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Original poster

To tell DH not to pay some cold caller 25 quid to clean our gutters

52 replies

CurlyhairedAssassin · 16/11/2013 15:57

Just went outside to clean our leaves off the front path and some bloke called DH over and said that he comes to our street every year offering to clean people's gutters. He reckons he had done 9 houses in the street today and that he has seen our gutter and it's half full of sludge. He offered the "bargain" price of a tenner for the front and 15 for the back and dh accepted.

I was fuming and told Dh there was nothing wrong with our gutters - the ones lower down on our garage and porch occasionally get leaves in which dh clears himself but no-one has ever had to clean the roof gutters in the 11 years we have been here. We have never had a problem. There are no trees nearby that are higher than the house so quite what they were supposed to be blocked with I don't know. He also said he could see the sludge in our gutters while he was doing other people's gutters. Really? I fail to see how he would be able to see in them.

I told dh it was probably the quickest 100 quid he'd ever made for a couple of hours work and that was only one street and that if he didn't go back and tell the bloke not to come then I would NOT be happy.

Give him his due, he went back and told the bloke his wife wouldn't let him have it done. Grin.

I am assuming this is a scam? I am annoyed that other householders have been duped into it - is it worth reporting it to the council do you think?

OP posts:
ICameOnTheJitney · 17/11/2013 00:26

Don't you think scammers charge a lot more than 25 quid OP? Aren't scammers more the people who tell old folk that the roof has had it and it will be two grand to fix....this is rather small potatoes to be getting in a tizz about isn't it? As you say, he's been coming back for years...scammers don't do that.

claig · 17/11/2013 00:32

But Curly had never seen him before. The person who knocked on our door was the first to offer that service since I can remember, which is why I thought it might be a scam, but it turned out not to be.

mathanxiety · 17/11/2013 00:32

You would get a good look into bedrooms while up a ladder cleaning non existent gunk out of a gutter. You would also have a chance to check if there was any security system.

If this man didn't have a hose and was working on his own with nothing more than a bucket and a ladder then I would say scam.

I used to do my own gutters. They filled up with helicopter seeds in spring and then leaves in autumn. It was a huge pita and there was once a dead squirrel up there

claig · 17/11/2013 00:37

It is also possible that a real scammer starts off doing a job for £25 and then tells someone that a tile is missing or broken on the roof etc and the scam starts from there.

There are scammers, but not everyone is a scammer.

In this economic environment, people are beginning to offer more services that were not available before, which is why they knock on your door and you have never seen them before for years. But this doesn't mean that they are all scammers.

Monty27 · 17/11/2013 00:41

What!?

Mine do need doing, I have a huge tree right outside my house, Im end of terrace and there's leaves everywhere and there water pouring out of the gutter at the front of the house.

Anyway, I got a business card through the door, contacted the guy, he came round, he wanted £100 just for the front! I declined.

mathanxiety · 17/11/2013 00:43

In the US, you would have your door knocked on 7 days a week, with people offering various handyman services. That is how I got the best sewer people that ever walked the earth in huge wellies. They rebuilt the sewer shaft one Christmas eve, which allowed us all to shower and run water the next morning. The man and his wife spent about four hours standing up to their knees in sludge redoing the brickwork and didn't charge me any sort of special rate. All they would take from me was a mug of cocoa each. I invited them in for a meal but they declined.

I regularly answered the door to tree trimmers, leaf rakers, snow shovellers, people offering sewer services, lawn weeding services...

Welfare is something of a cruel joke in the US.

ravenAK · 17/11/2013 00:53

I don't like heights, & dh takes forever to get round to this sort of thing .

I'd quite happily pay someone £25 to nip up a ladder, scoop out the crud from the guttering all round the house & let me know if any slates had fallen off.

However, I still wouldn't hire someone who was knocking door-to-door. I'd be worried about being upsold to his mate's roofing company or a burglary being scoped out.

There's plenty of 'no job too small' handypersons advertising locally - I can think of three people off the top of my head whom I could ring to do this, & who I've used before for maintenance type jobs.

I'd just have a look in Thomsons or your local freebie mag...

claig · 17/11/2013 00:59

The one who did our neigbours went into their kitchen and attached the hose and on the other side went into the bathroom, so it could have been dangerous if he was a thief etc, but it turned out he was genuine. But you never really know when someone just knocks on your door.

Monty27 · 17/11/2013 01:08

Mat :( what did you pay them?

FetchezLaVache · 17/11/2013 01:14

If it needs doing, find someone in YP or similar to do it. My MIL got scammed by a doorstep gutter clearer the other year. She observed him chuck a couple of ridge tiles off the roof, which he then quoted her a bargain price to replace... She's well into her 80s but fortunately still quite sharp.

Original poster
CurlyhairedAssassin · 17/11/2013 01:14

Hmmmm..... So it seems 25 quid would be an amount that most people are happy to pay for then....

