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Please help me find decorators so I can get our money back
HalloAll
Posts: 10 Forumite
Hi Guys,
I have been very foolish and hired a builder of all trades (decorating, tiling, plumbing, electrical and so on). It is a woman and her son who do all the work. They go under 2 different names INWIGOREFURBS and U I and PAINT.
How did I find her:
We moved mid November 2018 and I was unable to find a decorator to even come and give me a quote. Everyone was booked well into the new year. I was going back to our old house with a gift for our lovely buyers and there she was. I was in the house for 2 min and must admit I did have the very first alarm bell go off, she had not covered the amtico flooring that we had put in. There was paint and footprints with paint everywhere. She did say that she would clean that!!
She came around and gave me a quote that I accepted. She said they would be finished before the new year. I made a transfer to her.
I did not notice that there was no address on the invoice!!!
She came and started working and already from day one I knew it was not right. She painted over the electrical sockets. I thought maybe she thinks we are replacing them, so I made it clear to her that we were keeping them and she said it was easier to clean than to cover them. The same went with everything else. Door and window furniture, our own furniture, our parquet flooring. Nothing was covered/protected from paint.
She did not prepare the surfaces she would paint. If she did sand them, she would just paint over the sand dust. She painted the doors and windows while they were closed. She painted the radiators while they were hot. I can keep going. She told me something and then change it and say she never said that. A LOT.
She and her son kept promising that they would finish by Christmas. They did not. We had another trade in for a few days to do something else and even they were amazed by the low quality of work and afterward have told me that they knew that the woman and her son were NOT decorators.
They left for hours many day (to do another job I think) and one day they left very early because the son had a chiropractor appointment. both of them left for this. On this day they packed all their stuff and left. Usually, they would leave everything behind. I had a bad feeling about that and sure enough the next day we get a text saying they are not coming. When we finally get a hold of them they say that the son had put a nail through his thumb and that they were at A&E all night. Miraculously everything had healed when they returned to work a few days later. No plaster even on the thumb. When we saw this we wanted to fire them but we would be left with a half finished house with 3 young children. I should have asked them to leave but didnt't so they would finish.
Every time I pointed at something they had not done well they said they would do it again. When we asked them to please finish ONE room so we can see what a finished room looked like, they said they didn't work that way. That they would go back to every room when they were finished and make a snag list. Allthough they often told us rooms were finished and they when we pointed at the things not done right, they took it back and said room was not finished. We had misunderstood.
They of course did not finish for Christmas. They then said they would finish for New Years. On the last day they were here (30th December) we kept asking them if they would be finished and they kept saying yes. 30 min before they were to leave they came to us saying they would not be able to finish and this time it was due to the bad quality walls we had (they had many excuses for why they were not finished, this was one of the many). They said they would come back after New Years to finish if we paid them something that day. Stupidly we did do that.
The day before they were due to arrive in early January we sat down and made a list of things they had to do or re-do. We emailed this to them. 20 min later they emailed back that they were so sick that they could not come for at least one week. That it was our 2 year old who had given them their lives worse chest infection.
We emailed them back with an email explaining everything that had happened so far and why we did not want them to come back and that we would be back with an amount we would need them to reimburse us since it would cost us more to have another decorator finish the job than what we owe them. We have not heard from them.
I have been speaking to trading standards and we have a very good case for small claims court. But to be able to take them to court we need their address, which we do not have.
Our buyers found them through mybuilder.com. They have had the same problem with them. Horrible unfinished work. but they cannot do anything. Only leave a negative feedback in mybuilder.com
I have read on threads here that mybuilder does not supply addresses to their tradesmen to customers at all.
I have also googled as much as I possibly can, but cannot find much. Just her ebay user account and an ad for a house she is selling in Spain. That is all.
My hope is that someone here can help me find an address for them so we can take them to court and get our money back. Also, they quote for repairing our furniture that they ruined with paint has come back and it is over £6000!
Their names;
{Edited by Forum Team}
Names of their business:
U I and PAINT (on mybuilder.com)
InWiGo Refurbs or InWiGo Interiors & Restoration
They live in Camberley, Surrey. This is what they told me but could be another lie.
I know we were stupid and acted foolishly. We were under a lot of pressure with family and work and a new house move. I really hope you guys can help me.
Thank you in advance
I have been very foolish and hired a builder of all trades (decorating, tiling, plumbing, electrical and so on). It is a woman and her son who do all the work. They go under 2 different names INWIGOREFURBS and U I and PAINT.
How did I find her:
We moved mid November 2018 and I was unable to find a decorator to even come and give me a quote. Everyone was booked well into the new year. I was going back to our old house with a gift for our lovely buyers and there she was. I was in the house for 2 min and must admit I did have the very first alarm bell go off, she had not covered the amtico flooring that we had put in. There was paint and footprints with paint everywhere. She did say that she would clean that!!
She came around and gave me a quote that I accepted. She said they would be finished before the new year. I made a transfer to her.
I did not notice that there was no address on the invoice!!!
She came and started working and already from day one I knew it was not right. She painted over the electrical sockets. I thought maybe she thinks we are replacing them, so I made it clear to her that we were keeping them and she said it was easier to clean than to cover them. The same went with everything else. Door and window furniture, our own furniture, our parquet flooring. Nothing was covered/protected from paint.
She did not prepare the surfaces she would paint. If she did sand them, she would just paint over the sand dust. She painted the doors and windows while they were closed. She painted the radiators while they were hot. I can keep going. She told me something and then change it and say she never said that. A LOT.
