My wife and I recently asked a carpenter to come out for a quote on above garage storage. We'd used the guy for another job previously, and he did a good job so we were open to using him again. To my knowledge he was legit, and has an ABN.
He came out to do the quote, and asked for a 50% deposit to be paid before coming out to do the job, which we did via bank transfer (obviously moral here is never pay a 50% deposit), but long story short never came out to do the job and has been uncontactable via phone or email for weeks.
There is no contract apart from the invoice. I've contacted my bank, who have "requested" a reversal of funds, but apparently this doesn't do much, and I've made complaints to the ACCC and Consumer Protection, but again don't expect much from them. I'm aware of putting in a claim via the magistrates court, but I feel like the fees will exceed the amount of money we're out of pocket (< 2k).
Has anyone been in this situation before? We feel completely blindsided and feel like there's been not much support. So many of these tradies will not start work until a deposit has been paid, and so I don't think I can even chalk this up to a "learning experience".
Macs Attics in Perth in case anybody is interested https://www.macsattics.com.au/ Do not touch with a 10 foot pole.
Bikies is your best option.