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[Patch1977]

Hi, hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I represent a charity registered in England and Wales. As part of our fundraising we sell branded clothing and have a dispute with our supplier regarding overcharging. It’s become apparent they’ve been overcharging us for items since almost day 1. We have an outstanding payment to them and I’ve asked them to work out the figure they need to credit us before I’ll pay the invoice. It’s around £4000 and I’m certain they have overcharged us more than that. They maintain its for us to track back over 18 months of individual orders and present them with the figure. We simply don’t have time to do this and I think as it’s their error, they should do the legwork. Any ideas?

thanks for taking the time to read this.

[Amethyst]

How has the overcharging only come to light after 18 months? Is it a case of overcharging per item ?

Was there an original quote for the orders which is in writing between you that you now believe they have breached ?

[Patch1977]

Hi. Yes we have a supplier contract in place complete with a schedule of rates after their successful tender.

The overcharging has only fairly recently come to come to light and that’s our fault as we hadn’t checked every invoice against tendered prices, again we just didn’t have time. Poor excuse I know.

They aren’t debating the overcharging, just insisting it’s our responsibility to collate all of the overcharging discrepancies. It will be a very painful process and as we rely solely on volunteers, it will take someone away from doing something to further the charity and help people!

Thanks for the reply.

[Amethyst]

To be honest to know how much they have overcharged you will mean looking at the orders, working out how much the invoice should have been (as per the schedule of rates) and comparing to how much the invoice was. If they did it then you'd likely have to do that to check in any case, so really it's a cost/benefit decision - is it thousands ££ overcharged or a few quid ? Would writing the difference off be cheaper than the lost man hours in sorting it out? Have they agreed to amend the price back down to the agreed price for future orders?

You could go back to them and say an amount, and they will have to check it on their records anyway...unless they're just going to take your word for it. If they want your continued business then I'd hope they'd be a little more proactive in sorting it out.

[Patch1977]

We’ve switched supplier which probably complicates the matter. They’re flat refusing to check the invoices and I take your point that if they check them we’d have to take their word for it, it just narks me that their attitude is so bad. They’ve had over £100k of business I’d estimate and now they’ve been caught overcharging, a wall has gone up!

Is there a black and white answer to who would be responsible though?

Thanks for your replies!