubt it's double time, if it is I'm in the wrong game as utilities should all have 24 hour emergency cover at all times and as such it'll be in the contracted hours and part of the job.

It's worth asking the question and yeah the guy moped about but regs say dumb stuff like leaving it an hour before you can be satisfied the new fitting won't leak so he's got to kick about for a few just in case, doubt you could do much about that, travel time again generally doesn't get paid from what I've seen it's all in the one call out package where being on call for the week you get your basic plus extra per call out. regardless of time/date, national holidays like christmas day they do offer more for being on call but nobody would do it if they didn't.

Be prepeared to be on the phone a lot but do yourself a favour and write down names and what departments they work for along with call times and a quick summary of what is said, if they say no outright they'll have a complaints procedure, follow it, the info you got on the phone will help here too as it'll be easy to track via names, dates and times, if you're still not happy after that it gets into complaining to regulatory bodies and other complex stuff that would require significant help so maybe CAB or something like that.

Good luck dude.

[Donald]

Sounds a bit shitty that they're charging you for the travel, it's not your fault the guy they sent was a bit far out. As for the double time I wouldn't expect to be charged extra just for the day, as Duo said considering it's a utility (and being gas quite a potentially dangerous one) it should be part of the job.

I would however expect to pay a call-out fee, regardless of the day of the week.

[NafemanNathan]

Thanks for your advise guys. I've just got off the phone to CAB and they've suggested I write to W&W to negociate a price I'm happy with, so I think I'm going to go down that route. At least then I have time to think about my arguement as well and draw it out a little bit too.

[Shiny]

How much money are we talking about here?

[NafemanNathan]

Just short of £230 total.

EDIT: for 3 hours 30 minutes work, (An hour and a half of that was travel time) and a £2.12 connection.

[Shiny]

Oh, if you write a letter, save it and then read it the next day before you send it. It always reads different when you read it a day later.

[NafemanNathan]

Oh, if you write a letter, save it and then read it the next day before you send it. It always reads different when you read it a day later.

I do the same with my drawings Cheers Lloyd

[Shiny]

Just short of £230 total.

Not worth bothering with Household Insurance then.

Did the chap on the phone tell you that Sunday call out is double time and that you would be charged travelling costs? If they are operating a 24hr emergency service, then i would have thought there would have been a fixed rate for emergency call outs, regardless of day or time of day.

Do you have any Legal Expenses cover under your Household Buildings/Contents Insurance? They may be able to give you some advice. CAB are poor from my experience, i have clients at the receiving end of claims brought against them due to duff advice from CAB, i wouldn't put much faith in their ability to give you relevant advice.