Potentially unreliable tradesman. Deposit paid

Rexxel

Hello, we recently decided on a window fitter. Said tradesman requested £100 deposit which we paid as he had to order the windows so it made sense as he’d be left with 3 random windows if we cancelled. Anyway, since paying the deposit last Monday he’s not been in touch. I’ve texted him to ask for an ETA and we’ve asked a few times for a receipt and he sent me a message just saying “week next Friday if that’s okay, call you later”. He didn’t call...

Please could someone advise us on what to do next? I’m already paranoid about hiring tradesmen so this isn’t great. I just want the windows done! Thanks

Aylesbury_Duck

Rexxel wrote: »

Hello, we recently decided on a window fitter. Said tradesman requested £100 deposit which we paid as he had to order the windows so it made sense as he’d be left with 3 random windows if we cancelled. Anyway, since paying the deposit last Monday he’s not been in touch. I’ve texted him to ask for an ETA and we’ve asked a few times for a receipt and he sent me a message just saying “week next Friday if that’s okay, call you later”. He didn’t call...

Please could someone advise us on what to do next? I’m already paranoid about hiring tradesmen so this isn’t great. I just want the windows done! Thanks

Did you get anything written before paying the deposit, or anything in return for your deposit? A quote or estimate, perhaps? When you placed the order, what timeframe was specified? How did you pay, in other words, is there a record of the payment?

He may just be very busy and all will come good in time. If he has legged it with your £100, a small claims court process is the only way I can think you will get your money back and even then, if you have not formal record of it, it will be his word against yours,

Frank99

Should of checked his previous work and paid on a credit card for section 75 in hindsight however, as things are now you need to seek advice from CAB and the Police.

elver_man

I presume that this situation is following on from the quotes you received from "ratedpeople" as per your posts earlier this month? If it was then at least you do have a quote in writing and I presume you therefore will have some record on there of requiring up front payments etc.


The advice given then was to checkout previous work and get local recommendations. My own advice is to stay well clear of these paid for referral sites and use local, recommended traders.


I think Aylesbury above has about covered it, but it is still less than a week since you paid the deposit so perhaps he is just busy, although I appreciate it may not be the best of customer service.


"Should of checked his previous work and paid on a credit card for section 75 in hindsight however, as things are now you need to seek advice from CAB and the Police."


You will probably also find that not many will take credit card payments and I wouldn't jump to CAB yet, give it a little time at least until nearer your proposed installation date.


Over the years I have subcontracted many window fitters but now have one or two that I am happy to use regularly depending on location and know that my customers can either get the recommendation direct or even view the finished article without any problem.


Its easy in hindsight but I hope everything works out for you

Rexxel

Hi Elver man, that's correct, followed on from the other post. We did get another quote outside of rated people and they were a local recommendation. Unfortunately, they were the dearest and our budget is tight.

We have text messages confirming the payment and the quote was written on his business card. We paid the deposit via bank transfer.

Thanks for your reply. I am hoping this ends well but I won't be using rated people again after this.

Rexxel

Frank99 wrote: »

Should of checked his previous work and paid on a credit card for section 75 in hindsight however, as things are now you need to seek advice from CAB and the Police.

Thank you. We've seen previous work on his website and the 51 reviews on rated people were all positive... something I'm definitely suspicious about. We don't have a credit card but i'm thinking now is a good time to look into it, for emergencies etc!

Rexxel

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

Did you get anything written before paying the deposit, or anything in return for your deposit? A quote or estimate, perhaps? When you placed the order, what timeframe was specified? How did you pay, in other words, is there a record of the payment?

He may just be very busy and all will come good in time. If he has legged it with your £100, a small claims court process is the only way I can think you will get your money back and even then, if you have not formal record of it, it will be his word against yours,

Thanks for your advice. We have the quote written on his card and the communication over rated people's messaging section. The timeframe he gave us was upto 10 days for the windows to be made and then a call bac to arrange a convenient time to fit.

I am hoping that the case is that he is busy and not very good at customer service rather than being totally dodgy.

Doozergirl

You just wait for a *week next Friday* whenever that is. He probably feels that there is nothing much else to say while he waits for windows.

I doubt he received any customer service training but if you pick the cheapest quote then you're not going to get platinum service - otherwise people would be paying more for his services.

The receipt is superfluous. You have your own evidence in the form of a bank transfer. Little point stressing over additional evidence when you accepted a quote on a business card. I doubt he has Sage accounting back at home on his MacBook Pro.

GDB2222

£100 is not to be sniffed at, but it is hard to believe someone is making a living from robbing people of such a small amount. I would guess he is busy, or there is a hold up with the DG units. Give him another week or two. He may be very good at his trade, just poor at communicating.

I got a roofer from Checkatrade. He was good, and he charged a fair call out fee and did the job on the spot. He had a stellar rating, which he got by being very very keen that all his customers rated him. To be fair, he deserved it. So, these sites do work.

Frank99

I had a similar situation to this some years ago and i paid over £100 deposit on a Credit Card so although we never heard from the tradesman again the Credit Card Company refunded us.
I am surprised you had this problem after finding this person on one of those websites though, i've had some good people from Checkatrade myself.
If you haven't already done so i'd let trading standards know about the person and google their name because sometimes you might find others who have been stung by this person, also check social media.
Good luck, i hope you sort it.

Risteard

You can hardly report him to Trading Standards when he hasn't actually been due to start the job yet. There is absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing whatsoever at this stage. In fact there isn't even any reason to suspect it.