We own an painting & maintenance business and had an enquiry come through on our facebook page in regards to having a quote. We visited the prooperty with the owners Father & Brother as she couldnt be present due to work commitments. The scope of work she had expresed ( facebook messanger )was differant to what had been communicated from the Father & brother while onsite. I tried to call the customer to confirm the information as it was conflicting but she was busy and contunied to communicate via text. I gave her a rough estimate in the text of the cost involved, not a written quote ( as we proide a full home imporvment plan to customers ) at this stage because the scope, text messages kept on changing, to what she required.
She then changed it again stating she has painted the cornices herself over the weekend & bought her own painy so when i re esitimated a figure she was unhappy that she had found her own gyprocker to prepare the roof claimed we were not going to prepare it corrcelt and we didnt reduce the price ( No quote ), just text message at this stage by enough. She said it was overpriced, you cant be overcharged for something you havnt been paid for ar agreed too!
We then explained we would need to revist the prepared ceilings due to not knowing the quality of work the gyprocker had performed, she had claimed it was a Brother's friend. Due to our business being affliated with Dulux and being Dulux acredited painters we need to ensure the area is sound and prepared correctly to ensure we would be able to warrant our workmanship and offer warranty. The customer got extremly upset and started question why we are allowed to question who is preparing the area. She also bought her own paint and we explained that our price we had suggested in the text would be inlcuding paint, again due to being affliated with Dulux we are bound to a set of values and only use Dulux paint's. The proposed customer acused our comment's and said that she had already bought the paint. After trying to call her and discuss these options to explain that our hands are tied she contacted ouFacebookok page requesting for someone else to revist the site and give another quote. I explained that Luke is the only person we have do onsite inspection's.
Then i followed and suggested that maybe our business is not the right one for her and she might be better to look at a handyman with lower overheads or call another painter ( self employed/ work for themself ) suggesting two to give her another quote. This did not sit well with the propsed customer and she has taken it upon herself to leave a bad review, the only one on our facebook page.
Can we sue this lady for defamation, is she allowed to make false claims which are misleading and not true??
She then changed it again stating she has painted the cornices herself over the weekend & bought her own painy so when i re esitimated a figure she was unhappy that she had found her own gyprocker to prepare the roof claimed we were not going to prepare it corrcelt and we didnt reduce the price ( No quote ), just text message at this stage by enough. She said it was overpriced, you cant be overcharged for something you havnt been paid for ar agreed too!
We then explained we would need to revist the prepared ceilings due to not knowing the quality of work the gyprocker had performed, she had claimed it was a Brother's friend. Due to our business being affliated with Dulux and being Dulux acredited painters we need to ensure the area is sound and prepared correctly to ensure we would be able to warrant our workmanship and offer warranty. The customer got extremly upset and started question why we are allowed to question who is preparing the area. She also bought her own paint and we explained that our price we had suggested in the text would be inlcuding paint, again due to being affliated with Dulux we are bound to a set of values and only use Dulux paint's. The proposed customer acused our comment's and said that she had already bought the paint. After trying to call her and discuss these options to explain that our hands are tied she contacted ouFacebookok page requesting for someone else to revist the site and give another quote. I explained that Luke is the only person we have do onsite inspection's.
Then i followed and suggested that maybe our business is not the right one for her and she might be better to look at a handyman with lower overheads or call another painter ( self employed/ work for themself ) suggesting two to give her another quote. This did not sit well with the propsed customer and she has taken it upon herself to leave a bad review, the only one on our facebook page.
Can we sue this lady for defamation, is she allowed to make false claims which are misleading and not true??
