Unsolicited consumer agreements, sorted on the quote
Knock on a door, or have the customer sign on your phone at the visit, and the Australian Consumer Law gives them 10 business days to cancel. Quotebird adds the paperwork the law asks for and keeps payment shut until the time is up.
Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.
When is a quote an unsolicited consumer agreement?
In Quotebird: when you started the conversation, when it isn’t known who did, or when the customer signs on your phone at the visit; and the quote is over $100 including GST, or at any price when it’s only an estimate. If the customer rang you and accepts from the link later, it isn’t one, because a quote left with them to think over and accepted on their own initiative isn’t a UCA as the ACCC reads it.
The quote’s Job section asks Who got in touch first in one tap, and your answer to “How do you usually get jobs?” at setup fills it in on new quotes. A business customer gets none of this.
What does Quotebird add to the quote?
The Important Notice to the Consumer goes on the first page in 12-point bold, with lines for the consumer’s signature and the date and one for yours. The termination information follows on a page of its own, printed bigger and bolder than anything else in the document. The regulations set its subject but not its words, so that page is in ours.
Last comes the approved cancellation notice, word for word, with your name, address and email, the work, its cost and the quote number already filled in.
A hedge and a garden bed, signed on site
Jess Taylor is the Sydney landscaper in this site’s screenshots, a demo business we built for them. Liam Nguyen asked her round to Lilyfield to look at his hedge, and she quoted $907.50 with a 10% deposit, for Liam to sign on her phone before she left.
Why it’s a UCA
- Who got in touch first: The customer
- Signed on Jess’s phone at the visit
- Over $100, GST included
What the quote carried
- The Important Notice to the Consumer on page one
- The termination information on a page of its own
- The approved cancellation notice, filled in
- A deposit due once the time to cancel is over
Once Liam signs, Jess’s app counts the 10 business days, skipping weekends and the New South Wales public holidays, and shows the first day she can start and take the $90.75 deposit. Liam’s page opens the payment on that day by itself.
Can I take a deposit during the 10 business days?
No, and the link won’t take one. The deposit shows as due once the time to cancel is over, and the sent quote tells you Start the work and take payment on or after the first day you can. When that day comes, payment opens by itself and the customer gets an email with the link.
The one exception the app knows is urgent work in a declared state of emergency. Answer Declared emergency with Yes only when a state of emergency is declared for the area, the work fixes a hazard or prevents substantial damage, and you hold any licence it needs.
How are the 10 business days counted?
From and including the day after the agreement is made, leaving out weekends and the public holidays of the job’s state, the customer’s and yours. If the app can’t work the date out yet, it tells you to wait 10 business days, supply nothing and take no payment until then.
Does signing on my phone change anything?
Yes. A quote signed on your phone at the visit counts as made in person, so even a customer who rang you gets the UCA paperwork and the hold. If the version you sent wasn’t made for that, Quotebird asks to send a revision that says so, then opens it for the customer to sign.
Questions
The customer rang me and I sent the quote by link. Is it a UCA?
Not in Quotebird. There’s no front page and no hold, and the deposit can be paid as soon as they accept.
What if I don’t answer who got in touch first?
Then Quotebird treats it as a UCA: the notices print and payment waits the 10 business days. It’s the reading that protects the customer, and you can still send.
Is this legal advice?
No. Quotebird’s texts come from official government sources and are checked against them, but they’re a convenience, not legal advice, and the law that applies to your business is still yours to meet. See our Terms of Use.
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Questions? Write to us at support@quotebird.app.