Can a company retrospectively charge you for a quote?

mobfromcork

I had to order a hit water tank for our house last week. I need a specific tank that are not widely available in Ireland so I had to look in Germany and Austria and get it shipped to Ireland. I got quotes from 3 companies for the same product and went with the cheapest (by approx 70 EUR).
They were also the company with the best reviews for customer service etc. I emailed the other company to thanks them for their quote and time but they were too expensive. I got a reply saying they were very unhappy as they had wasted so much time.
This morning they sent me a separate email and invoice through PayPal for 41 euro for all the time they had spent getting me the quote for shipping of the article etc.
They company have my details, address etc as I had to provide them for shipping.
I don't believe I have to pay them as they haven't provided a service as such, just provided a quotation. I understand they are annoyed at not getting the business but they were more expensive and had a lot of negative reviews online for their customer service. Am I ok to just ignore their request?
Thanks for reading
Mark

Tzardine

Put it straight in the bin.

TCP/IP

Completely ignore they have no ground to stand on unless you signed any sort of contract with them.

realdanbreen

Not since the days when you had to see your TD about having a phone installed or paying the equivalent in todays money of €500 to fly to London have companies charged for a quotation.

L1011

It may still be the norm in Germany but there is realistically nothing they can do.

Back in the boom it was common for car repair places to charge for quotes as "diagnostics", even on simple bodywork but that has also stopped mostly - and it was always clear up front, never retrospective

The Bishop Basher

Had an architect try to charge me for a quote once.

I followed the advice of your first reply.

Never heard from then again but I’m still telling people to avoid them.

Such a short sighted move by any business

mobfromcork

Thanks for replies. I was going to ignore but just wanted to make sure there was no legal issues given they have all if my details etc

aristotle25

Send them back a quote of €50 for using up your time reading their quotes

seamus

L1011 wrote: »

It may still be the norm in Germany but there is realistically nothing they can do.

Back in the boom it was common for car repair places to charge for quotes as "diagnostics", even on simple bodywork but that has also stopped mostly - and it was always clear up front, never retrospective

This practice has made a comeback. Virtually every mechanic in Dublin is charging a quotation fee.

seamus

seamus wrote: »

This practice has made a comeback. Virtually every mechanic in Dublin is charging a quotation fee.

I think if a mechanic has to spend time looking for/diagnosing a problem with a car in their garage in order to give a quote, he/she should be entitled to some payment. That is a very different situation than a car owner who knows the problem and phones for a quote. The car owner is taking up working time.

Op, you most likely sourced the tank on the internet, as always, look at the terms and conditions on their site. If it says nothing about payment for quotes then it’s their tough luck.

mobfromcork

Dav010 wrote: »

I think if a mechanic has to spend time looking for/diagnosing a problem with a car in their garage in order to give a quote, he/she should be entitled to some payment. That is a very different situation than a car owner who knows the problem and phones for a quote. The car owner is taking up working time.

Op, you most likely sourced the tank on the internet, as always, look at the terms and conditions on their site. If it says nothing about payment for quotes then it’s their tough luck.

Can't see anything on their website about payment for quotes so will juts ignore for now. A lot of reviews of the company seem to suggest that they are quite difficult to deal with from a customer service point of view

Sleeper12

Dav010 wrote:

I think if a mechanic has to spend time looking for/diagnosing a problem with a car in their garage in order to give a quote, he/she should be entitled to some payment. That is a very different situation than a car owner who knows the problem and phones for a quote. The car owner is taking up working time.

Totally agree. Has a jeep cherokee a few years back that wasn't running right. My mechanic didn't have any up to date software to run a diagnostic on it. Went to jeep dealer and they charged me 95 euros for full diagnostic. Found several issues and got my own mechanic to make repairs. The jeep dealer definitely deserves payment for this service.

Ops case not so much. Unless you signed something agreeing to the fee then you are in the clear

NaiveMelodies

They are trying to charge €41 for sending an email/making a phone call to request a freight quote :eek:

Gravelly

I deal with a lot of European and Asian countries in my job, and Austrian, and to a lesser extent German, companies are notorious for trying stuff like this. I've had an Austrian company try to bill me €120 for "specification work" that consisted of me having a 20 minute phone call with one of their sales engineers. This for a contract that would have been worth tens of thousands to them if they had gotten it - needless to say I struck them off the list and ignored the invoice.

Bin it.

