HELP! Friend helped ride my mare but her eventual invoice is laughable

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fruity

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Not sure what to do,ready for this........................
My friend who is a riding intructer helped me with my mare when i got her as she is a baby and i had to work lots so we agreed that she would ride her a couple of days a week when i couldn't so the mare had regular schooling etc,now for the first couple of months she did do as she said she would and i paid her £250,she then was very on off and a lot of the time would end up riding for just a half hour instead a full hour,this was about feb-march time,then she started going through a stage of never coming to the yard to do her own horses let alone mine and quite often the other girls at the yard would tell me she either wasn't doing my mare or just lunging her for 15 mins,which wasn't what i wanted,i would of come up myself and done her if i'd known she was doing that,she would quite often not turn up and not tell me,i then said please let me know if you can't make it up or if your short on time,by april she admitted she hadn't spent a lot of time working on my mare so she said it would be reflected in the invoice (between the months of jan-april she didn't invoice me even after me asking constantly as i didn't want a big bill at the end of it all) i got her quite a few things through out this time that i paid for and she said 'oh i'll take it off the invoice' this includes horse feed,rug cleaning,dog food,horse dentist and wormers etc.Now by end of april i realised my mare had not improved at all with her riding her and that i was wasting my money and better of getting a sharer or doing it myself so i said invoice me what i owe you as i can do her myself,she was not happy about it as she knew she'd lose out on my money. Anyway she went to Australia for quite a while in may/june and is now back,before she went i said please give me an itemised invoice of when you did Dora to which she repied she couldn't remember what days she had done or what she'd done on those days so could i check in my diary!!!! now i do have some notes as to when she rode her but not every single time and the invoice she has just sent is ridiulous,she's is well known for taking the piss but me being a friend i didn't think she'd be like that with me as we are/were quite close.She's put she's done £300 a mths riding at £20 a ride/visit. it's all totalling way over £1000 and she's taken off only SOME of the money for the things i paid for and it still comes out as over £800!!!!!! I just don't know what to do,i know your all going to say you should of chucked her ages ago but is' sooo hard when she's a friend too and we were seeing each other every day so it would of been very hard to live with her and she can get quite nasty if you pee her off!!!! Really not sure what to do as she did do some of it but i know for a fact and i have quite a lot of back up that she didn't do half of it.
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She's no friend - pay her half of her final invoice and cut her loose ..
I'm sure you could find someone to help simply because they want to ..which is what friends are supposed to do isn't it?

You were paying for a service which you didn't receive and your horse is no better at the end of it... don't see why you should be so out of pocket especially as she couldn't remember what/when she did for you.
 

If she can't remember then she should be prepared to let those times go. She should have kept an exact itemisation of what she did & the cost.

I don't really have much advice apart from to say that you want an exact breakdown of everything done.

Good luck
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was there a contract or written agreement?

what do you think you should pay her? I would state everything you have said here and then offer what you think is reasonable.

btw - she is not what I would call a friend.
 
i think i'd start off trying to be nice about it, do a full and detailed list of all the things you bought for her etc, and say that she obviously hasn't taken them into account in her final total.
i'd also do as comprehensive a list as possible of what she did and didn't do with the horse, and work out exactly what you think is a totally fair amount, that she has actually earned, minus what she owes you back. have this written down and documented, so it doesn't look like a figure plucked out of the air. if she is half reasonable and wants to keep you as a friend, she'll go for it.
tbh i doubt she has a leg to stand on after all this time and after not doing what you wanted, not giving you a bill when you asked, etc etc. she should be glad to get anything after all this time and all this mucking you around.
sounds like the kind of friend you could do without! best of luck.
 
Agree with above posters, just pay her for times that can be proved & chalk the rest up to experience. You can't really call her a friend either as she obviously has no respect for you at all. Cut loose!
 
I think you're going to have to be brave and sit down with her to go through the invoice. She has already admitted she doesn't have information about exactly what she did so I would ask her to explain the charges as it was more than you were expecting. I would also remind her about anything she has forgotten to take off the bill (I assume you have a list?) and ask her to adjust accordingly.
It is difficult that neither of you have a definate list of dates so I would see if you can resolve it without accusing her of not having done the work. However if you are going to mention it, I'd make sure beforehand that people will back you up. Sometimes when push comes to shove people don't want to stand up and be counted.
 
I really feel for you and she is terrible to put you through this. You are going to have to spend some time and work out the max you think you should pay , then ask her to think again , remind her it was only £250 when she was riding her each day . Then work out and itemise what you have spent and take that off. It is going to be messy but you are going to have to bite the bullet
 
I'm going to send her an e-mail saying i have my own personal accountant (which i do) and that i need to justify all payments i make hence why i need an itemised invoice. Thanks for your understanding and help.
 
she has since left our yard due to being a pain in the *** and has been doing the same to others i hear,she is no longer a friend really but i would like to cut ties in a amicable way if poss as she is the sort of person to drag your name through the mud in the horse world and where we live stuff spreads fast,i don't see why i should be slagged off for doing nothing wrong,i'm never funny about money but i feel strongly about this.
 
