Cheated out of small amount of money - what should I do?

[awesome_welles]

I'll start from the very beginning.

Some semi-neighbours (a middle-aged couple, American, no children) asked me recently to walk, feed and sleep round (no jokes )with their dog (A hound mongrel) for 11 days while they went on Holiday to Northern Greece.
They originally wanted to only pay me £130 for this, but I asked for £185, which was still pretty rubbish, but acceptable.

So they sent me an email with the instructions of what to do -feeding advice, letting the cleaner in -They also left a notice the first morning I started saying to bring some towels inside.

So I do all that stuff, 3 walks a day, and so on. They come back after I've moved out. I then come back in the evening to collect my £185, and he answers the door looking a bit tired and angry.

He then goes on to state that :

• The towels I brought in were on the sofa on a messy pile
• I didn't let the cleaner in
• I left the house a "wreck".

Apart from not clearing up the bedclothes they left me and leaving about 5 unwashed glasses by the sink, I left everything as it was.

So he then says that "I don't want to cheat you, but I'm only going to pay you £170."
(Pulls out £150) "I'll pay you the other £20 tomorrow" - I could see he didn't have anything smaller so I apologised for my misgivings and left.

So it's 2 days later and no £20. What do I do? Are they just trying to recoup some of cost of their holiday, or do they have righteous indignation, or is it just that they come from land of the free market and thus expect loads for hardly anything? Being British of course we expect that if we don't pay much, we'll hardly get anything. Any pointers?

[triggersbroom]

Kidnap the mutt, and make your demands.

[hornetrider]

Torch the fking place, cheeky effing septics

[Gunny Sergeant D]

Forget it life is too short.

[andy-xr]

You're more expensive than Petpals, I'd lump it

[TheEnd]

Be polite for the next few months, make amends and forget about the money.


The next summer when the go on holiday again, kill the dog.

[triggersbroom]

You have apologised for your misgivings, so have actually admitted that his accusations were correct.

You should have stood up for yourself at the time, if you believed he was out of order.

It's too late now as you have scuttled off.

Forget it and move on.

Hindsight eh?

[odyssey2200]

Start secretly throwing the dog chunks of Exlax Chocolate!

It will cost them more than £20 in vets bills and cleaning up the mess!

Make sure you get £20 worth of fun out of them!

[TommyTT]

Grow a set FFS

[G'kar]

You have already expended more effort than that trivial irrelevance warranted merely by typing your OP.

Life really is too short.

[Mr Fenix]

Life is too short to mess about over 20 quid. They way I see it this couple are only worth 20 of anyone's time.

Taking the optimistic view...at least you got most of the money and took the morale high ground. If you genuinely made the mistakes they outlined you did the right thing by apologizing and walking away.

If not, offer to walk their large dog a few times, last day of walkies give the mutt some paraffin or suitable laxative (ask a vet) just before you hand over rover.

Having assisted a few vets and done Kennel duty its amazing how much st 1 large dog can produce...

[Nolar Dog]

Yes that's right. Punish the dog because the owner is a tt.

Walk away and don't do him/them any more favours.

[TheEnd]

odyssey2200 said:

Start secretly throwing the dog chunks of Exlax Chocolate!

It will cost them more than £20 in vets bills and cleaning up the mess!

Make sure you get £20 worth of fun out of them!

dogs? chocolate?

don't you watch eastenders?

here's a clue

[Pork]

What would it have cost them to get a dog sitter/house sitter in for that amount of time? Much more, I'd say. You should have known better than to try and do someone a favour!

[ali_kat]

They paid you????

And you left their house in left than perfect condition?



You'd not have got a penny from me!!

[Wacky Racer]

Why not just call round for it....

"Hi, I've just called round for that £20.........."

Hardly Rocket science...(unless you have done and they have refused to pay.......)

[awesome_welles]

ali_kat said:

They paid you????

And you left their house in left than perfect condition?



You'd not have got a penny from me!!

It's a lot of stress walking a hound for 3 times a day - let alone moving all your stuff and sleeping in the same house as it.

[ali_kat]

awesome_welles said:

ali_kat said:

They paid you????

And you left their house in left than perfect condition?



You'd not have got a penny from me!!

It's a lot of stress walking a hound for 3 times a day - let alone moving all your stuff and sleeping in the same house as it.

Is it?

FFS - never get a job, you'll die of a heart attack!

[A1GOY]

awesome_welles said:

ali_kat said:

They paid you????

And you left their house in left than perfect condition?



You'd not have got a penny from me!!

It's a lot of stress walking a hound for 3 times a day - let alone moving all your stuff and sleeping in the same house as it.

I do think some people over indulge their pets. You don't need to move in with a dog for 11 days just because its owners have gone away. Walk it, feed it, give it water and go back to your own home. It's a dog, not a child.

[need4power]

dude, ignore it (only £20) and put it down to a life experience...Never to be repeated

But you should have left it how you found it...