We hired an electrician to come put up some lamps and do a few odd things in the house. One thing we asked his employee to look at was the bathroom fan as it wasn't working. He took it out and said he would check with the fan company and see if it was under warranty.

He came back a few days later to do some more work, and told us he had a new fan as he was able to put the old one through the warranty. We told him if it wasn't going to be possible to bring the old one back and we would figure it out, he also said we could get a new one at the Bauhaus for approximate 100 CHF.

I've received the invoice and they are charging me 400 CHF for the fan. I've written to them and they are saying that the fan wasn't under warranty and I must have been mistaken. There was no mistake, he clearly said it was under warranty. And in any case, we were never told beforehand of the 400 CHF charge. It can't be that someone can just add this to your invoice and say "too bad you have to pay for it". He's not willing to work out a deal to split the costs.

Beyond a lawyer, is there someone within your gemeinde who would be able to help? In the end it's the cost that's bugging me, but also that he thinks he can just say "you have to pay" when we never agreed to it in the slightest.

Advice? :-S