Tradesman fucked off with my money

[Blublubblubbing]

I need advice, I found a tradesman through mybuilder to do some garden work for me. He had 100% positive feedback and so I hired him. He turned up when he was expected and did a good job. I left positive feedback saying this.
Whilst on the job we agreed that he would replace our patio as well as he had been good with the first job. He asked for money for materials upfront which I was fine with as he had been very reliable so far. You can see where this is going.. 3 times he has cancelled now and last week I sent a message saying I would like a refund as it had been a month since I transferred money so I got an immediate response saying he would come today. Well guess what... he is not here and he is not answering the phone so have I lost my money? I don't have his address only a phone number.
I know people will say don't transfer money upfront but a lot of trades people ask for that as they could lose out from customers cancelling etc. What do I do now?

Omg that was meant to be ‘but’ not ‘baby’ - sorry!

@me4real

Tradesmen can cancel/prioritize jobs etc. It doesn't mean he's stolen your money. You can either officially cancel now as he didn't turn up, or wait for him to be able to do the job.

The money has been ‘resting in his account’ for a month now. OP has asked for the money back and tried to cancel whereupon he agreed to show up but then didn’t. That looks like stolen to me.

If he has his own business could you try and put it into the gov website that should bring up his address. Not sure how it works with builders but assume as it's a business would be on there.

@KihoBebiluPute

The problem with sites like mybuilder, checkatrade etc is that the tradespeople can veto negative reviews - only the good reviews are allowed to stay. I have also had negative experiences with traders found on sites like this, and found that when I tried to post an accurate description of what happened, it didn't get added to the tradespeople's profiles on those sites.

Nowadays I try to only go with word-of-mouth recommendations from people who have used a service and who I have some connection with rather than random strangers. You have to be cautious even just asking on a local facebook group, as there's nothing to stop someone from "recommending" the plumber who happens to be their son/partner/mate and that doesn't tell you anything about their skill, reliability or value for money!

Best recommendations are from other reliable tradesmen that you trust. It's how we got our "pool" of tradesmen. Our plumber, plasterer and joiner were all recommended by our electrician - we trust our electrician because we've used him for years, so there was no reason not to trust the people he recommended - and that proved to be a good decision. In turn those others have recommended a gardener and decorator, and so it goes on. Tradesmen work with eachother, so they know who's good and who's not.

Did you transfer it into his bank account? My ex trades under a fake name cash only or uses his girlfriends account citing "bank issues"

How did you pay?

If it was a bank transfer you can lodge a fraud claim with your bank and they will investigate. You’re not guaranteed to get your money back as the bank hasn’t made an error, but they are obliged to investigate under their obligations to help prevent financial crime. This can include freezing the account of the beneficiary.

If it was via card payment (doubtful but brilliant if it was) you can claim a chargeback.

I would never engage a tradesman without first checking Mybuilder, Checkatrade type websites. These provide a valuable list of who NOT to use.

Local FB pages full of gushing reviews should also be taken with a pinch of salt.

Word of mouth from people you know who have actually used a tradesman you are considering is the only way to go.

Hi OP, did you pay any amount to him on a credit card? I did nearly get ripped off once by a total shyster but I’d paid the initial £200 consultation visit via credit card. When he tried to abscond with the c£25k I’d transferred in instalments on the promise of custom made windows... I discovered I could make a s75 claim against the CC company even though only I’d only paid £200 on CC and the rest was a bank transfer. After trying every trick in the book they eventually paid up. Fingers crossed you can try this route....

Yesterday I had a tradesman round to price a specialist job. He wouldn’t give me a price. Not even ball park. He wanted to come and do a ‘trial’ first. The cost of which would come off of the final bill. Alarm bells rang after the last time I paid a consultation fee... so I waved him off. He called me later explaining how the trial would cost £450 after which he would give me the price for the job based upon the result of the trial...😂now this was completely different to another firm I had quote last week who just gave me a price. So funnily enough I won’t be using him. Use your spidey senses. If it feels off it probably is.

I’d go via trading standards if the s75 doesn’t apply. Good luck.

Was he fairly local?

If so there may be others who know him or have used him - I would start posting on your local community Facebook page.

That might draw him out of the woodwork.

My dh is a tradesman, a roofer, and all the tradespeople we know are flat out at the moment. So, firstly I'd be wary of anyone that had immediate availability.

For future reference, please don't pay any money unless you have received an invoice with the name (or trading name) and address of the person and full details of what you're paying for. If he hasn't ordered the materials then he should have got a quote to be able to detail this fully. Although I'd expect him to have an account, even if short payment terms, with suppliers.

It may be that yours is a job that needs dry weather (I know nothing about laying patios!), and if he has several other similar jobs on then he may be playing catch up.

My husband doesn't advertise on Trusted Trader or similar, as I understand it it's simply paid advertising which seems to defeat the point. He doesn't have his van sign-written either, but every job he has is via word of mouth. There really is a lot to be said for that.

