Plumber Threatening Towards Me

[cj1984]

A plumber came to my house for a call out and became hostile towards me when it turned out his services were not required. I fully understand that a callout fee is required regardless and would have reluctantly paid it (still will no doubt have to). However, when I said I didn't have any money on my person he started swearing at me for wasting his time and his body language made me think he might attack me physically. I felt threatened and asked him to leave, fortunately he did. I'm still on edge from this though. How should I deal with this, if at all?

[kvalidir]

Don't deal with it, it's over, forget it, but not surprised he was annoyed if you didn't have his callout fee tbh. If he just called you a time waster and left when you asked him to that's not really anything you could pursue, so forget it and have a great Christmas. x

[Tilly2]

Just pay him his money and leave it at that.

[Cloverjo]

Don't do anything. If he wants his call-out fee he can do what he should have done when you said you didn't have any cash on you, and sent you an invoice later.

[Prudie]

I would stop worrying as long as you pay him. It's not really in the spirit of AB to tell posters they were in the wrong but quite frankly on this occasion I think you were, surely you wouldn't expect a plumber to come to your house when asked and not have some means of paying or discussed payment before they came? And yes he fully deserves his call-out fee even if he didn't need to do anything when he got there.

[cj1984]

Thanks all. I understand your perspective and I would love to forget about it but I do think you're somewhat underestimating the unprofessional behaviour, which effectively amounts to an assault. It's not about the money and like I said I will pay it, I obviously would have paid after receiving the invoice. Someone in his position can't be acting this way surely. I'm guessing all I can do is leave a highly negative review then?

[Tilly2]

Call the police?

[rockyracoon]

I’m with Prudie on this. You called him out knowing that you didn’t have the cash to pay him, and they way you say ‘reluctantly’ about the call out fee, doesn’t sit well with me either.

[kvalidir]

Did he assault you, threaten you physically, shove you, push you or hit you, or did it run like this?

Plumber:- 'Your such and such needs fixing that'd be about £800'
You:- 'Oh no that far too much I won't be needing you to do it'
Plumber:- 'Fair enough that's just £110 call out fee then please'
You:- 'Call out fee? But You haven't done anything and besides I don't have any money on me at the moment.'
Plumber:-'Are you flaming joking, it's 3 days before Christmas and you get me out here wasting my time, and you have no money to pay me, what do you think I am a flaming charity? I want my call out fee, this is ridiculous.'
You: 'Would you please leave'
Plumber leaves muttering about 'timewasters'.

If indeed you were assaulted that's one thing, but if it was a heated dispute because you wouldn't pay him, just pay the person their money and forget it, life is too short. x

[gness]

Hi, CJ....this is a workman earning his living. You don't know that he didn't turn down another paying job to come to you.

By all means leave a highly negative review but remember you can't review his work and he will have a right to reply which will let other tradesmen know that they may meet the same situation with you.
The plumber will, I know, warn his friends about you and you may in future have problems getting someone to work for you.

Probably best to pay the money you do owe him and agreed to pay by calling him out and forget it.

[cj1984]

Would it take him punching me in the face for it to be seen as a legitimate threat? Like Cloverjo said cash is not required invoice and digital payment is perfectly acceptable. Is he not required to show a sufficient level of professionalism? He's a public servant and he threatened someone in their own home.

[TonyV]

cj if you called him out then you need to pay him

[gness]

He is not a public servant, Cj. He's a plumber earning a living. Did he actually punch you in the face?

He was only in your home because you entered into a contract for him to be there.

[kvalidir]

You're being too vague, we can't tell even what has happened except you called him and didn't pay him. How exactly did he threaten you?

[Meg]

Why did you not give him a cheque?

[TonyV]

Kva don't think we will ever get to bottom of it till the morning?

[Togo]

After wasting a plumber's( now called heating engineers) time a "new" member is now wasting yours.

[cj1984]

Yes TonyV I've said that I understand the concept of a callout fee. I think it would be unfair to other potential customers not to leave an accurate review of his behaviour. I guess if you'd have been there you wouldn't be talking about an 'honest working man earning money in time for Christmas'. It's his approach that is way out of line. You can't be aggressive to people like that in any line of work, which is being totally overlooked in this thread. I do appreciate the responses though

[kvalidir]

WHAT did he say, we can't decide if he was being unreasonable or not because you're being so coy about what actually happened?

[TonyV]

Ok cj all sorted then.

[BANANASPLITS]

Definitely round the u-bend!