Here we go:

People a couple of doors along from us are having some work done on their very neglected garden and also on their house. This includes clearance of the garden (including removal of trees) and work on the soffits, guttering, etc of the house. The guys doing the work seemed a reputable lot (as far as you can tell) and I've seen their adverts in a couple of driveways, etc, locally.

On Saturday I was just going out when the guy in charge of the gang came over and asked whether I'd considered replacing the soffits, guttering, etc, on our house. I said I had but finances were such that we were in no position to do anything about it right now. In true salesman fashion he went on about what they could do, the benefits of the work and so on. He said that they'd like to do a quote and I agreed as I had no real idea of how much this would cost anyway so it would be useful to know. He said they'd come round on Monday, measure up and sort out a quote.

So....this morning:

They brought in a couple of ladders and went about their business. I decided, when they knocked, that I was going to tell them once again we couldn't go ahead right now anyway. I then found that they'd taken it upon themselves to assume things were going ahead and had removed my guttering! And taken it away! I said I'd not given them the go-ahead on anything like that at all. I could not believe the assumption that it was all proceeding. I'd signed nothing and was just having a quote done! On the quote they then gave me, they'd ticked a box that said 'contract' instead of 'quote.' To repeat, I've signed nothing and had only met the guy on Saturday!

So now I've got to wait and see if they bring the [LIFTED] guttering back!

I tell you, you can now see the basis of stories of old people being pressured/conned out of their money by sharp practice such as this.

Unbelievable!

I do hope you get in touch with trading standards, regardless of whether they return and re-fit your original guttering.

Hmm. Absolutely kick up a stink about this.

That's very dodgy and that's entirely why I've always said no to these kinds of things. If I want these things done, it needs to be on my terms and not theirs.

The worst bit is that if someone in your position (eg elderly lady) had said yes, they could have conned them out of loads of money, especially with no quote. As well as trading standards, do you need to report him to that bald guy on the bbc? He investigates dodgy builders etc.

Dom Littlewood Channel 5

Cowboy Builders

Though he does present for The One Show too

Don't worry. Whether or not they sort things out or not I'm not going to let this go. Plus, one neighbour is involved with Neighbourhood Watch and will let everyone in our locality know through proper channels. This feels absolutely ridiculous to be sat here waiting to see if my guttering is coming home!

At least it's not raining

Plus BBC Rogue Traders (part of Watchdog now)

Update:

I went to a neighbour's house just to show them the 'estimate' and warn them, and while we were chatting out the front, the builders' lorry pulled up about 50 feet away where they are working. They obviously saw that I was discussing something with the neighbours and we could tell that they'd noticed. So Roy (the husband) pulled out his mobile and said "I'm going to ring the police." His wife went pale and said not to do that yet, but he didn't anyway. He just pretended to but it certainly looked to the builders as if he was (or ringing Trading Standards). So the guy in charge came nipping across, apologised and promised to put the guttering back up ASAP.

We'll see.

We get this from time to time. Some random bloke turns up, makes a perfunctory "nice car" statement and then tells me that they are working in the area on windows/doors/gutters and do we want a quote.

I always say no - we operate on a "if we want work done, we'll come to you" basis.

This must be bordering on criminal damage surely?

Frankly whether they replace the guttering or not I'd be recording a complaint with the police and contacting trading standards.

I would have treated it as either theft or criminal damage. Call the police.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk.

Removal of part of your building without permision. Hmmm, sounds like theft to me.

Just a thought, but are the gutters you had of any value - such as old victorian stuff, square section or something ornate?