It might be not a big amount to some people, but it is to me. And I have been disappointed by trades men's work in the past so guess I am just wary of getting ripped off/paying out good money for bad workmanship. Particularly when the lower porch gutter (which I can see out the bedroom window) seemed clear enough. No-one likes to think they are stupid enough to be taken advantage of, do they?

I am definitely going to speak to the neighbours tomorrow to see what they say.

One thing though - this bloke didn't actually knock on our door. He shouted DH from down the street the minute we went out in the front. I didn't see him knocking on anyone else's door either - I saw him speaking to householders as they came and went. I wonder what the reason for that was.

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 17/11/2013 01:44

Monty, they charged $250.00 for all that work and that included the bricks and mortar. I told everyone I knew about them and gave their number every time I heard of anyone complaining about slow drains. I saw their little truck everywhere, not surprisingly, as they took great pride in their work and came when they said they would. Best of all, if you left a message at their number they would call you back reasonably soon. Normally they had a crew of three wild looking men along with George, the owner. I think the wife came along for my sewer job because the others were off for the holiday.

reelingintheyears · 17/11/2013 01:54

TBH, If a ladder and a bucket is all it needs then why can't you do it yourself?

IAlwaysThought · 17/11/2013 01:57

I remember a plumber coming to fix something when I lived in the US. My DH and I listened in amazement when he looked at it and told us it was a really simple job that would only take five minutes and that he had the part in his van. He even refused to charge us the full call out fee Confused

He might have been onto something though as we used him for every other job from then onwards.

reelingintheyears · 17/11/2013 02:02

YOU go up that ladder and clean the windows/gutters, see how you like it.
Oh and btw, it is not legal for anyone to use a ladder as a work base, you now have to have a pole system to clean windows above the ground floor and scaffold to clear gutters.
A ladder can only be used to get from one place to another, not to work from.

Very expensive.

Thepursuitofhappiness · 17/11/2013 07:37

Had the exact same situation couple of weeks ago. Man said he'd been up number 10 and could see our gutters were full to the brim of moss.

Except my husband had cleaned them up completely the week before?!

I call scam.

Original poster
CurlyhairedAssassin · 17/11/2013 14:17

Had an interesting conversation with adjoining neighbour - he did not have his gutters cleaned yesterday and the bloke didn't knock on his door to ask to do them. He agrees with me that there is no way he would have been able to see into our gutters if he wasn't as close as next door so I have no idea where he was getting this "your gutters are half full of sludge - I've seen them" rubbish.

My neighbour also said "oh I bet it's the same bloke who offered to do my friend's gutter the other week, who lives a couple of streets away. The fella was doing his next door neighbour's house who is in his 80s and said he could see my friend's gutter from there and it was full of sludge. Well, my friend said, that's funny because I cleaned them out myself a couple of weeks ago - go on, bugger off!"

Sounds like it WAS a scam then and it looks like easy money considering the amount of people on this thread who have suggested that this man was just trying to make a living and 25 quid was a bargain.

OP posts:
Original poster
CurlyhairedAssassin · 17/11/2013 14:19

To Reeling: the point is, our gutters DON'T need doing so why WOULD I go up there and do it myself?

OP posts:
Original poster
CurlyhairedAssassin · 20/11/2013 19:11

Just a quick update for anyone who's interested. Found out that there have been a couple of burglaries in the next street this week - I have a horrible feeling that there might be a connection with this stranger being here at the weekend. Casing the joint? Assessing people's security alarms/access/what's worth stealing?

I will have a word with our neighbour who's a policeman tomorrow.

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 21/11/2013 01:34

Yes, casing the joint sounds very plausible.

FortyDoorsToNowhere · 21/11/2013 01:46

I would want a fully insured person to clean my guttering, if he broke the guttering it can cost around £200 to get replaced.

www.tradeadvisor.com/cost-guides/guttering-prices

TheZeeTeam · 21/11/2013 01:46

This is in the US, so different culture. But, I will eternally remember DH opening the door to a guy who offered to plough our snowed in drive for $18. It normally cost us $45. He said yes.

I went out two hours later and a guy, no younger than 75, was going up and down our 45 degree, 100 ft long drive with one little snow shovel.

Needless to say, DH was...ermmm, forced encouraged to pay a lot more than the going rate, the tight git! Grin

TheZeeTeam · 21/11/2013 01:47

Actually, this will only really make sense to those that have lived in places like the US where snow ploughing is an entire industry. I have a feeling everyone in the UK is clearing their drives with one little snow shovel too! Sorry!!!

FortyDoorsToNowhere · 21/11/2013 02:05

Zee I don't even bother clearing the snow, nobody does around my neighbourhood

TheZeeTeam · 21/11/2013 02:20

Forty You're so lucky! Are you in the tri-state?

We have to as otherwise DH wouldn't get to work! We get fined if the path in front of my house isn't clear as we have a fire hydrant there.