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I'm going to send her an e-mail saying i have my own personal accountant (which i do) and that i need to justify all payments i make hence why i need an itemised invoice. Thanks for your understanding and help.

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Perfect.

Be perfectly pleasant in the email. Thanks for the invoice and all that. But yes, please itemise so that you can pass it to your accountant.
 
If she can provide an itemised invoice & you agree that she was there riding your horse on those occasions then pay that. If she can't, & I suspect that will be the case then only pay what she can prove. If she expects to be paid for providing professional sevices then sjhe should be able to prepare a professional bill.
 
if she has given you an invoice is she running a business??? is she registered with the inland revenue as self employed?
Therefore you would expect to have an agreement or contract for the work to be carried out.
From what you have said she was meant to be providing a service, which you have not received or are indeed happy with.
if you feel that your horse has not improved at all don't pay. Why pay for something you have not had???
As others have said ask for a complete breakdown of the invoice, dates, times, etc.
If she cannot do this then offer her a gesture of goodwill against her time/fuel costs (£200) and leave it at that.
If this does not work the only way she can force you to pay is to take you to court through the small claims route.
Believe me if she does not have records or proof of the alleged work a judge will laugh it out of court
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if in doubt ring the CAB or consumer direct, they are very helpful and know the law inside out, good luck
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If she can provide an itemised invoice & you agree that she was there riding your horse on those occasions then pay that. If she can't, & I suspect that will be the case then only pay what she can prove. If she expects to be paid for providing professional sevices then sjhe should be able to prepare a professional bill.

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Totally agreee with this.

God luck and i hope it resolves itself.
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right had a look through diary and i gave her another £200 cash on the 27th february for rides till then,i've then got 3rd,8th,12,18,21 March plus 2 x dr entry fees she paid for then April 9th,22nd,23rd,24th,25th and 28th that she did or was supposed to do all the other dates i either rode or the mare had the day off. This still doesn't equate to £800.
 
my god if you hadn't said she had been travelling I would have said it was my previous best friend!!!! She did exactly the same to me, plus beat the horse up, fed it up so that I couldn't ride and was scared to ride it so i would pay her further. I think the ending was I decided to get some guts and move the horse to a yard where I could get some help, her final words to me were 'i hope the f*ing horse kills you as you don't deserve a good horse like him!!' so off I went and never looked back. strangely enough though, all the people that she bad mouthed me to who I was barely friends with are now some of my closest friends and they all got bitten in the end with her. She has since moved 200 + miles away - so god help the people where she now lives!!
Personally I would not pay her another penny and invoice her for all the stuff you paid for and for re-schooling the horse!!
 
Ask for a fully itemised bill like you've said and wait and see what happens. you can work out yourself from the dates you have how much you think it should be, make up an itemised summary yourself including debiting her for the items you have had to pay out for and tell her that is what you will be paying.
She might try and bad mouth you but by the sounds of her you won't be the first person she's tried to rip off so people will probably take it all as sour grapes on her part anyway
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Damn, I've missed a trick here.
I helped my friend with her horses for years...rode her old boy for her (and mucked him out, cleaned tack, etc) when I was a student and she was working. I then helped her find a new, young horse, gave her lessons on him, rode him, went to shows with her....
I'm qualified too....and what did I charge her?
Nothing - she was a friend.
Now I realise my error, I'm going to invoice her for a grand...I can imagine what she'll say
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S
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I wouldnt give her a penny over and above what I KNEW she had done and the rest I wouldnt even bother about.

This person is no friend.

Dont worry about the dragging your name through the mud. I have had this done and ot speaks for itself re pointing out that the person doing it is a pratt.

Cut her loose and ;et her rant. The people who listen to her cr@p arnt worth bothering about.

Nikki xxxx
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NiknKia
Welcome to the forum.
Your advice seems very good - and your horse is beautiful.
Your signature, is however, HUGE - is there any way you could resize it a wee bit, please?
S
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she'll end up walking away from the bill rather than go to court because then they will find out she hasnt been paying taxes etc etc! if you agreed to pay her £250 month for riding your mare everyday that only works out roughly to £62.50 a week, so how can she charge you £20 a visit? sorry i may be been abit thick here lol. i wouldnt worry about been slagged off if she's done this before people will ignore her & be wise to her tricks. knock off the bill expensies that you have had to pay (ie the wormer,dentist etc etc) and all the times she has lunged your mare as your agreement with her was to ride your mare not lunge her. good luck she doesnt have a leg to stand on.
 
How can she charge you when she cannot remember what she's done??? Rediculous. Ask for a fully itemised bill with dates and period of exercise for each session shown. You are fully entitled to it if she is asking you to pay her. Just explain that you cannot settle her bill until you have this. Gosh, what a spot to be in with a 'friend'.
 
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