Boatyard quote and charges.

[Arthur Marshall]

I'd appreciate your comments here.

I got a quote via Messenger for blacking my boat of £800, which I agreed and dropped the boat off on Monday. I've just had an invoice for £1000, which is for the blacking £833 plus VAT, which wasn't mentioned in the quote.

Is this fair, or shoddy practice?

 

 

[HenryFreeman]

Just now, Arthur Marshall said:

I'd appreciate your comments here.

I got a quote via Messenger for blacking my boat of £800, which I agreed and dropped the boat off on Monday. I've just had an invoice for £1000, which is for the blacking £833 plus VAT, which wasn't mentioned in the quote.

Is this fair, or shoddy practice?

 

 

 

Hmm.. sounds a bit shoddy to me, to be honest. Although if you take a car to a garage to get repairs, they'll often quote a price and then under their breath say "there'll be VAT on top of that, of course".

[Puffling]

Shoddy with bells on I'd say.

 

At least you can console yourself, Arthur. That blacking is now the most valuable part of your boat 😂

[Arthur Marshall]

4 minutes ago, HenryFreeman said:

 

Hmm.. sounds a bit shoddy to me, to be honest. Although if you take a car to a garage to get repairs, they'll often quote a price and then under their breath say "there'll be VAT on top of that, of course".

I probably should have either assumed it or asked, but I did just assume that the quote was what I'd be paying. I seem to remember asking for comparison prices on here and most were about the £1000 mark, so maybe should have been suspicious.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Arthur Marshall

[Midnight]

I believe that published prices for the public must include VAT. I remember a website of a well-known specialist chandlers that published prices ex-vat and they were told to change them to include vat as the main customers were not trade. It's okay to publich ex-vat prices for trade customers. I would check with HMRC and you may have a case for witholding the vat or requesting a refund if you've paid the bill.

[Arthur Marshall]

1 minute ago, Puffling said:

Shoddy with bells on I'd say.

 

At least you can console yourself, Arthur. That blacking is now the most valuable part of your boat 😂

Sad, but true.

[HenryFreeman]

4 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I probably should have either assumed it or asked, but I did just assume that the quote was what I'd be paying. I seem to remember asking for comparison prices on here and most were about the £1000 mark, so maybe should have been suspicious.

 

Yeah, if I was getting some work done I'd expect the quote to be what I was going to pay, none of this "plus VAT" nonsense. I'm not a business, what makes you assume I'm VAT registered? I'm a bloke with a boat.

[haggis]

Apart from the price, they were a bit quick sending you an invoice if the boat only went in on Monday. I wouldn't expect an invoice till the job was complete unless it was a big job and staged payments were expected

[Arthur Marshall]

As they're asking me when I can collect it, I assume it's done!

 

[Higgs]

A similar thing happened to me. Although I did the work, the docking charges were the main cost. When presented with the bill, it was much larger than expected, from what I'd been lead to believe would be the actual cost. I did say to them then, that vat should have been mentioned from the outset, after having had several conversations on cost, prior to docking. I paid up and went for a walk. Boat still in the dry dock. Coming back, I was just looking for the staff to have a general chit-chat, when it was mentioned that the bill had been revised - downwards. 

 

Apparently, some software they have can check bills and found this one to be too high. Umm. Anyway, it looked a lot better to me, so left it at that.

 

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Higgs

[jonathanA]

Worth naming the yard Arthur so others can be aware. 

 

I just checked with  my quote from Scarisbrick almost exactly a year ago and the quote don't say anything about VAT.  however i was told over the phone that vat was included. I followed that up with an email confirming i accepted their quote on the basis of VAT included.  To be fair what they charged me was exactly what was agreed on the quote and I did get a VAT invoice.  

 

Always worth checking on VAT been caught out too many times..

Edited November 1, 2023 by jonathanA
add on

[Tony Brooks]

I doubt HMRC will be interested because VAT was payable, BUT I too am sure a quote to the general public must include VAT. I think Trading Standards (Consumer Protection) via Citizens Advice would be the proper channel to sort it.

 

You also need to ensure that you asked for a quote and not an estimate. Quotes should be fixes, estimates can be varied. However, I suspect many canal businesses don't know the difference.

 

 

[Lady M]

This sounds expensive to me and too quick.

[Higgs]

All of my phone conversations are recorded - for the purpose of training. Ha-ha.

 

 

[Ray T]

Had different yards quote with & without VAT.

Like you Arthur, I learnt the hard way:
"Once bitten twice shy."

Be grateful it wasn't a yard on The Coventry Canal.

I tried it once and kept getting phone calls saying this needs doing, that needs doing.

[Arthur Marshall]

All has ended well, rather surprisingly after my last tangle with a boatyard at Four Counties Fuels!

I sent an email detailing the quote and asking for their comments and immediately got a reply saying it was their error - the person who gave me the quote hadn't noted it on the worksheet and since that quote their prices have gone up by a fiver a foot. They sent an amendment to the invoice straight away. There's a slight excuse as they had a panic on with a boat brought in on the point of sinking so they'd had a bit of chaos themselves shuffling boats about so they could get it out before it glugged its last.

Considering they could have told me that the quote had been ex-VAT and insisted on the higher price (which I would have grumblingly accepted) I think their response was pretty good, which doesn't really surprise me as they're pretty nice people!

Thanks for all your comments, which are always valuable to stop me going off the deep end.

PS, just as a nod to CRT too, I'm chocker with stuff going on at the moment and wanted to get through the Harecastle tunnel on Friday, which needs 48 hour advance booking and when I went online, no bookings were available. I can't do Saturday, Monday or Wednesday, which would have left the boat hanging about the yard getting in everyone's way until late next week, so I rang CRT and asked if they could fit me in on Friday. The bloke on the phone couldn't book it either, so he rang the tunnel people, who added it to their list and sent me a text confirming Friday was OK, and then bloke A rang me back to confirm it.  They do try to be helpful, at least at the lower echelons!

[Tigerr]

Bargain.

 

[pearley]

2 hours ago, Midnight said:

I believe that published prices for the public must include VAT. I remember a website of a well-known specialist chandlers that published prices ex-vat and they were told to change them to include vat as the main customers were not trade. It's okay to publich ex-vat prices for trade customers. I would check with HMRC and you may have a case for witholding the vat or requesting a refund if you've paid the bill.

Always been my understanding too and certainly we always ensured any displayed retail prices and any quotes included VAT

2 hours ago, HenryFreeman said:

 

Hmm.. sounds a bit shoddy to me, to be honest. Although if you take a car to a garage to get repairs, they'll often quote a price and then under their breath say "there'll be VAT on top of that, of course".

You must go to some odd garages. 

[Arthur Marshall]

1 hour ago, Tigerr said:

Bargain.

 

Still double what it cost me last time, but then, what isn't?