Thoie

The only times I'd ever pay for a quote is if I'm told about it in advance, and agree to it. I got a splashback recently, and in order to give a quote someone has to come around and take precise measurements. The company informed me in advance that there was an up front charge for this, but that if I went ahead, that price would be taken off the order, and I agreed.

If they'd come looking for money later without warning, I'd have ignored them.

bucketybuck

realdanbreen wrote: »

Not since the days when you had to see your TD about having a phone installed or paying the equivalent in todays money of €500 to fly to London have companies charged for a quotation.

We charge for quotations all the time in the motor industry. Its not even a money making scheme, more simply to weed out all the time wasters who would happily have us spend an hour checking a vehicle and providing a formal quote just so they can bring that info somewhere else.

Of course its all up front that there will be a charge, and that charge will be waived if we carry out the final repair but its certainly an industry standard for very good reasons.

Julez

mobfromcork wrote: »

...and had a lot of negative reviews online for their customer service.

I wonder why? :rolleyes:

I'd ignore it.

redcup342

mobfromcork wrote: »

I had to order a hit water tank for our house last week. I need a specific tank that are not widely available in Ireland so I had to look in Germany and Austria and get it shipped to Ireland. I got quotes from 3 companies for the same product and went with the cheapest (by approx 70 EUR).
They were also the company with the best reviews for customer service etc. I emailed the other company to thanks them for their quote and time but they were too expensive. I got a reply saying they were very unhappy as they had wasted so much time.
This morning they sent me a separate email and invoice through PayPal for 41 euro for all the time they had spent getting me the quote for shipping of the article etc.
They company have my details, address etc as I had to provide them for shipping.
I don't believe I have to pay them as they haven't provided a service as such, just provided a quotation. I understand they are annoyed at not getting the business but they were more expensive and had a lot of negative reviews online for their customer service. Am I ok to just ignore their request?
Thanks for reading
Mark

It depends on what you agreed to, how did you submit the quote ?

Was it on a Website and then there was a Terms and Conditions that you had to accept or did you just send them an email and they emailed you back ?

If it was the second one then you don't have to worry.

If it was the first then they do have a legal basis under german law.

rubadub

mobfromcork wrote: »

Thanks for replies. I was going to ignore but just wanted to make sure there was no legal issues given they have all if my details etc

with some of these things I like to think of them in the extreme, and it can become very obvious.

If they legally could just charge with no prior agreement or indication then what is to stop them asking for for €100,000.

I have said the same of dubious private clampers with no notices or anything, you cannot just clamp a ferrari and ask for €100,000.

ArthurG

seamus wrote: »

This practice has made a comeback. Virtually every mechanic in Dublin is charging a quotation fee.

No they aren't. I visited 3 bodywork places recently (from small to a large well known dublin repair company) to get a big enough job done and all the quotes were provided free.

the_pen_turner

while agree 100% with charge for a quote that is taken off the bill if they go ahead with the job, its bad form to look for it after the fact given you wernt aware before hand.

i hope this become the norm here. it would really reduce the tyre kickers and piss takers that seem to be everywhere

L1011

the_pen_turner wrote: »

it would really reduce the tyre kickers and piss takers that seem to be everywhere

People obtaining multiple quotes and going with the best value are not "tyre kickers and piss takers"

In most business environments its obligatory to do so at that.

realdanbreen

bucketybuck wrote: »

We charge for quotations all the time in the motor industry. Its not even a money making scheme, more simply to weed out all the time wasters who would happily have us spend an hour checking a vehicle and providing a formal quote just so they can bring that info somewhere else.

Of course its all up front that there will be a charge, and that charge will be waived if we carry out the final repair but its certainly an industry standard for very good reasons.

The motor industry! Don't get me started!

L1011

L1011 wrote: »

People obtaining multiple quotes and going with the best value are not "tyre kickers and piss takers"

In most business environments its obligatory to do so at that.

Not all, but undoubtedly some. Show me a business who would not like to reduce the number of time wasters making enquires. Putting up with time wasters is not obligatory, unfortunately it is sometimes unavoidable.

the_pen_turner

L1011 wrote: »

People obtaining multiple quotes and going with the best value are not "tyre kickers and piss takers"

In most business environments its obligatory to do so at that.

Of course they are not all piss takers but most are to some extent.
Getting 2 to 3 quotes is good practice but any more is tyre kicking it taking advantage of the guys quoting.

