Scammed by a stonemason for headstone

RaineWhispers

So my twin passed away when we were babies and her headstone was falling apart. I made the decision to replace it rather than get it repaired because the old one was horrible anyway and she deserves better. I found a stone mason with great reviews, picked out a beautiful headstone and applied for a charity grant for half of the cost and my mum paid the rest. It took about 7 months for the stone to be installed with constant excuses. When it was finally put up it was nothing like what was shown on the website, the paint work was awful, some paint was missing entirely and the lettering was completely different to what I asked for. I complained and they repainted it (once again it took months with lots of excuses) and it was even worse.. the paint went over the lines, it was smudged in places, and once again had paint missing. At this point I wanted a refund so I could get it replaced. I contacted the charity who shockingly took his side, they said "it only looks bad if you look at it close up, it looks fine from a distance). So instead he agreed to repaint it again, its been 7 months and I'm still waiting. Once again whenever I ask its constant excuses. I can imagine I potentially sound like I'm just being picky but everyone i have showed it to has said it looks awful and that the stone mason should he ashamed. What should my next step be? 

Aylesbury_Duck

It sounds as if you've given him plenty of opportunity to fix it.  Ordinarily, you'd exercise your consumer rights, perhaps by threatening small claims court if he wouldn't refund you.  However, the charity grant may complicate matters.  Who is actually the customer here?  Is it you because you placed the order?  Is it your mother because she paid for half?  And what about the charitable grant, was it paid directly to the stonemason?

Lots of questions, but the answers are important to establish exactly who has consumer rights and how might they exercise them.

It's not a scam.  The stonemason appears not to have carried out the job with the expected level of care or skill.  That doesnt make it a scam.

RaineWhispers

Aylesbury_Duck said:

It sounds as if you've given him plenty of opportunity to fix it.  Ordinarily, you'd exercise your consumer rights, perhaps by threatening small claims court if he wouldn't refund you.  However, the charity grant may complicate matters.  Who is actually the customer here?  Is it you because you placed the order?  Is it your mother because she paid for half?  And what about the charitable grant, was it paid directly to the stonemason?

Lots of questions, but the answers are important to establish exactly who has consumer rights and how might they exercise them.

It's not a scam.  The stonemason appears not to have carried out the job with the expected level of care or skill.  That doesnt make it a scam.

The money was paid directly from the charity to the stonemason. My mums money was technically paid from social services as they control her money. I'm the one who arranged everything. Definitely not an easy situation 😕

Aylesbury_Duck

That does complicate things, then.  Others may hold a different view but I don't think you have small claims court as an ultimate option.  Sending the stonemason a letter before action might stir some action, but if he realises court action isn't going to happen because of the complicated payment situation, he might simply ignore it and that's that.

An appeal to the mason's better nature is perhaps the only option.  You could suggest you would leave a factual review (if his services are on Google reviews or similar) but that's probably the only leverage you have.  Unless you're up for a compo-sadface gig with the local rag?  Not very dignified though, especially in the circumstances.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I don’t think the person(s) who pay are necessarily the contracted party.

Is there any paperwork for the order OP? If so who is it addressed/invoiced to? 

If there is a refund due/agreed/forced it should go back to where it came from, how that works when there are two funding sources I don’t know. 50/50 split would seem to make sense but what makes sense isn’t always the correct answer

lincroft1710

I think if a small claim is going to be attempted then it would have to be in the names of the OP, OP's mother and the charity as the OP has incurred no financial loss but mother and charity have. But as the charity appear happy with the finished product, they probably aren't going to play ball

RaineWhispers

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

I don’t think the person(s) who pay are necessarily the contracted party.

Is there any paperwork for the order OP? If so who is it addressed/invoiced to? 

If there is a refund due/agreed/forced it should go back to where it came from, how that works when there are two funding sources I don’t know. 50/50 split would seem to make sense but what makes sense isn’t always the correct answer

The invoice is addressed to me. I was so happy when I found that charity but its just made things so awkward 😔