Things you hate IV

Discussion in 'Taylor's Tittle-Tattle - General Banter' started by hornmeister, Jun 25, 2019.

  1. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    First time I've been let down this way. But I have myself to blame because I wanted to press ahead to get the patio ready for some of the summer and overlooked a couple of things that rang alarm bells, overall I'm only down by about ~£200-£300, yet they done the hard bit. Laying square slabs in a rectangular area would have involved hardly any cutting, and the pathway of two slabs wide required no cutting. As I say I reckon they felt they couldn't extract too much money from me and they couldn't be bothered to come back.
     
  2. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    Was talking about this with a friend over lunch today. When we had our first flat we needed a flat roof removed and replaced as it was rotten. On days one and two they did all of the work and just needed to get rid of the old roof which they'd piled up in the garden. They asked for payment and I paid the full amount :eek:. Obviously we never saw them again and I ended up hiring a van and paid again for it to be dumped at the local council tip.

    A valuable and costly lesson learned.

    I'd wager you could have a thread devoted to the "tradesman" which would be never ending.
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  3. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    I agree with you, it would be nice to have a trusted tradesperson thread but that can lead to abuse, and it's because of something like that that I ended up in this mess. For my builder I put in a lot of time and effort into researching him and looking at his work, I was introduced to him at my younger son's primary school at pick up time. 3 dads in my son's yeargroup knew him and two of them had had him do work for them, which I looked at their houses.

    Up until now I've never had to seriously rely on tradesmen in the 20 years I've been a homeowner therefore I've not had to deal with cowboys, I let my guard down a bit and the annoying thing is that I ignored things which rang alarm bells, my wife is equally guilty as she also wanted the patio done; we both realise that in future if either of us have concerns with a quotation then we stop there and then.
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  4. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    I'll finish the job if you wire me £250 ? Special price only available for the next 2 hours, normally it would be £5000. You save a whopping £4750, ......or £5,213 if the correct ex rate is used.
     
  5. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    Do you accept postal orders?
     
  6. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    The secret seems to be never employ someone who is available now. The longer you wait for a builder the better they usually are in my experience.
     
    Cthulhu, Happy bunny and UEA_Hornet like this.
  7. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    Definitely this. And while I understand why in some circumstances it might be unavoidable, the really legit ones don't ask for upfront payments. We had our kitchen done in January by a local firm and they didn't take a penny until completion. We had to wait 5 months for a slot in their diary.
     
    Since63 likes this.
  8. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    We were looking in mid to late May, the date we were given to start was 11th July, so it was about 7 weeks, they did start a week late but only did two days. Now is the bit I'm not looking forward to, phoning them and telling them they're fired.
     
  9. Hornpete

    Hornpete Squad Player

    We've just been screwed over by a builder who took money for materials they have not provided and have left the job. Surprising thing is he's local to us so you'd think he would be concerned about his reputation. I'm not letting it rest until we get a refund.

    Any advice for the best way to screw him over? Happy to resort to some dark arts.
     
    Otter likes this.
  10. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    Local Facebook groups. Every single time a recommendation is asked for a builder trash him hard.
     
    Hornpete, Otter and hornmeister like this.
  11. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Hindsight and all that but if a builder wants money for materials then would always pay directly to the supplier and get them delivered to your own address.

    Other than a deposit (prefereably on credit card) to a trader with proper premises I wouldn't be offering substantial chunks up front. A payment schedule whislt the works are ongiong with a percentage retained until satisfactory completion is normal.

    Smaller jobs have always been done payment on completion for me.

    But I'd add, be absolutely certain there's no way out before doing so as you'll end any chance of an amicable fix/refund.

    Was it a cash job? in which case a suggestion to them that you'll go public might help with a refund / completion. Otherwise if it's more mainstream then there are refund routes depending on payment methods.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2022
  12. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Borrow a friend's house and get him over for a quote for some work then confront him.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2022
    miked2006 and Hornpete like this.
  13. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    I was writing about a similar thing on Monday. The best thing I did was refuse to pay a large amount in advance and met them down Selco, so the materials were paid for by me to Selco and delivered to me, those materials are mine. I have lost out because I did pay some in advance for skip & machines but down 100s rather than 1000s.

    Today I contacted Citizens Advice Bureau https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/c...if-you-need-more-help-about-a-consumer-issue/ by phone, I told them the issue, they provided me a link to a sample letter to send to them to ask for a refund (I have their address as it was on the Selco invoice), give them enough time to rectify or refund (I don't want them back anyway). I can escalate it to County Court etc. if they don't respond, the CAB will refer them to Trading Standards on my behalf.

