General Chat

Thank you, AnnCardiff, for your information and kind words. I understand my sister did approach Trading Standards earlier this year. They were not able to help her.

This Thread was only submitted as a warning to others to be very careful when involved in financial matters. AnnCardiff's Thread carries the same warning.

My sister was at fault, she knows that. She is an intelligent lady but when faced with a seemingly kind and very helpful person in her own home, she forgot the rules .................
Always get three estimates
Always have a written contract
Never pay for a job that hasn't been completed
Don't trust the trades-person to be honest or reliable until proven.
I am sure there must be one or two other warnings that could be added to this list

How fortunate you are JoyBoroAngel to have a trustworthy person to do your work.
Not many of us have that.

Peter

thanks Peter - and here's another bit of info that might help your sister

The Royal British Legion offer a wonderful service if your spouse was ever in the armed services - mine was, and as I too am feeling a little vulnerable at the moment - thinking I was too intelligent to be conned - I feel I need a safety chain on my front door, having just watched the Crimewatch Programme on BBC

The Poppy Helpline - 08457 725725 - are most helpful - I've had their number for a while but today I rang them to ask if it would be possible to fit a safety chain to my front door - bingo - someone will contact me in three to five working days to set a time to visit and fix the chain - they will also check my property to see if thre is anything else that can be done to make me feel safer

Peter I really hope your Sister can get over this and look forward, we all make mistakes as I had said on Ann's thread.......

A lesson hopefully has been learned and I do think a thread like yours should be read and also show that these things can happen to anyone.......

I certainly hope she will be ok .....

No matter how canny we think we are we can all get conned

I got conned by a similar company that conned Ann on the Sky Protect insurance . Took out their insurance and renewed it several times with their offers of 15 months for the Price of 12 and the cost at just over. £100 is very familiar

I even told the company I don't give info online and to write to me which they did and I still was fooled it was Sky and took out their insurance .

It was a company who were doing cover and indeed at one time I did have a call out that they covered but they weren't Sky and eventually got shut down by a Sky court case

So we can all get taken in by what appears to be genuine no matter how much we think we spot a scammer

it's awful isn't it - things like this didn't happen years ago - what kind of people are living in our country now?

Quote..
'Organisation started up local to her that had vetted local tradesman.'
...
???
Your sister was NOT at fault
They in effect gave a guarantee that the workmen approved by them were trustworthy and should take responsibility for this claim .. (they made money from recommending)
OP name and shame this organisation because there will be more people who will be affected.
Also get your sister to write and complain to the organisation that recommended these inferior tradesmen and demand compensation..

Peter your sisters dreadful experience serves to be a cautionary llesson to us.all. I hope things work out for her.

There is an on-line site called www.checkatrade.com where people apparently leave testimonials/references.

Although I've no idea if its unbiased, or if only positive references are accepted, it might be worth a look. If a potential customer doesn't have or like the internet, they probably know someone who does.

Businesses pay to be included in the Checkatrade directory.

It is around £700 a year to advertise.

Thanks Errol - it seemed too good to be true

A lot of them are like that apparently - there are some good companies and some bad but the majority charge for tradespeople to be included. Not a bad place to get a general overview though, although with some sites (I am not singling any one site out) I would question the veracity of the comments and ask whether "bad" comments are filtered out at the request of the advertiser.

Caveat emptor!

So sorry to read this Peter, but your sister has done nothing wrong, she isn't in any way to blame, the conmen are :-( :-(

She is just another victim they chose to take advantage of. :-|

Yesterdays newspaper had an article saying that, thanks to the EU, we no longer have a 7 day 'cooling off' period when ordering something from a doorstep visitor - But , if what we want is standard size and not specifically made for the customer then there is 14 days cooling of.

Seems to me more people are going to get into difficulties with this sort of thing now!