Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Required Field,
It would have p****d me off as well.
Ever since I was overcharged for a vehicle repair years ago, I now always obtain a written quote. A quote has to be abided by unless there is extra work of which the customer has to be informed prior to that work being carried out. An estimate by virtue of the name, is just that an estimate.
Obviously cowboys in any profession get the (bad) publicity and quite right, but there are some good (not many now days) fair craftsmen out there. I can give 2 examples.

1 Several years ago, our local builder gave me a quote for a dormer extension. When the work was completed, the actual bill was for 75 less than the quote. He explained that the bill for drawing up and submitting the plans as less than he had thought.

2 Our plumber of many years (recommended by our builder who we called first) came at short notice to fix a leak from the roof that was being caused by a twisted piece of leading that had slipped. He fixed it in less than 10 mins. When I asked him, how much he said, there was no charge as it was such a quick job and he was nearby anyway and also we were regular customers (we had a new bathroom suite fitted about a year earlier).

Both these craftsmen are in such demand, the builder ended up only working around the village and the plumber for many years has not taken on new customers, but only does work for previous customers.

I now only have work done by recommendation from these 2 professionals, as most builders/plumbers know others that can be trusted. That's how we got the services of a good reasonably priced electrician.

Have you thought of contacting Watch Dog. I appreciate they are probably inundated by such stories but you never know, they may be compiling a list of over paying customers by this cowboy. I would also inform the Local (the blue advert) as rip off merchants like Mr Levey don't do the circulation figures any good.
As to there being a law against such practises, I have no faith in such as the laws re business practises already out there have about as much bite as a Rottweiler with no teeth.

Thanks greekman for the advice....there are plenty of very good workmen out there but it seems that the yellow pages have a few cowboys advertising in there....I never expected LOCAL who are big advertisers in there to be running such an operation....my mistake....if you live in London...or nearby...don't even contemplate ringing them....one of the laws that could be brought in is that after the initial half hour or one hour that the terms per hour must be halved, this should be backed up by a law put throught parliament !.

Don't believe all that you read in the papers, even The Times. Imagine what the fly on the wall at The Times would have witnessed when this got out!


http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jan/15/masal-bugduv-moldova-hoax-player

T_I_M, that's a classic!

I've done a search this morning...................sadly Gordon Brown does exist!

R F, that was a hell of a price you were charged, not a good advert for plumbers! I don't want to rub salt in your wounds, just let others know who may not be aware; if you have a Britsh Gas Home Care policy, it covers incidents like yours. We recently had 2 toilet siphons break down on the same day. They were fixed within 24 hours by Dyno-Rod (part of Britsh Gas now), I thought they just did drains but they have sorted various things out in the past 2/3 years for us, non-drain related.

Steve,

You were lucky. My brother had so much trouble with his British Gas Home Care Policy, re not turning up, not available for over 48 hrs he cancelled his policy.
On contacting BG he complaining that his contract stated a 24 hours emergency service, he was informed that the 24 hrs availability was for the call centre only.
If you look at reviews re this you will see many dissatisfied customers. I appreciate British Gas are a huge company, so obviously there will be many complainers, but I feel the rot set in years ago due to them vastly reducing engineers to save money. A friend of mine worked for BG for many years. He told me that things would go down hill due to cost cutting, re engineer reductions. It appears he was right.
I still feel that once you find a reliable tradesman, you can't go far wrong in asking them to recommend someone. After all if the person they recommend is a cowboy, it reflects badly on them.

Yes Greek, I've read a few of the complaints! I live in a relatively unpopulated area compared to some, so maybe that is why the service we get here is nearly always of a very high standard. Or maybe I am just lucky!

Some legislation is needed to combat these fraudsters, that is why I suggest that after the first hour a half rate must be imposed, this would prevent people from being ripped off as : for callouts at the start they try to catch everybody.....I did not ask for an emergency plumber, and he made me sign a "customer estimate and authorisation form" invoice before even looking at the job,.....don't ever do that when you have a plumber coming.....I'll never do that again.....you could say that I've been taken to the cleaners...euuhhh sorry plumbers !, the rogue.....so remember give LOCAL and 1st Access a miss along with mr Paul LEVEY (if that is his name) !.

RF,

If you still have the evidence re the high charges (and I'm sure you have) I would use the power of the Internet and splurge him on every blog, and/or complaint site I could find. You will find putting, scams rip offs in google it will bring up loads. Presumably you have already thought of that though.
Also if he was a member of any sort of federation of master (sic) plumbers you could also try and cause him some pain through them.

If he is CORGI Registered, inform the official
site that regulates them.

Boy George inside for 15 months - busmans holiday springs to mind!

And he already has a release date........A tall 21 year old leggy blond called Vincent.

Well, he's been on a slippery slope for a while, I suppose it'll be a slippery soap now!

Your plumber's name wasn't George by any chance was it RF?!

Paul LEAVEY, from what I can read on the invoice, I will be taking the matter a lot further, the manager of 1st Access Ltd has rung me to say that he will look at the invoice copy when he gets it from Mr Leavey, so I'll be letting you know how I get on.....they must be pulling this stunt time and time again !.

For your information RF, Dyno-Rod replaced 2 siphons in 45 minutes.