At least 75 % if the quotes I did last year were piss takers. Some the work was never done, some just wanted the paperwork for insurance etc, some wanted it as leverage against the person that they wanted to do the job, others just wanted a shopping list and do it themselves.

All tradesmen are taken advantage of like this regularly.
All these quotes take hours between looking at it and working it out

ArthurG

the_pen_turner wrote: »

......All tradesmen are taken advantage of like this regularly.....

Oh come on..... tradesmen aren't all angels you know - unexplained no-shows, over pricing and 'under the counter' work are all real things you know.

feargale

mobfromcork wrote: »

I had to order a hit water tank for our house last week. I need a specific tank that are not widely available in Ireland so I had to look in Germany and Austria and get it shipped to Ireland. I got quotes from 3 companies for the same product and went with the cheapest (by approx 70 EUR).
They were also the company with the best reviews for customer service etc. I emailed the other company to thanks them for their quote and time but they were too expensive. I got a reply saying they were very unhappy as they had wasted so much time.
This morning they sent me a separate email and invoice through PayPal for 41 euro for all the time they had spent getting me the quote for shipping of the article etc.
They company have my details, address etc as I had to provide them for shipping.
I don't believe I have to pay them as they haven't provided a service as such, just provided a quotation. I understand they are annoyed at not getting the business but they were more expensive and had a lot of negative reviews online for their customer service. Am I ok to just ignore their request?
Thanks for reading
Mark

Email them back claiming €42 for the time and trouble they have cost you in dealing with their baseless claim.

Thoie

the_pen_turner wrote: »

Of course they are not all piss takers but most are to some extent.
Getting 2 to 3 quotes is good practice but any more is tyre kicking it taking advantage of the guys quoting.

At least 75 % if the quotes I did last year were piss takers. Some the work was never done, some just wanted the paperwork for insurance etc, some wanted it as leverage against the person that they wanted to do the job, others just wanted a shopping list and do it themselves.

All tradesmen are taken advantage of like this regularly.
All these quotes take hours between looking at it and working it out

If you're in a business where you feel a lot of people are looking for quotes, with no interest in having the work go ahead, then it makes sense to charge for quotes, as long as you tell people this up front. Pick a price for quotations (e.g. €50 for one hour of investigation + paperwork), and you can decide if you can give them a €50 discount off the job if it goes ahead or not. As long as you spell it out up front, people can decide for themselves.

Sleeper12

ArthurG wrote:

Oh come on..... tradesmen aren't all angels you know - unexplained no-shows, over pricing and 'under the counter' work are all real things you know.

There's another side to tradesmen that you only see in closed tradesmen groups. Many are getting stiffed by the client. One chap on a plumber Facebook group is owed around 4k for well over a year. Nothing wrong with the quality of his work. Homeowner just decided not to pay for the new boiler. Homeowner no longer answer his calls

Being a tradesman myself I cringe listening to tradesmen not showing up a all. The general excuse is that they already know that the homeowner has half a dozen quotes & and they are now looking for a below cost or cash quote. Some homeowners are blacklisted on these sites as time wasters. Some tradesmen will try waste the homeowners time too

the_pen_turner

Thoie wrote: »

If you're in a business where you feel a lot of people are looking for quotes, with no interest in having the work go ahead, then it makes sense to charge for quotes, as long as you tell people this up front. Pick a price for quotations (e.g. €50 for one hour of investigation + paperwork), and you can decide if you can give them a €50 discount off the job if it goes ahead or not. As long as you spell it out up front, people can decide for themselves.

thats the only way to do it

the_pen_turner

ArthurG wrote: »

Oh come on..... tradesmen aren't all angels you know - unexplained no-shows, over pricing and 'under the counter' work are all real things you know.

i agree with what you say. thats true . but only of a small percentage of trademen.

ask any tradesman have you been screwed over or ripped off by a customer and every one will have several stories. we all have been ripped off

ask that of customers and very few will say they have been ripped off by trademen.

Wildly Boaring

Rennaws wrote: »

Had an architect try to charge me for a quote once.

I followed the advice of your first reply.

Never heard from then again but I’m still telling people to avoid them.

Such a short sighted move by any business

Looked at a few architect's websites and 2 of them charge for initial consultation.
Assume they don't want people picking their brains and taking ideas.

Surely these guys don't charge for a quote though???

Was gonna call in to one one money to discuss pricing and nothing else.