The quotation is the least regarded document in the whole transaction and the one that every later route will ask for. It is worth two minutes of attention at the moment it is handed to you.
What it should state
- The legal name and company number of the business you are contracting with.
- The trading address, and a contact address and telephone number.
- The name of the individual who will carry out the treatment.
- Where a medicine is involved, the name of the prescriber and the date of assessment.
- The product by full name, and the quantity or range proposed.
- The total price including all charges, and what happens if more product is needed on the day.
- What is included and what is not, in particular any review appointment or adjustment.
- Aftercare instructions and an urgent contact, including out of hours.
- The deposit, cancellation and refund terms, and where the full terms can be read.
- Any finance arrangement, with the cash price alongside the total amount payable.
- The date, and a reference you can quote later.
Most quotations in this field contain three or four of these. That is not necessarily a sign of anything sinister, but each missing item is a question you can ask, and asking converts a gap into an email you can keep.
Why each one matters later
The legal entity. Every remedy runs against a named person or company. See the Companies House article.
The individual. Complaints to professional regulators are about individuals, not businesses. Without a name you have nowhere to go.
The product and quantity. If something goes wrong, this is the first thing anyone will ask. It is also what a Yellow Card report needs.
The total price. Pre contract information requirements include the total price including charges. A price that grows on the day is a matter you can raise.
Review arrangements. Whether a follow up is included, and whether adjustments cost extra, is one of the most common sources of dispute. Get it in writing before, not after.
Aftercare and urgent contact. The one that matters at ten at night. A quotation without it means nobody thought about that moment.
| Missing from the quotation | What you lose | Ask this |
|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Every contractual and card remedy | Which company am I contracting with, and its number |
| Named individual | The route to a professional regulator | Who will carry out the treatment |
| Product and quantity | Complication management and product reporting | What exactly will be used, and how much |
| Total price | The ability to challenge a change on the day | What is the total including everything |
| Review arrangements | The most common dispute in this field | Is a review included, and are adjustments extra |
| Aftercare and urgent contact | Help at the moment you need it | Who do I contact at the weekend |
| Cancellation terms | Knowledge of what a deposit buys | What are the deposit and cancellation terms |
A framework written by this publication to organise the procedure. It is not a measurement, a guideline or a regulator's classification.
The statutory floor
Independently of good practice, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 require traders to give consumers specified information before a contract is made. That includes the main characteristics of the service, the trader's identity, geographical address and contact details, the total price including all charges, and arrangements for payment and performance.
So several items on the list above are not merely desirable. A business that will not tell you who it is, where it is, or what the total price is, is not just being unhelpful. The Regulations are readable and short on this point, and they are cited in the cooling off article.
Getting verbal statements into the document
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, information given by a trader about the service, which the consumer takes into account, can be treated as a term of the contract. That makes what you were told potentially enforceable, provided you can evidence it.
The technique is simple and takes one message. After the consultation, email the clinic: thank you for today, just to confirm my understanding: you will use X, approximately Y, carried out by Z, total price A, with a review at two weeks included, and aftercare contact B. Ask them to confirm or correct it.
Either reply helps you. A confirmation creates a document. A correction tells you something you had wrong before it mattered. Silence is itself a record that you set out your understanding and it was not disputed.
- Open
- Companies House, then your own bank or card statement
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk - Type in
- The company name printed on the quotation. After payment, compare it with the merchant name on your statement.
- A good result looks like
- The same company name on the quotation, on the consent documents, on the receipt and on your card statement, with an active record at Companies House.
- An ambiguous result looks like
- Three documents naming three different entities. A merchant name on your statement that does not match anything you were given. A trading name with no company behind it and no individual named either.
- What it does not prove
- That the company is competent or solvent. It establishes who you are dealing with, which is what every later route requires.
- Note
- If the names differ, ask for an explanation in writing before treatment. There are innocent explanations, and you should have the one that applies.
Patterns worth noticing
Not accusations, just things to ask about.
- A price given only as a monthly finance figure, with no cash total. Ask for the cash price and the total amount payable.
- Per unit or per millilitre pricing with no indication of how many will be used. Ask for a range and what happens if more is needed on the day.
- A package price covering unspecified treatments. Ask what exactly is included and what it would cost separately.
- A quotation naming no individual. Ask who will carry out the treatment.
- A quotation naming no company. Ask which entity you are contracting with.
- Terms referred to but not provided. Ask for them, and read them before paying.
Keeping it
Photograph or save the quotation, the terms, and any written exchange, on the day. Put them with the register screenshots, the consent documents, the record of product and batch and the aftercare sheet.
That file is referred to on almost every page of this site because every route through this subject asks for the same things. Building it takes twenty minutes across the whole process, and it is the difference between a complaint that can be examined and one that comes down to two accounts of a conversation. The full sequence is on the checklist.