Thread: Hypothetical question on integrity

IIRC

under rings and undercharges are for the customer effective immediately.. Over charges are also settled for the customer, immediately if prior to payment, with a reasonable processing time if after payment.

If an invoice is issued and its under because its missing an item BUT the item is on the quote then the initial invoice stands but the outstanding item can be billed for on a subsequent invoice


Depending on what the undercharge was and how the company presented the issue would influence how likely I would be to stick to my guns. A "we screwed up and missed an item..." type approach will get a payment sorted a "hey you didnt pay all the bill you should have known...." type approach will get a stonewall.

If I picked it up before I paid I'd offer them the chance to void the invoice and re-issue.

going back as far as I can remember most commercial entities had the characters "E & OE" somewhere on their invoices. "Errors and Omissions Excepted". This was standard commercial practice. Which meant they could correct their mistakes and charge the client the corrected amount.

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

going back as far as I can remember most commercial entities had the characters "E & OE" somewhere on their invoices. "Errors and Omissions Excepted". This was standard commercial practice. Which meant they could correct their mistakes and charge the client the corrected amount.

These days it would mean "Errors and Omissions Expected."

Thanks everyone for the responses. You have confirmed my thoughts, generally speaking most people are honest and reasonable. Unfortunately some are not. Feel free to PM me for the back story.

At times I’ve over charged by mistake as a tradie, and each and every time I’ve returned to the client and given them money back. None ever realised they were over charged until I told them. I’ve also made the mistake of undercharging and each and every time I’ve pointed this out to my clients they have happily paid.

If I came up against someone who said bad luck it’s my loss for undercharging, I would not work for them again. Those people would deserve the “never on time”, “gouging”, “bull****ting” tradie in my opinion.

I’m not religious but the Christian ethos of “do unto others...” is an excellent way to live your life.

If I thought it was a genuine mistake and the cost was reasonable I would pay it, particularly if I had a continuing good relationship with the biller.
If I thought it was a scam and the amount was unreasonable I would query it.