DC Waterworks Inc dave and connie plumbing I was charged $245.00 for a run of the mill water faucet. ripped off because I found the same faucet for $60.00 installer refused to produce a receipt for it. Salt Lake City Utah

First of all you told the plumber that you need a 4 inch to 8 inch faucet.  So I guess that the plumber, sight unseen, and with very broad dimensions should just make sure they have every possible faucet stocked.  So answer this did it go into a 3 hole, 4 hole or 1 hole sink?  You did tell them this information as well right? 

So it is quite normal for a plumber to wait until they see what type of faucet they are replacing before they get the item.  Now, you could have done all of this prep work on your own but you choose not to.  So since the plumber did this they are totally within their right to charge you for their time.  So if it took them an hour to go buy the faucet and they worked on the faucet for an hour, they are entitled to 2 hours of billable time.  At $89 an hour that comes out to $178.

As for the faucet.  There is no law that says they have to limit what they can sell an item for.  After all do you really think that the store you went to who told you the faucet was $60 actually bought it for $60 before they sell it to you?  Of course not. 

But you probably really screwed yourself when you put a stop payment on the check.   What in effect you did was arbitrarily decide on your own how much a job should be worth.  In effect you are basically saying how much profit a company can make.  Of course if it is determined that they are entiltled to 2 hours($178) taking your arbitrary amount of $222 you have left them $44 for this $60 faucet.  Ummm...do you see a problem yet?

The time to complain about that is before you pay them.  If you truly had a complaint you actually should have instead of stopping payment, to pay them and then do as they are doing to you now..take them to small claims for the difference.

Because a Stop Payment is the same as a check returned for inufficent funds.  Depending on your State Laws they have the legal right to go after you for additional costs.  Again depending on your state laws this could be anywhere from a small fee along with reasonable costs to in some states 3 times the amount of the check.  In some cases they can even turn you over to the local DA for prosecution.

Also, once you are taken to court if you loose YOU are responsible for the court fees and may even be on the hook for legal fees.  Yes even though in Small Claims there is no lawyer, they could have consulted one before.  For small claims this could easily be another couple hundred dollars.  So in the best case even if it is agreed that you only owe your arbitrary amount of $222, if you are assessed the additional fees you could easily be over $500 or even near $1000 dollars. 

By the way I am not saying that the markup that they did was right or wrong, just that they had the right to do it and once you paid them you agreed that it was okay.

Now, this should not be taken as legal advice.  In fact I highly suggest you contact a lawyer on how to preceed.  But don't be shocked if they basically say the same thing that I have told you.  Oh and NO I do not work for this company, nor any plumbing or home improvement company.