Contract woes...any advice?

I seem to be having some issues with my kitchen people and I am not sure what I can do abotu it - if anything. Advice required.

So....I signed a contract back in May for my new kitchen & laundry.

At that stage the cost for the trades were provided by the designer as an estimate & subject to site check (and for reference, every other kitchen mob that came out said & did the same thing when it came specifically to trades so I didn't feel like this was cause for concern).

Anyhoo...site check comes and goes. Nothing's mentioned at this point. I hand over my 40% progress payment as per my contract. A few days later I get the 'real' quote which I am asked to sign and, lo-and-behold, the original trades estimate priced by the designer is well and truly out the window - in it's place is a figure some $2500 greater! :~

Now, it would be nice to think this was the end of it but...uh huh...I was advised that they'd need to send someone out to check out how exactly they'd go about the removal of my wall oven tower/bulkhead over rangehood /built in pantry & breakfast bar all of which are built in plaster types situations not joinery (maybe not a good explanation!). I was kind of surprised by this as I have already been quoted a price for demolition and for new plaster etc to these areas ~$2200 total. Apparently the demolition quote didn't extend to this work only the existing cabinets :doh:

So, last week the builder came out to do another site check - which took all of 5 minutes - and tells me he'll have the quote back to the office by early this week (Mon/Tue). Voila! More money!? :no:

I feel like I am getting completely scammed here but I 've signed a contract so my hands are tied, surely?

Any suggestions? Who handles these sorts of contract woes?

:C


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