Howden's family and friends scam

DRP

IKS wrote: »

okay just wearing Howden's t-shirts, calling us to liaise from Howden's offices and emails and being related (his brother) shouldn't have made me feel comfortable to have signed them up for the job. Thanks for all the advise and please keep it coming as I am pretty sure he won't be coming back Monday as so far no calls have been answered.

It's the weekend. Can't blame them for not answering the phone.

Try again on Monday.

IKS

deannatrois wrote: »

You could be right, this could be a con.., but I am also wondering if you did or said something that ignited the situation?! To have them 'leave' and then you are chasing them up - and his brother -! a couple of hours later is a little perhaps overzealous.

But of course, paying most of the money with hardly any of the installation done is foolhardy too.

I can only recommend you do as suggested, write to the gentleman, give him 14 days to complete or you will be getting someone else in to complete the work.

Do you have any paperwork at all giving this contractors address or contact details?! How did you pay the money you paid?! If you paid by credit card or debit card, you may have some quicker remedies to get some money back.

I started chasing then because they left within about 15 minutes of coming in to complete the work without saying a word. All the equipment that they stored in my living room had gone which was very unusual as they'd left it since day one. Just before they left they were disposing of all the building waste in my residential bins when it was agreed that they would remove off site in our contract. So this was the only thing mentioned to them.

Yes have the contact details so will sent letter. Paid by debit card, Contacted the bank but they've said the money has been transfered so nothing they can do.

Doozergirl

Paid by debit card direct to the builder? Not via Paypal?

Retailer disputes if so:
https://supportcentre.natwest.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1800/~/how-do-i-dispute-a-visa-debit-card-transaction%3F

IKS

DRP wrote: »

It's the weekend. Can't blame them for not answering the phone.

Try again on Monday.

Well they were meant to finish the job today, also started calling them Friday.

IKS

Doozergirl wrote: »

Paid by debit card

Tried to get the money back but not possible as paid through money transfer. HSBC consider this a cash transaction.

PheoUK

So is the person in the howdens uniform the kitchen planner? Howdens offer kitchen planning to their clients (the builder) this could well be why they were in uniform.

I would be considering the small claims route for this. Do you have a proper contract in place with the builder clearly defining scope etc?

IKS

PheoUK they were both wearing howdens uniform when they first came to us. The brother was the howdens kitchen designer. They introduced themselves to us with the same surname when they first came to give us a quote and when I made a call recently to howdens his co-worker in howdens stated a different surname.

They took the contract from my living room were they stored their equipment without me realising until they had left. I have one that was emailed to me.

Small courts yes I will start looking into this. Thanks.

The builder took

JEN22

Id get a solicitor lined up. Also these rated sites aren't worth the paper they are written on


always go by word of mouth reccommendations

IKS

Thanks jen22.

Update: have just received a call from the builder saying stop calling my brother and the work thats been done so far equates to what I paid. I said that he agreed to complete the job and all the jobs stated in the contract are incomplete. He then states he thought I was rude which is not accurate at all and started to create situations which did not happen. Anyway the outcome was he stated in a round about way the contract signed is not worth nothing and he will not be completing the job, if i apologise and take liability for the situation he'll maybe think about it and stop calling his brother and head office of howdens and put the phone down.

Clearly he is dishonest, creating situations which did not happen/occur, was quite argumentative, I only ever spoke to him when he was doing something that was not in the works of our contract such as disposing of building waste on my property and he continued to refuse to listen to a word I had to say.

Silver-Surfer_2

IKS wrote: »

Thanks jen22.

Update: have just received a call from the builder saying stop calling my brother and the work thats been done so far equates to what I paid. I said that he agreed to complete the job and all the jobs stated in the contract are incomplete. He then states he thought I was rude which is not accurate at all and started to create situations which did not happen. Anyway the outcome was he stated in a round about way the contract signed is not worth nothing and he will not be completing the job, if i apologise and take liability for the situation he'll maybe think about it and stop calling his brother and head office of howdens and put the phone down.

Clearly he is dishonest, creating situations which did not happen/occur, was quite argumentative, I only ever spoke to him when he was doing something that was not in the works of our contract such as disposing of building waste on my property and he continued to refuse to listen to a word I had to say.

Have they left you the kitchen? You may have said.

In that case you need to get someone to view what's been done a look at whet you've paid. If they've had you over go down the court route to get your money back. That's if he has the money to pay you. If you've had a fair amount of work done for the price you've paid get someone else in to finish it.

Either way I think it's the end of the road between you and this guy.