Ethics - What would you do?

You purchased some new flooring from a major flooring chain store and prepaid for the materials. When they come in you arrange with their installation contractor to schedule an install. They are scheduled to start the install on a Friday and be completed on Saturday. The contractors no call no show on Friday so you call them late in the afternoon and they said they won't be there until Saturday. They show up on Saturday and work as planned and get about 60% of the install completed. On Sunday they no call no show and the office is closed. On Monday they show up late and have to work real fast to complete the job Monday evening around 7pm. They rushed a few things and didn't do a great job because they were in a hurry to get home. However, they were in such a hurry to leave they never gave you the paperwork and didn't collect payment.

My plan was going to be to complain about the two days they didn't show up, complain about a few of the areas where they didn't do a great job, and argue for a good discount off of the $2,000 installation price when they contacted me.

Here comes the interesting part: It has been over 9 months and I have not heard from them.

What would you do?

these people are not going to stay in business. Wait a minute, major flooring chain?

A major flooring chain should have enough accounting moxie to know you did not fully pay. Current management is floundering, probably hiding things; flooring people can really be bad.

Eventually, someone will try to collect would be my guess. I would then put your described plan in action.

Why not name them?

It's their job to collect payment, not yours to
hunt them down. Wait till they contact you.
They obviously aren't worried about it, why
should you be.

Quote: odiousgambit

Why not name them?

I actually have no issue with the Flooring chain whom I purchased the materials through (Lumber Liquidators). They do not do installs but they have recommended contractors. It was one of the installation contractors that was the problem.

Quote: DRich

It was one of the installation contractors that was the problem.

If there is truly no connection, as in sub-contractor, this bunch will be going out of business. Paying them would be pouring money down a hole. If they try to collect now, ignore them until they show they are willing to go to the mat. In that case, go ahead with your plan; I leave it to you if you want to complain they never finished, as you say it can get into ethics. However, I think you can take too fine a point in some circumstances. If somebody sticks you up and takes your wallet, do you say as he is leaving "oh, you asked for all my money, you forgot my folding money in this other pocket"

At the very least you should be able to get a huge discount, not just a small one.

Talk to a lawyer first. but if you haven't been billed, then you don't officially owe them anything. I'm not sure what the situation would be if you signed an estimate or a contract, bill or no bill.

Quote: Nareed

Talk to a lawyer first. but if you haven't been billed, then you don't officially owe them anything. I'm not sure what the situation would be if you signed an estimate or a contract, bill or no bill.

I don't believe that I "officially" owe them anything. They made many mistakes one of which was not to have me sign anything or even give a credit card for a deposit. Everything was just scheduled over the phone. At this point I actually think I just fell through the cracks and i will never hear from them again. If I do, I am willing to pay them a highly discounted amount. If they don't go for that, they will get nothing and will have to try to sue me.

Quote: DRich

At this point I actually think I just fell through the cracks and i will never hear from them again. If I do, I am willing to pay them a highly discounted amount. If they don't go for that, they will get nothing and will have to try to sue me.

So sending them a congratulatory card, saying "I'm so glad your business is doing so well you can afford not to bill every customer," would be out of the question? ;)

Legally you may owe nothing. morally you do. Morally, too, if they did a sloppy job, then you owe them less that what you agreed to.

Well, I wouldn't have any problem collecting interest on the unpaid money while I wait for them to bill me.

I had the same moral issue with the a/c on my car. The company invoiced me for $700 to fix the A/C on my Civic but their credit card machine wasn't working. They gave me the car, I drove it around for a couple of days, and the A/C stopped working. They never called me to collect, and I never paid the bill. I think i would owe them the cost price of the part that they installed but for nothing else to be fair. I took the A/C somewhere else to be fixed and paid them instead.

For your issue it's similar, but their service did have value. I would call them and haggle the price to what you think it's worth and offer to pay.