Surely you can find his address, whats his trading name? Has he given you any invoices etc? Did you pay cash or bank trf?

You can call your bank and try a charge back. May be a long shot but you could also make a complaint to his bank, advising he has taken your money without completing the work and you consider this to be fraudulent behaviour by one of their customers. May come to nothing, but they might review it seriously. Google the sort code to find out his bank

Ok, DH is a tradesman, so from the other side:

We always get customers to pay for parts for big jobs up front because once the item is installed it is yours, regardless of whether or not you have paid for it, and yes, we do have credit accounts with suppliers but they still need to be paid.
Smaller, local suppliers may not offer credit accounts.

He can't always get to your job exactly on time (he may see 3, 4 or even 5 clients a day) because if the client isn't aware of the extent of the work that needs doing he may not allocate enough time for it.

We ask for BACS payments because card readers cost money, and the supplier of those take a percentage of the transaction.

That said, in this instance it's not looking good... personally I would text/send a what's app because there will be proof of having sent it (time/date stamp on when/if it's read too on what's app). Start looking for him on social media, Facebook/Nextdoor would be good places to start, and threats of negative reviews on either of these as well, so many people use either as a platform to find new business that unless he really is a fly-by-night he will care about the effect this could have.

We're lucky to have only lost out by around £5000 worth of invoices not paid in 5 1/2 years of trading, sometimes we've had to resort to threatening a debt collector, but only once actually done so.

I really hope for your sake he is just overloaded and hasn't worked out how to fit the job in, but i think i'd start looking at legal action (small claims) at this stage. I wish you all the best.

We hired a bloke from checkatrade to decorate our flat, he came on time and did a wonderful job for a competitive rate.

Based on the above we hired him for several other jobs and he turned out to be ridiculously unreliable and shoddy.

He must have cancelled and rearranged in excess of 5 times over the course of a month.

Never again.

I hope you get sorted OP.

Sorry OP....I might get criticised here but he's probably a traveller who did several jobs locally, asked them all for money up front and has now fucked off. No shame, it's happened to us, never ever pay "for materials" up front.

Yes. Try cruising around the local Travellers’ site, you might spot him.

I’m so sorry to hear this has happened, but would take a step back for a few days before escalating nth is further. It sounds as if the tradesperson has had some misfortune in that their tools have been stolen and, reading in between the lines, it sounds as if life may have thrown some other curve balls too. I would send a very calm text asking him to contact you within seven days to discuss the refund or make arrangements for the work to be done. Although he has your money, it’s better to be kind and calm rather than go in too heavy handed with the threat of the small claims court at this stage. Should he not respond in seven days then you can send him another text confirming that you will lodge a claim in the small claims court in a further seven days time, should the money not be returned.

I had a similar situation with a tradesperson a few years ago who had brilliant reviews and had undertaken some great jobs for a number of friends. Unfortunately, just before he started the job, his wife was hospitalised which led to him becoming depressed and therefore unable to run his business. After initially not responding to calls, he refunded our deposit after a couple of weeks with profuse apologies. I would give your tradesperson a bit more time (but not too much!) in order to refund the money or make good on his word to finish the job.

Contact My Builder again.... My DH gets work from that site and they require him to submit current insurance documents etc so they very definitely have a certified address for him.

My dh also on My Builder but has never had to submit insurance documents?

Decent tradespeople are worth their weight in gold.
My builder is fantastic. He’s so busy that he is booked up for the next nine months.
He’s very professional and will tell you if he is delayed or unable to turn up on a particular day.
I have had so many terrible experiences with tradespeople who tell you that they will turn up at a particular time and don’t turn up or phone you to let you know that they are not coming.

@Flowers24 that's interesting. I wonder if it depends what kind of work you are advertising for?

At the moment I would give him the benefit of the doubt that he has just over-extended himself.

I'm in exactly same position with a plumber at the moment - after 5 weeks of excuses, turning up for odd day here and there, I told him last week that I didn't want him to continue the work and I wanted a refund of the money I'd already paid upfront.

While we communicated via text too, I had an email address so sent him a more formal letter asking for a final invoice and the money returned.
He has confirmed by email that he will make that payment today but it hasn't appeared as yet.

I'm in the US so not sure if this is an option. But why not PayPal him based on his phone number requesting $690 with the reason as "reimbursement for job not started". See if that makes him return it.

@TrickyD

Sorry OP....I might get criticised here but he's probably a traveller who did several jobs locally, asked them all for money up front and has now fucked off. No shame, it's happened to us, never ever pay "for materials" up front.

Yes. Try cruising around the local Travellers’ site, you might spot him.

You've not had dealings with travellers before have you

As far as I know a lot/most of any kind of workers will ask for money for the stuff they'll need before they start a job. For instance a friend and I did some painting and decorating and got given money to cover the paint and equipment.

I really do generally think he is the same guy who ran off with my money!! Even the excuses were the same! Are you in south east?