    As in your case they appear to have committed fraud, you ought to call the police.
     
    hornmeister likes this.
  14. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Also Money claim on-line might help in getting cash back depending on amount.
     
  15. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    Highly likely the police will deem it to be a civil matter unless there's any particularly aggravating factors (eg. Hornpete is in his 90s or has a significant disability). Even then, trading standards would typically be the body to investigate rogue traders. They can bring criminal charges if need be - although as with most other local government functions they've been slowly stripped back since 2010 and probably won't be interested in a builder dispute either unless this lot are known to them already.
     
  16. Hornpete

    Hornpete Squad Player

    Thanks for the replies. CAB I think are the next point. We're basically going to have to pay another roofer to complete and don't have 3 veluxes that we've paid for. He also cocked up the tiling and it needs doing again. Full of excuses since January. We've left a final request to rectify and fit everything agreed and well past opportunity to come back in. Not sure if we should name and shame across everywhere in case it give him ammo to say we're clearly unreasonable etc. If it gets to court.
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  17. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Does "Watford fan" not count ?
     
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  18. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    Scabby ******* who dump their stuff in your skip. No fuss with a Maccies bag or a coke can or whatever but we’ve just had some utter ****** dump a king size mattress in our skip. It’s on road so not much we can do to prevent it.

    Pisses me off so much more that they’d had the foresight to roll the mattress up, tape it together to fit it in their car, drive down here and then two-handed lob it in the skip. Why not just take it to the tip you lazy ******* ****s?
     
    Otter and Diamond like this.
  19. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    Anyone with a camera or ring doorbell who might have got a picture of the scummers?
     
  20. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Our local police were very keen on evidence from front door cameras when we had someone lurking around our close resulting in a minor theft some time back. However I wonder if they would be that eager when it's someone dumping stuff in a skip, however annoying that might be.
     
  21. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    There was still use in that mattress you ungrateful sod!
     
  22. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    Afraid not, though on a dark-ish road at night, lots of trees etc and usually busy enough that anyone seen driving near the skip but not directly next to it could have a legitimate excuse.
    It’s not a police thing. I can report it as fly tipping to the local council but absent any evidence about whodunnit it’ll just be a statistic. So I won’t be bothering with that.

    Luckily we’ve done what we needed to do and have asked the skip company to fetch it today. At least that should avoid it overflowing by Monday morning. Second time this year we’ve had a mattress dumped in a skip outside our house, having previously had a skip outside for 8 weeks when the loft was being done without any issues at all.
     
  23. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    They even left the top sheet on. Classy.
     
  24. K9 Hornet

    K9 Hornet Border Collie Dog

    Useful for collecting DNA samples and tracking them down. Must be done
     
  25. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Keep your eyes open. They might be back to sleep on it tonight.
     
  26. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Check it for cash. If it's a fly by night house clearance company which has cleared up after a pensioner has passed on you may be in luck.
     
  27. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Theft.
     
  28. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    If I take a no. 2 at a friend's house and he fails to give it back to me is that theft?:D
     
  29. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    I’m not sure that is an exact legal analogy.
     
    The undeniable truth likes this.
  30. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    a #2 is a pretty good anal ogy.
     
  31. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

    Indisputably a crap analogy.
     
    Keighley likes this.
  32. Since63

    Since63 Squad Player

    Absolutely spot on. "3 months lead time" plus "payment upon completion" = kosher mob, even if they're a bit dearer. (Often they are mid-range in the quotes anyway).

    The people we've used to reconfigure & fit out our kitchen, re-do our bathroom/en-suite/wc & re-do our garden including a decking even attach the invoices from their suppliers to the invoices. Obviously, they make their trade discount as part of their profit, but it's worthwhile for the feeling of transparency.
     
  33. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    Anything on youtube containing any of these words in the title: I - my - we.

    As an example:


    Who gives a sh*t?
     
  34. Heidar

    Heidar Squad Player

    People that know a lane is closed 3 miles in advance yet still decide to merge when the cones force them to - so we all have to sit in a huge queue instead.
     
    Bwood_Horn and FromDiv4 like this.
  35. Lloyd

    Lloyd Squad Player

    Whenever I have a building project I follow these basic rules...

    Never pay builders and other trades upfront
    Never pay cash
    Always deal with a legitimate company that invoices you for the work done on completion
    If asked for money for materials - alarm bells should start ringing. Get a list of the materials they require and order directly from the builders merchant yourself - using your builder's trade account if they have one.
    Never employ British builders - they're all lazy ba5tards
     

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