Claiming back money for decorating

pintsizedblondie

I had a decorator in to wallpaper my downstairs bathroom on 13th November. Prior to this, I sent him photos of the room, we agreed on a price for the work. He came to do the wallpapering as promised. On first glance it looked fine, but the closer I got and the more I looked at it over the weekend, the unhappier I was. It was a shambles - uneven cutting of pieces, pattern doesn't match up accurately, wallpaper doesn't run flush to the door frame, overlaps... The list is endless.

I contacted decorator on the Monday to say I was unhappy with the work, he apologised and offered to come "fix" it for me but I said I thought it would make it look worse and since the wallpaper was £55 a roll, I didn't want it fixing. I asked for my money back and he agreed to refund. 

I waited a week for the money to be sent and it wasn't, I messaged on the following Saturday and he told me his Dad had died the day before and he would get it over to me soon as. I do believe this to be true but now believe he has blocked me on Facebook Messenger and hasn't read the last message I sent. 

I am truly sorry for his loss but I would still like my money back. I don't believe he will send it of his own volition now. Would I likely to be successful with a small claims? What would happen if he said he couldn't pay due to not working from bereavement? 

This is the first time I have experienced anything like this so any help or advice would be gratefully received. Thank you. 

68ComebackSpecial

Do you actually have a physical address for his business? You would need this in order to pursue court action.

pintsizedblondie

Yes I do. 

williamgriffin

So you're not giving him the chance to rectify the work?

pintsizedblondie

It really is unrectifiable. There are gaps in between every piece of wallpaper, the cutting of the wallpaper is uneven, there are massive gaps down both sides of my door frame. It really isn't fixable. 

pintsizedblondie

68ComebackSpecial

pintsizedblondie said:

It really is unrectifiable. There are gaps in between every piece of wallpaper, the cutting of the wallpaper is uneven, there are massive gaps down both sides of my door frame. It really isn't fixable. 

He could rectify it by purchasing more paper and hanging it.

pintsizedblondie

I am struggling to get the labour fee back off him so I highly doubt he will rebuy the wallpaper which is more expensive. He wanted to splice bits in here and there, that was his version of fixing it. 

greyteam1959

Blimey that guy is no decorator.
What a mess & that's being kind.
Depending on what you paid him for his labour I would cut my losses & start afresh.
I would NOT let him back under any circumstances.

unholyangel

He's not even an experienced amateur, never mind a professional who performs to a high enough standard to be charging other people. 

This is the exact reason I do my own painting & decorating despite it being a pain in the rear. Not a professional by any means, but my dad was. I picked up bits & pieces just watching him over the years but was never specifically taught it or supervised by him. Even my first attempt at papering wasn't anywhere near as bad as this guy.  

That's a guy that's had zero professional training imo. I can't find anything right in any of the photos, just plenty of things wrong! Some wallpaper is trickier than others to hang but I can't see anything indicating that was the case. The pattern isn't overly complex so shouldn't be hard to match up, there's no signs of stress or tearing that might indicate a quality issue with the paper.....everything points to his error. It's such a subpar standard imo, it's almost as if he has been willfully negligent and done it on purpose, with zero effs given. 

pintsizedblondie

Am I best off to chalk it up as an expensive mistake or would it be worth pursuing?