You did not indicate that you were increasing your price, so your bill is 15 percent higher than I expected.Money can be a difficult topic to discuss. In fact, it’s taboo in many social settings. So when you’re discussing rates or prices with a difficult vendor, the subject can be especially sticky. The best way to keep you, and the arrangement, misery free is to be as clear and concrete as possible. No price is ever too high, but it can be 20 percent higher than other people charge. No number is too small, but it can be 20 pieces fewer than you agreed on. And rely on previous agreements, whether written or spoken, whenever you negotiate. Stuck? Not sure what to say? The following perfect phrases will certainly help.
You did not indicate that you were increasing your price, so your bill is 15 percent higher than I expected.
When you bid for the project, your fee was … Now you are billing at … which is … higher than you committed to charge us.
We agreed to pay a set amount of … When we received your bill, it was for … higher than that amount.
When we agree to the hourly fee, it was for the life of this project. However, you wrote in your invoice that you raised your fee by 15 percent to allow for a rise in the cost of living expenses. We never agreed to that amount.
We negotiated a price of … which is 10 percent less than the normal fee because of volume. Yet your bill does not reflect that agreement.
Originally, you charged us … Yet your price has gone up without our knowledge.
State what you expected, what you got, and what you want:
We ordered a shipment of 100 pieces. Yet we found that 26 of these were damaged, and we will need to send these back. As a result, I want you to pay for the shipping costs and replace the 26 pieces at a discount.
We expected to receive a shipment of … But we received only … Therefore, we want the remaining parts delivered to our office for no additional fee.
On our order form, we requested … of paper, but we received only half the amount. We had to purchase the difference at full price from a retail store to keep up with our work flow. When you send the remaining order, I think it’s fair that we receive a discount.
Several pieces of our order were unusable because … Please replace those items at no additional cost or delivery fee. We will send the damaged items back COD.
We agreed that your employee would … and … Yet she has arrived at work two hours late every day, as you can see from the enclosed documentation, and she has completed only … I would like this to be reflected in your bill.
Your employee stated that she needed to work from home for personal reasons but would complete the … and … which would be possible in the allotted time. Yet she completed none of these tasks, as you can see from the attached e-mail. Please reflect this in your billing.
We agreed to pay a monthly fee, assuming that your employee would work eight hours a day, five days a week. However, she has missed three days this month, as we have documented. Please reflect these absences on your bill.
You agreed to … for a price of … But you only … Please adjust the bill accordingly.
In our agreement, on page 32 you stated that you would supply three full-time employees to our office. Yet between December 1 and January 5, only two of them appeared regularly. Please confirm the attached time sheets and adjust your bill according.
In our contract, in paragraphs 3 and 4 you stated that your employees would create … by … We have not received the …, yet you have billed us for it.
Your proposal states that you will provide … for … Yet you gave us only … Therefore, we should pay…
Our statement of work called for an employee with an undergraduate degree or higher in graphic design. Your employee told us her degree is in fine arts and she has no graphic design experience whatsoever. As a result, we have had to subcontract the task, on short notice, to a freelance designer at an additional expense. We assume your bill for next month will reflect this additional expense on our part.
Your statement of work said you would fulfill these tasks to completion … Yet you only … Therefore, we would like you to reduce your bill by…
We paid you for the service on July 29 by credit card. Our records show that the payment went through three days later. Please ask your representative to stop contacting us about this matter and check and adjust her records accordingly.
We paid the … bill on … The check cleared on … Yet on … and …, we have received calls insisting that we pay the full amount. Please adjust your records and stop calling us.
We received a bill on … We paid it one week later on … At that point, the payment was not late—and would not be for another two weeks. Yet in your … e-mail, you insisted that we pay a late fee.
We paid you for the order in two installments a week apart. The second installment was a day late. We do not feel we should pay the full late fee as the late payment represented only a part of the total payment.
Quick tip: Send or direct the vendor to materials that will support your case. This will save the time and misery involved in back-and-forth conversations and protect you should legal issues ensue.