AIBU to take this further?

[Pintsizedblondie197]

Had a decorator in last Friday to put some wallpaper up in my downstairs toilet. He did a diabolical job. Cutting isn't straight, pieces overlapped, gaps galore between pieces, pattern doesn't run on correctly and paper doesn't run flush to the door frame. The paper was Harlequin and £55 a roll so to say I am upset was an understatement. Decorator charged £60 for labour.

I messaged to say I was unhappy with it after properly looking over it at the weekend, he offered to basically come back and "bodge" it. I said no as I thought it would make it worse and when I'd spent that amount on wallpaper as well, I didn't want that doing. I asked for the £60 back and he said he'd pay it once he'd received some unpaid invoices.

It's now Thursday and I'm as of yet to receive the money. If I don't receive it soon, I'm tempted to take it to the small claims court as even if I did get my £60 back, I'm still £110 out of pocket for the wallpaper and will also need to pay to get it fixed. I don't have any experience of small claims court, would my claim likely to be successful in this instance and would you take it this far or simply pass it off as an expensive mistake if he were to send the £60 as promised?

Wow that really does look bad. I would pursue him given the cost of all that lost wallpaper.

I didn't seek the recommendation, it was a post put on recommending him from work they'd had done in their house with photographs of said work. I looked at his page and through his other previous work and like I said, I did think it looked like he knew what he was doing.

Guess I'll just have to chalk it up as as expensive mistake, be lucky if I get my £60 back and learn from the experience.

Or when a business says "we have 15 years' experience" and what they actually mean is they have five workers who each have 3 years' experience. Not remotely the same thing. (Although my favourite is the ones who declare "we have 125 years' experience" based on totting up how long they've each been in the industry.)

Wow that's really awful.... I'd probably just let it go but I'd be majorly annoyed and would pursue the £60.

I'm afraid that I don't know what the chances of being awarded the cake of the wallpaper. I don't see any down side in claiming it but it might not be awarded

I'm sure you would be awarded your £60 for sure.

Try filling in the form. You can fill it in and then save rather than submit, gives you the chance to see how it all works and go from there.

Pintsizedblondie197 With the new information and context, i can understand why the person seemed suited for the tasks.

@Hawkins001

Pintsizedblondie197 With the new information and context, i can understand why the person seemed suited for the tasks.

What do you mean? Thanks.

I've only ever wallpapered once, and still managed to do a better job than that.
Tell him you want all of the money back, including the cost of the wallpaper.

£60 is far far too cheap. That room isn't a square box and it looks like the decorator was caught out by the lines.

I think a fair settlement is he gives you a refund on the £60. Because he should've said no or asked for more time and money.

You should take the loss for the materials because you don't give specialty materials to an unskilled person.

That workmanship looks like half a days (handyman) labour to me and your toilet probably needed a full days skilled labour if not 2 to deal with the awkward angles.

Pintsizedblondie197 when you provided context and information -- "I didn't seek the recommendation, it was a post put on recommending him from work they'd had done in their house with photographs of said work. I looked at his page and through his other previous work and like I said, I did think it looked like he knew what he was doing." thats why i wrote that comment as i now understand better about why and how the person was chosen for the task.

So alarm bells should have rung when he said he would do it for £60. My handyman is £35 an hour, and when I asked a decorator to do my hall it was £800 not including paint.

Sorry, but he clearly had no clue and you shouldn’t have trusted him with pricey wall paper.

I agree, I should have realised he wouldn't be up for the task. Expensive mistake!

Are you going to post pictures of the work he’s done for you on his fb page? If his other pictures are so good it may not be his own work he’s showcasing!

We made the mistake booking someone to fit doors off fb. I can only assume all the “thanks for doing a brilliant job fitting our doors” messages were from mates. He wasn’t cheap either! I will never trust recommendations off fb pages again.

I’d push him for the refund and see if you can find someone to patch it up, it shouldn’t be noticeable—patch in the gap, cut off the sticking up part, not that much work to make it look clean

How long did it take him? On Skedaddle's estimate, to do it properly would probably have meant £60 wasn't even minimum wage.

Fucking hell that's awful, I hope he gives you your £60 back

I did my own and it looks far neater than that
And it was my first time ever

He arrived at 8.30 and left just after 12. I did send him pictures of the room when I was messaging around to ask for quotes. The walls are half tiled too so not even full walls to paper.

£60 he probably isn't a proper decorator , did he just put paper up ?

@flaviaritt

Oh bless him. Actually I am going to change my mind, OP (sorry). He clearly hasn’t got a clue what he’s doing. For £60 that’s not necessarily his fault. That’s not just sloppy, it’s like he’s never done it before.

I wallpapered my spare room recently (first time ever) and by these standards I should have charged myself several hundred! Decent seams and edges... reckon I should go into business!

On a serious note... if you don't know how to do something (and don't want to invest the time to to train in advance) you just shouldn't say you can do it! I don't feel sorry for him at all!

Good tradesmen aren't cheap
Lots of cutting etc and what were walls like underneath
My brother a decorater but he prob wouldn't take a job on like this as he says a lot if what makes work good and costs is the preparation, making sure walls sanded and filled , paintwork good etc

And def not for £60

If he's waiting for other clients to pay then you might have a while to wait for the refund. 😫 Judging by that standard of work he can't have many happy customers.

I've had bad decorators before but that is shocking.

I don't pay until I have insepected the job. i didn't pay the plasterer because he did an appalling job, I took loads of photos and said I'd take him to small claims if he tried to pressure me for the money.
Take loads of photos and tell him you want a full refund of the work and the paper and if refuses put a small claim in.

Jesus Christ OP you weren't exaggerating! Looks bloody awful