She and her son kept promising that they would finish by Christmas. They did not. We had another trade in for a few days to do something else and even they were amazed by the low quality of work and afterward have told me that they knew that the woman and her son were NOT decorators.
They left for hours many day (to do another job I think) and one day they left very early because the son had a chiropractor appointment. both of them left for this. On this day they packed all their stuff and left. Usually, they would leave everything behind. I had a bad feeling about that and sure enough the next day we get a text saying they are not coming. When we finally get a hold of them they say that the son had put a nail through his thumb and that they were at A&E all night. Miraculously everything had healed when they returned to work a few days later. No plaster even on the thumb. When we saw this we wanted to fire them but we would be left with a half finished house with 3 young children. I should have asked them to leave but didnt't so they would finish.
Every time I pointed at something they had not done well they said they would do it again. When we asked them to please finish ONE room so we can see what a finished room looked like, they said they didn't work that way. That they would go back to every room when they were finished and make a snag list. Allthough they often told us rooms were finished and they when we pointed at the things not done right, they took it back and said room was not finished. We had misunderstood.
They of course did not finish for Christmas. They then said they would finish for New Years. On the last day they were here (30th December) we kept asking them if they would be finished and they kept saying yes. 30 min before they were to leave they came to us saying they would not be able to finish and this time it was due to the bad quality walls we had (they had many excuses for why they were not finished, this was one of the many). They said they would come back after New Years to finish if we paid them something that day. Stupidly we did do that.
The day before they were due to arrive in early January we sat down and made a list of things they had to do or re-do. We emailed this to them. 20 min later they emailed back that they were so sick that they could not come for at least one week. That it was our 2 year old who had given them their lives worse chest infection.
We emailed them back with an email explaining everything that had happened so far and why we did not want them to come back and that we would be back with an amount we would need them to reimburse us since it would cost us more to have another decorator finish the job than what we owe them. We have not heard from them.
I have been speaking to trading standards and we have a very good case for small claims court. But to be able to take them to court we need their address, which we do not have.
Our buyers found them through mybuilder.com. They have had the same problem with them. Horrible unfinished work. but they cannot do anything. Only leave a negative feedback in mybuilder.com
I have read on threads here that mybuilder does not supply addresses to their tradesmen to customers at all.
I have also googled as much as I possibly can, but cannot find much. Just her ebay user account and an ad for a house she is selling in Spain. That is all.
My hope is that someone here can help me find an address for them so we can take them to court and get our money back. Also, they quote for repairing our furniture that they ruined with paint has come back and it is over £6000!
Their names;
{Edited by Forum Team}
Names of their business:
U I and PAINT (on mybuilder.com)
InWiGo Refurbs or InWiGo Interiors & Restoration
They live in Camberley, Surrey. This is what they told me but could be another lie.
I know we were stupid and acted foolishly. We were under a lot of pressure with family and work and a new house move. I really hope you guys can help me.
Thank you in advance
0
Comments
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Can I ask what the price of the job was? Also the exact amount of work. It may be she worked to that price. Not saying it's right but sometimes you are getting what you pay for. :-)0
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JimmyChanga wrote: »Can I ask what the price of the job was? Also the exact amount of work. It may be she worked to that price. Not saying it's right but sometimes you are getting what you pay for. :-)
Hi
I expected and was promised a very high standard. She told me this several times and I made sure she knew I wanted a top notch job which is why I would be interested in hiring a professional decorator and not do it myself. I would have done a better job myself, by the way. I did not have any other quotes so I do not know if she was cheap. 5000 pounds was the entire job. After having spoken to other decorators since, then her price was at the pricy end. Not cheap at all. So the problem here is not that I paid for what I got, which by the way I do not agree with anyways as we had agreed on what I would be getting.
She kept going on about how developers would bring them in to finish off their houses because she was able to achirve such a good finish (and the polish would not be able to do that) and how she would go in and re-do other decorators work because she was so good. She told me this many times. Before I hired her and after too.0 -
Yeah, 5k isn't cheap. Not sure about getting an address without following her home...lol. Sorry.0
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greatgimpo wrote: »Google that number... big in chicken coops too!
yes, That was when they moved from Ash to Camberley. They must have sold that chicken coop prior to moving.0 -
The same seller has a collection only item on ebay at the moment, cash on collection from Camberley. She'd obviously have to give the auction winner the address to go and collect it. Or perhaps you're considering bidding but want to Google her address to see if you can get there? She might give you the full address.0
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Can't you ring them from a withheld number and pose as a potential new customer needing details?0
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Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »Can't you ring them from a withheld number and pose as a potential new customer needing details?
I haven't thought of that at all. Maybe I could do that. But I know they are not stupid. They have tried long and hard not to leave any details of themselves anywhere. I will ask a friend actually to give them a call. Maybe that would giev me something more to go by.0 -
The same seller has a collection only item on ebay at the moment, cash on collection from Camberley. She'd obviously have to give the auction winner the address to go and collect it. Or perhaps you're considering bidding but want to Google her address to see if you can get there? She might give you the full address.
I know. I tried that. But she did not give me the address. She is trying very hard to stay hidden. I am probably not the only one looking for her. Well, it is the 2 of us. Me and the buyers of our old house. They had the same issue as well0 -
I know. I tried that. But she did not give me the address. She is trying very hard to stay hidden. I am probably not the only one looking for her. Well, it is the 2 of us. Me and the buyers of our old house. They had the same issue as well
Did you try with a username that she could identify as you?
Either set up a new account or get a friend to buy it. If she wants the buyer to collect, she'll have to give the address eventually!0
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