Do I have any legal recourse in getting some of my money back from a contractor that for 2 service calls when there should have only been 1?
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Do I have any legal recourse in getting some of my money back from a contractor that for 2 service calls when there should have only been 1?
I feel that I have been ripped off by a local plumbing company because they charged me for 2 service calls for a job that should have been handled with one. I’ve made contact with management who said I was entitled to a refund but I haven’t received one and it’s been over a month. Now the management is just avoiding my phone calls.
Asked on April 17, 2012 under Business Law, North Carolina
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
It would be very difficult to recover your money. You would have to prove not merely that the job "could" have been handled in one service call, but that taking two calls was an unconscionable commercial practice--basically, that it was done for no good reason but to charge you more. This is not an easy showing to make, since there are many reasons why an extra service call might have been necessary (didn't have all parts or tools; too late in the day to finish; tried doing A first but it didn't work, so they had to come back and try B; etc.) Further, the only mechanism for recovering money from a contractor would be filing a lawsuit, so you would need to sue (potentially in small claims court, acting as your own attorney) and prove by a "preponderance of the evidence" that the second call was unnecessary.
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