As Barack Obama is to be inaugurated on Tuesday as the first black American President, the question on TV this morning was, 'Is the UK ready to except a black Prime Minister'.
Personally, I would except a PM of any colour, as long as it's not Brown.

I have read several articles of late stating that we should be looking for and seeing the positives.
OK there may be some out there, but I can't see any yet.
Looking for the positives, is like telling the captain of the Titanic to look on the bright side, after it hit the iceberg, or telling him things could be worse as it started to sink.
So at present all I can see is doom and gloom.
Yes things will get better, as everything runs in cycles, but as yet I don't think we can even see the corner never mind having started to turn it.

Like private Frazer in Dad's Army often states. Doomed, were all Doomed.

Some of you will like this...

Kaka'd

Overheard telephone dialogue between Man City and AC Milan superstar
Kaka. Unfortunately I only have the script from the City end but I think
it is clear for all as to the total content:


"Hello, is that Kaka? How do you fancy becoming the supply line to Craig
Bellamy and Darius Vassell this winter?

"No, your fellow countryman doesn't like the cold and will be out until
mid April - but you will play alongside Stephen Ireland"

"No, Kaka, Ireland is a person not a country"

"yes, I fully appreciate that he is not Ronaldinho, Pirlo or even
Beckham but many fans have him in their fantasy football"

"I know you are currently the richest man in Italy but we can double
it!"

"erm, well, we have had a bit of a slide recently and we are currently
15th"

"erm, out of 20...... but Mark Hughes once won the double for our
neighbours"

"Hughes"

"Ex Blackburn boss"

"Blackburn, Blackburn Rovers"

"No, Blackburn......Black.....Burn"

"HUGHES man, HUGHES!!!"

"He once scored a good goal against Spain "

"No, thats Gerry Armstrong..... anyway, are you coming or not?"

"Usually about two thirds full but if we play a big team its really
rocks"

"yes I know, but we dont even have a car park cos all the fans walk to
the ground they are so local"

"Relevance? well, I suppose its all they have to brag about whether its
true or not"

"Only the one to be fair but its called 'blue moon' you will love it"

"Blue"

"yes, definitely blue, always has been"

"No, no, no, they are in Trafford"

"yes they are, steeped in it in fact but what good is history to you my
ambitious friend?"

"erm, 1976 I think"

"it was the er, the er League cup if memory serves me right"

"Well, the plan was to get in the top 4 this season and then....."

"yes, I realise that but....."

"Aston Villa? Whats it got to do with them?"

"Yes, I know but we have been down this history route already"

"How the heck does a Brazilian playing in Italy know about Nottingham
Forest ?"

"Yes, yes, and Leeds United also made a final but you are missing my
point, this is all about the future"

"Give me strength......HUGHES!!!!"

"yes I know he did and he was a legend there but he is a changed man"

"forget them, they are falling apart"

"But all those trophies were won last year! They have won nothing in
2009"

"I have told you.... 1976!!!!"

"How the heck does a Brazilian playing in Italy know that Virginia Wade
has won Wimbledon since then?"

"Yes she probably is in her 60's"

"I dont know, probably about 10 league titles, 2 european cups and
countless domestic cups what has that got to do with it?"

"76,000 why?"

"yes, every game, even minor cups I suppose, but where is this getting
us?"

"Yes, the league cup is considered a minor cup over here why?"

"I know, I know, I know, ok perhaps they won the FA Cup in 1970 or
something does it really matter?"

"look, Kaka, we will treble whatever you are on now, buy you a mansion
in Alderley Edge and give you a helicopter for your front lawn....are
you joining us?"

"NO!, its owned by the council - what has the ground got to do with
anything"

"well, officially its the city of manchester stadium but most people
call it Eastlands"

"EAST!, not Waste"

"You will be adored there"

"No, not there, here I meant"

"No, thats Old Trafford, I meant adored here at Waste....erm, Eastlands"


"Anderson??? what does he know?"

"Ok I hear what you say, but other than Pride, Ambition, Achievement,
History, Passion and a large car park - what can they offer you?"

"what do you mean no credit left in your phone.....I phoned you"

"Hello, Mr Kaka,...... Mr Kaka are you
there?............................

Probably won't do any good but I have sent an e-mail to my local MP requesting that action is taken against those UK Bank Officials that over the last 18 months have mislead the markets by either failing to declare or/and under declaring their level of know Toxic Debt and full write downs. For example I recall that over the last 18 months RBS released several RNS's stating their Toxic Debt write downs. Each time stating that the figures given were the totals known. One of these was to justify a rights issue. These officials broken the rules of both the FSA and the LSE.
Confidence in both the banking system and the rule of law will not start to improve till these (overpaid for failure) officials receive their just deserts. I appreciate that all this occurred on this governments (GB's) watch and started on TB's, but as we all know the government is immune from basically anything they wish to be immune to, but at least if we see some sort of punishment metered out to the muppets that ran/run the banks it may just boost confidence that it will not occur again, (until memories fade that is).
There appears to be a gathering clarion call for legal action to be taken. If we all add our voice to his call, you never know action might just be taken. As we know the government is always looking for scape goats. In this instance I hope they find them.