Have you ever had a rogue trader?

[geraniumsandsunshine]

So, before this year I was a it naive. Recently bought our home and it is an older property. Don't all the usual bits and bobs and recently needed a boiler service. The engineer who came round put me on edge so much I just wanted him to leave but had agreed for him to service the boiler. Kept telling me is honest but looking to the side. Told me his company was over ten years old (looked up on companies house and that's a lie). He was very intimidating and essentially seemed to be selling me a new boiler this that and the other and even a boiler I don't need for the size of my house. When I said I couldn't afford he brought out the info about having an agreement with no interest finance company. Later the same day he was calling me back pressuring me to go ahead and saying there was a shortage of boilers. Anyway...suffice to say I decided to take a second opinions and am going with the £200 repair rather than the nearly £6k quote!

I felt so upset by the whole thing. Is this fairly common? I will only be using people recommended by friends now.

Our area has a Green Book, which is a list of trades people supplied by clients. The trades people cannot submit themselves, only their clients can. If there are complaints about a trades person, they are dropped from the next edition. I was happy with everyone I got from that book.

Might your area have something similar?

However the last time I used the book was about 10y ago. I don't know if it even exists any more.

What a fab idea @Dilbertian

Was only thinking last night that I wished there was a website I could trust to give me recommendations for tradespeople I could trust.

I am sick of being ghosted and if someone does turn up being charged three times the original quote for a rubbish job.

I usually go through word of mouth, although I will need to find a roofing contractor if my purchase goes through - I'm dreading it. I just don't bother with checkatrade etc after some crappy experiences; a green book like Dilbertian had would be so much better.

My MIL was stung twice recently! 1 plumber she found on check-a-trade!!! He recommended similar to you and pressurised her to transfer money to his account there and then before he'd even fixed the issue. He got very angry when she offered a cheque as doesn't have internet banking.

The 2nd was a 'builder' who took payment up front for materials, 1/2 the materials never turned up and she was out of pocket thousands to have someone else finish the work.

Not just builders. My regular dentist died, so I found someone else through reviews online. Dentist was ok, but the hygienist was dreadul. I left with a mouthful of bleeding gums after the 'clean'. He said that I had gingivitis, and would need an expensive treatment where the gum is peeled back, the base of the tooth cleaned, antibiotics applied, and the gum peeled back up. At the time, it was about £800.

I see the dentist at least annually, brush twice a day and have never been told I had gingivitis. I got a 2nd opinion and they agreed I didn't need the treatment. 8yrs on- I still have all my own teeth!

We have a neighbourhood WhatsApp group and it’s brilliant for recommendations.

One to watch for is chaps who charge by a day rate and then work 5 hour days at a sluggish pace, they've often got a sob story too... get a price for the job, stands to reason

This is good advice although I once had an amazing tiler who did charge a day rate but worked nearly solidly from 8am-5.30!

I had one when getting quotes for a patio. Guy arrived, seemed mid-20s but said he had over 15 years experience. I later looked him up on Companies House and he was 27. Claimed he had the council contract to drop kerbs (we needed this separately and he very much didn’t have this contract). Was really over the top charming. I then noticed he had reviewed another patio company on Checkatrade thanking them for doing his own patio?? The whole thing was so fishy and glad I didn’t go with him.

I’ve also had the more upfront rouge trader. Guy knocked on the door, told me the roof needed work. I said it didn’t. He asked how I knew and I said because we had a roofer up there last week (true). He said oh I meant your gutters so I said replaced 6 months ago (not true but eh), then it was the windows, nope had those done recently too. In the end he actually said he was giving up and slunk off 😂

Our joiner charges a day rate but he works 8-6, sometimes won’t even stop for lunch unless I insist and make him some.

I think word of mouth is the only way really. This bloke is a which trusted trader for what it's worth (clearly not a lot) and reviews on his website are types but also with an accompanying handwritten original. Interesting that the handwriting is similar in many of them.

Oh dear, really??

A friend has just been completely done over by a bunch of total cowboys (although admittedly she didn't do any checks on them first). It's now gone to court but she thinks they'll just declare themselves bankrupt.

I help an elderly woman who's having some roof work done at the moment. She said today that the roofer told her it's even worse than he thought, which got my spidey senses tingling, but her sons live nearby and hopefully are keeping an eye on things.

A neighbour handed over 100k to a builder 18 months ago.
They have done minimal work and she is in rented accommodation,waiting for her house to be completed.
New builders have started but it's still a building site

It is fairly common. I was also ripped off by a boiler guy - I'm so mistrustful of them. I've had some luck with mybuilder- only going with people who have lots of good reviews, my main problem is getting people out to do the work...they seem to quote then disappear. The best luck I've had is with word of mouth/a Facebook group for my area.

Wayne the roofer (or rather Leaker). Disappeared, sob stories, 7k gone. We got him from Checkatrade.
Disappeared his company and started up again.
I tried to leave a negative review (of the original company) with Checkatrade but they were having none of it.
Short story - never trust Checkatrade. It's a scam.

oh and I googled him afterwards and found out he had a conviction "at Kingston Crown Court to one count of fraud and four of falsely describing his services".
So now I google people beforehand.

@geraniumsandsunshine That's worrying that even Which Trusted Trader can't be trusted. They are meant to do regular, unannounced checks on the people on their list and vet thoroughly! I hope you let them know about your experience..

Reading area? If so, yes it still exists and I agree - it's been great. I only use people recommended in there now.

Haha I was thinking we have this, good other places do but it seems it’s maybe just the Reading area!

Yup, Reading.

We have a green book in our area (Maidenhead) but I've never trusted it since someone I knew set up an interior/decorating company, and then tried to persuade all their mates to write reviews. Mind you, that was a very long time ago now so maybe they have stricter criteria.

It's a real problem finding trustworthy tradies - I think the best way is word of mouth. Either that or marry a good one who has lots of equally good mates!

The builder who did our extension was rougish , he was an absolute charmer starting up a new business and offered us such a good deal that we went with it . What should have taken 10-12 weeks took 8 months and we had to get another builder to fit a steel and organised our own plasterer but the finish is fantastic and we saved thousands on every other quote . We did hear of other people who’s builds he’d started after ours that had given him way more money than we did and were left in a real mess but we only ever gave him a few thousand at a time so always knew that we had had our moneys worth IYSWIM .

Yes, I had a rogue trader.

I gave a local decorator (in his 50s, in the trade 30 yrs, he said) a list of decorating repairs and touch-ups all over my house. He read it and said he'd do the whole lot in one day for £150. I agreed.

He turned up at 10am and whilst working took several incoming mobile calls, plus stood outside a few times for a smoke break. He also took an hour off for lunch.

At 4pm he announced that he was leaving for the day, and that he hadn't managed to finish the list. He then said that "these lists are unrealistic, anyway." He had used loads of bits of wood filler on doors and windows and dados and skirtings all over the house, but if I wanted him to return, sand them down and paint them, it would be another £150 to come back the next day.

We then argued about what constitutes "a day's work". He said it meant 10 till 4 with an hour for lunch. I said no, more like 8 till 4 with half an hour for lunch, and ANYWAY, if he hadn't taken multiple fag breaks and incoming phone calls, he would have got it all finished. He said he had to take incoming calls as they might be new jobs coming in, and he had to take fag breaks as I don't allow smoking in the house.

We were unable to agree and so there are still multiple places all over my house with rough blobs of hard, jaggedy, dark grey wood filler!