My email to her was:
Unauthorised use of Trade Discount
Dear Miss XXXX
We had given our Topps Tiles trade discount number in good faith. As we respectfully declined to carry out the work at your property in High Parksail, all privileges through our company were removed. With you purchasing products under our name, this looks like we are carrying out unregistered work during the tax year which is chargeable by HMRC.
As you can understand, I personally was not happy with the situation you have put our company in and so, my phone call was to have this rectified.
My admin assistant notified me that we received negative feedback on our website 20 minutes after our phone call. As every single one of our customers has left positive feedback, I can only assume this was yourself. The IP address was traced back to a BT provided line in the local area.
I am disappointed that you feel I am a "bully boy tradesman" as I was more than apologetic when I had to respectively decline the work on your property.
I have authorised for the tiles currently in Topps Tiles to be collected by yourself or a third party, with the discount still applied.
The trade account has been blocked for public use without my authorisation for any future transactions.
I will not take this matter any further.
Her reply was:
RE: Abusive phone call
Dear Mr Cairney,
I now understand your position as explained below and I'm sending this reply only with a view to smoothing things over.
First off, let me begin by stating this has been a genuine misunderstanding and I am sorry if this has caused you problems. However, I have spent the best part of the morning in tears and unable to work, following your fairly aggressive phone call.
To address the issue of negative feedback on your website, this was not me as I had to leave my desk immediately after speaking with you and I am still shaken. I suspect one of my colleagues may have left the feedback after seeing how distressed I was and hoping to warn other people.
When you advised me of your Topps Tiles reference number and encouraged me to use it, it was not clear to me there would be tax implications for you. I actually thought I was doing your business good by increasing the volume of spend to the supplier, thus enhancing your terms with Topps. When you originally viewed our property, you were so emphatic about us using the reference number, I naturally assumed there must be some benefit to you.
I would add that I bought our kitchen tiles from Topps last month and did NOT use your ref. The gentleman who served me insisted I use a reference number that HE suggested. Of course this made me further assume the tradesman must get 'points' or better rates from Topps with increased sales.
I am not happy with you calling me in the manner that you did. Please kindly delete any contact details you have for me.
I appreciate you have authorised the transaction with the discount intact and I thank you for that gesture of goodwill.
You will not hear from me again, I consider the matter closed.
