Who should eat the stop check fee?

[mollybrown]

I had some work done on my house, and the workers damaged a completely unrelated portion of the home.  I was out of town when the "repair" was made, and sent the payment in full based on pictures I was sent by the company owner.  I got home and realized the "repair" made the problem much worse, and the shady workers simply took a picture that excluded the additional damage they did.  So I stopped payment on the check ($25).

The owner eventually sent someone out that made the repair properly, and I'm sending the final payment.  Should it be for the full amount, or the full amount minus $25 for the stop check fee?  Stopping the payment protected me, but it wouldn't have been necessary without deceptive evidence that the damage was repaired.  Trust me, you'd all WTF them if you could see before and after pictures.  It looked like something took a huge bite out of my siding.  I'm not sure if they thought I just wouldn't notice or what.

[pamela]

I think the stop payment was a bit excessive and unless you talked to them about the damage first and didn't think they'd pay, I don't think you can charge them for it. Was the owner there when the shady picture was taken? The company may have billed you without knowing the additional damage. Absolutely not condoning what the individual workers did, but you have to provide the company an opportunity to make it right.

[babsbunny]

Since they did the repair without too much trouble I suggest you eat the $25. Mistakes happen but I give them a pass if they corrected their mistake. I think this is more a lesson for all of us to not pay in full without an in person inspection of work performed.

Personally I have to have DH inspect work. We had plumbing done and I accepted the way the work was done but then DH got home and did not like it. I had already paid. The plumbing company came back out and redid the pipe for no charge (though part of me wonders if they did this because they had already overcharged us for 2 full days of work where they did not work full days in our opinion). Second lesson learned is to not use that company again.

My opinion might change if you tell us the company's reaction after you pointed out the issue. Did the owner seem concerned and quick to fix it?

[mollybrown]

I definitely don't think the owner knew that the repair wasn't done right. His error was not checking it out himself. And I DEFINITELY screwed up by sending payment without checking it out myself. I know better, but wanted to get his payment to him ASAP. I don't think he's a shady guy at all. And our agreement had been that I would pay the final balance once they made the repair.

[maddiepaddy]

I agree that you should eat the $25. It sounds like you got home pretty quickly after you sent the check, you should have just waited to see the work yourself anyway. Plus, if you trust the owner, and don't think he's shady at all, it was probably overkill to put a stop payment on the check anyway. He wasn't like to cash it and then ignore you.

[mollybrown]

It was a pretty big check, so I don't regret stopping the payment at all. But I was leaning towards just eating the $25 since I'm ready to just be done. House is back to the way it started, so that's worth $25 bucks.

[treedimensional]

You.

[vanillacourage]

You.

[AAM2012]

You. Also, did you tell them you were putting a stop payment on it? If not they likely have a fee on their end too.