Is this dodgy? (Plastering) Updated with another Q. at post 37

spacey2012

I would ask him to pack his tools and leave, he gets what he has got out of you so far.

Lets put it this way, if he could not knock off back to brick, base coat one day and skim to finish the next day he would be straight down the road at any firm .
Plaster is £6 a bag at tops, the bloke is taking you for an absolute and utter mug,

warmhands.coldheart

NervousHomeowner wrote: »

.......... began to take off a toilet roll holder which was cemented to the wall. When he took it off, he realised it was actually fixed into the wall and took a huge chunk of wall with it. He's now come to me and said it's going to cost an extra £80 to sort out this hole, which I have just agreed to pay him.........?

He's asking for money to fix a job of his making...... He's having a laugh !!! I wouldn't be paying him for that !!

spacey2012

I would pay him what he quoted you when the work is finished and call the police to remove him, he is a rouge trader

Dukesy

spacey2012 wrote: »

I would pay him what he quoted you when the work is finished and call the police to remove him, he is a rouge trader

Basically I would agree with you on this, but the problem really comes down to the fact that a.) OP has already agreed to the toad's extra costs and b.) Some people are not confident enough to stand their ground in fear of reprisal. This is not meant to be a criticism of the OP, as I know they do understand they are being 'done' now, but having agreed to the extra costs, it's a little more difficult for some people (particularly, if we're being blunt, women who are home alone) to then extricate themselves from such a situation.

spacey2012

It was sounding fair until the toilet roll holder £80 scam.
What did the idiot think it would be fastened to and how did he think he was going to plaster the wall with it on ?
£80 for a blob of bonding plaster with the trowel.
The guy has to have set a record for taking the pee and if he did make a hole in the bonding, that tells me he has not knocked back and bonded, what on earth is he doing skimming over ?
You have a right one in the house here love.
Don't you know any big blokes who can show him the door with his tools behind him ?

NervousHomeowner

spacey2012 wrote: »

I would ask him to pack his tools and leave, he gets what he has got out of you so far.

Lets put it this way, if he could not knock off back to brick, base coat one day and skim to finish the next day he would be straight down the road at any firm .
Plaster is £6 a bag at tops, the bloke is taking you for an absolute and utter mug,

He's not even knocked back to brick either.. He hasn't skimmed either, though. Just taken some of the tile adhesive off and then put a base down and skimmed over that. I'd totally understand the cost if he was knocking back to the brickwork but he isn't and he seems to go really slowly..

If I could just tell him to go, I would but he's almost finished now and I just want it all to be over Not to mention I'm not particularly up to ushering a man who is twice my size out of the house!

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

He's asking for money to fix a job of his making...... He's having a laugh !!! I wouldn't be paying him for that !!

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I thought it was a bit rich but I do understand that fair enough, he couldn't predict that it was gonna be stuck into the wall so it's not like he's caused damage intentionally and is then asking me to pay for him to fix it.

spacey2012 wrote: »

It was sounding fair until the toilet roll holder £80 scam.
What did the idiot think it would be fastened to and how did he think he was going to plaster the wall with it on ?
£80 for a blob of bonding plaster with the trowel.
The guy has to have set a record for taking the pee and if he did make a hole in the bonding, that tells me he has not knocked back and bonded, what on earth is he doing skimming over ?
You have a right one in the house here love.
Don't you know any big blokes who can show him the door with his tools behind him ?

The only big bloke I know is my OH's little brother who is here right now but although big, he's only 19 and has Autism so I don't think he'd be much use in that sense I was hoping my OH would be able to come home and do it but he's stuck in work so unfortunately the task falls to me.

I think with the toilet roll holder, he asked me if I wanted it taking off and I said yes because why wouldn't I? It looked like it was fastened to the wall, which is I guess what he thought too but once he removed it, it turned out it was actually about 2 inches into the wall so he said he had to take a bit of time to chisel it out as he couldn't just fill it in. Not sure how much accuracy there is to that but I just took his word for it.

I think I'm gonna just do what Dukesy has suggested and try to barter him down on the extra £80. I don't mind paying the £340 I agreed to yesterday because that's still a fair amount in my mind and he's done a good job in the sense that it looks neat but I really can't afford to pay £420 not to mention he's taken so bloody long to do it.

NervousHomeowner

Just tried to barter but he got really narky and horrible about it saying how he was basically doing it for free to begin with and he didn't know the wall was gonna be 'chased' where they were putting the shower and when I pointed out that I'd told him that he just shouted over me that I hadn't (I did. I told every other plasterer who came to give me a quote too). He also kept going on about how no one else would do it for this price and when I pointed out that he was now actually as expensive as the most expensive quote I received, he flat out said that he wasn't.

Anyway, I've put all the money in an envelope and he can just have it and go the f*ck away. I'm sat away in my office crying and shaking. My OH is stuck in work, his little brother had to leave to go to a sports thing and my boyfriend's mum isn't answering her phone so I just want him to get the hell out of my house.

NervousHomeowner

Oh and he kept going on about how he was only doing it because he was booked in to do a rendering job and he couldn't do it because it was raining. How the hell is that even my problem? It's not like he was doing me a favour, I was paying him!

Dukesy

Ok, deep breaths.

1. Is he still in the house?
2. Do you have a written quote?
3. Do not give him anything at this moment.
4. Police. NOW. He is intimidating you and trying to bully you. Get the police round right away and, with your quote in hand, give him the money he QUOTED for originally.

NervousHomeowner

That's the problem, I don't have a written quote so (as I understand it, have been doing some researching) I basically don't have a leg to stand on. He can just say 'well she agreed to this and now doesn't want to pay me' and it's he said, she said.

I have just noticed that he's driving a van for a local company that isn't the one he was advertising under so I have noted down his license plate no. and will be calling them after he leaves to see if he's connected to them.