Pulled off a job midway through with unhappy customer and they want me to pay for someone else to finish information and advice on general building topics, builders merchants, problem builders, DIY Stores etc....

[oliviaPSU]

Hello, would be great to get an opinion on what to do in this situation. I was halfway through refurbishing some cupboard doors while painting some rooms in a nice house. After a long weekend away, the customer pulled me from a job. She was acting quite weird and said she would pay me for the days I had worked thus far, but after emailing her the invoice, she responded by saying that I had destroyed the cupboard and she would take the cost of having someone else come fix/replace the cupboard doors from my labour costs. I was shocked as I was halfway through the job so of course it didn't look good. She won't answer her phone now. I have a feeling that someone else in the family came over during that long weekend wasn't impressed, and has written this email on her behalf. I fear that whomever comes to fix it will cost more than the work I have done so far in the house (I've done about £1000 worth of work thus far)... so i will be left with nothing. Not to mention she is refusing to pay for materials I have bought but haven't used yet. Completely blindsided me as she was saying I should bring the misses over for a visit as she has been so happy with the work I had done so far! PS. I take pride in my work and my customers have always been happy, so it's not as if I had been doing a rubbish job in the house. Admittedly, the cupboards were being difficult and I could tell she was nervous about how they would end up... but I wasn't done.

[stoneyboy]

Hi oliviapsu
Sadly many of us have experienced similar situations. Suggest you return unused materials - even if you have to accept a credit note. You could try writing to her pointing out that was unreasonable to complain when the cupboards were work in progress and she told you to leave them in an unfinished state.
Do put something in writing and ask an independent person to check what you have said.
Regards S