Grandparent and rogue traders - what can we do

[flossielily]

Hello! An elderly (alone) grandparent was recently ripped off to the tune of £3500 carry out some work at her home. Looking around online for similar costs I suspect that at a max this should have cost £700, possibly less (including materials!). Even if it should have cost £1k it's still 3.5 times what it should have cost. They turned up and spent 5 hours max doing this work then left again.

The traders told her not to tell anyone else how much she'd paid.

The work has been carried out and paid for. All verbal agreements. No receipt has been provided. No forwarding address for the contractors. Everything seems very shifty. Does anyone know what we can do in this situation?

Would trading standards be interested? Can anything be done in such a situation? At the very least they need reporting I think. I realise she may not get her money back. Is there a law against overcharging and ripping people off like this? Just wondered if people have experienced similar and were able to do anything about it as not experienced anything like this before.

It's horrible but unfortunately she paid what they were charging. Did they cold call her?Is the work OK &safe? I'd ring age concern to ask for their advice
I'm so sorry this happened to her

Let the local police know asap, they will usually put the word out to try preventing it happening to others locally. Unfortunately it's normally a travelling gang that cold call and target the elderly/vulnerable.

If they agreed a price before they started work was your grandparent happy with the quote at that point?

Absolutely report to the police. It is awful that this has happened but by reporting you may stop it happening to someone else and as they will i am sure have done it before any info they can give police will be useful. Perhaps look at a ring doorbell.

I would definitely report to local police that they have been targeting. They could pay passing attention to the address. Can they describe what they looked like? Or their vehicles or names they gave? Did they have any receipts? Definitely report this to police and / or trading standards. I would be concerned that they may return at some point and suggest they need something else doing. I would suggest speaking to their neighbours and asking them to keep an eye out for your Grandparents and let you know if there are any vans / tradesmen at their address. Could you get a ring doorbell at their address to give you alerts if someone calls? 🤞🏼they don’t come back!

Unless they’ve lied about what work needed carrying out and have done anything unnecessary, then it’s not a police matter. Rogue traders are the ones that knock on your nans door and tell her she’s got a few tiles loose that need replacing, then whilst up on the roof tell her the whole lot needs replacing and charges her 10k for nothing (and open doing a piss poor job costing more money to fix). While it’s hugely unethical, there’s nothing illegal about contractors charging more for a certain job than other people. They’ve obviously seen your grandparent coming and decided to take the piss, but I’ve had similar people try to take the piss out of me. It’s common sense to get multiple quotes before getting a big (or any) job done. The only way forward imo is to tell your grandparents to arrange any other jobs through you.

Get a ring doorbell and link it to your phone. You can check who's calling at their home x

hello all, thank you so much. I believe their number was passed on by someone who was asked to find a trader (no idea how they found them!) rather then them doorknocking. She was apparently happy with the price they suggested but also is completely clueless about this kind of thing and paid a large chunk upfront before anyone could even stop her. (She was told to get more than one quote but is very stubborn!!!).

I do realise that it's a difficult situation and that we will likely not get any money back due to the fact she accepted the quote in advance but I just don't want others to fall victim to it. I think these people may be travelling types from the sound of the situation although they were reported to be nice men but that said the overcharging and the dodgy details, all point to them being untrustworthy unfortunately.

If you had the inclination to (I probably would out of anger), I’d try to track them down as they sound dodgy enough to perhaps not have whatever qualifications and insurances they needed for the work. I’m not sure if that would be enough to get your grandparents money back, but it should be enough to get them up shit creek with any police or civil case you’d be willing to put forward. Doesn’t the person who recommended them have any more details for them?

@Ihatethenewlook that's an idea. I think we have contact details for them but I don't think they were found via an official site or anything, probably a recommendation on FB or something I imagine. Thank you.

Please report them to Trading Standards and the police. Rogue traders are known for repeatedly returning to the same people.
I agree with a previous poster, a Ring doorbell would also be a good idea.

@Jijithecat thank you for this, I didn't know they target the same people again so that's definitely something to bear in mind and warn her. We will do our best to report ASAP.

@MBIL this is a zombie thread, I think you need to start your own thread.

@flossielily did you report this op? Did anything come of it?

@Teapleasebobb just reported it now