Cowboy builders - Good or not?

[Ted]

During my UK holiday, I have been enjoying watching Cowboy Builders, although I will admit I probably most enjoy watching Melinda Messenger bending over as she climbs into a loft than the programme's real content!

I watched one last night on some obscure Sky channel. I think it was a few years old and was a repeat.

The bald-headed hardman chased the cowboy down and dressed him down but the guy denied he was a cowboy (his work was very bad so given what I saw I woud say he was) and the supposed cowboy got away with it all. He was made to look a bit bad on TV but financially never gave a penny back nor returned to fix his shoddy work.

Meanwhile, Melinda spent a small fortune installing a Rayburn and fancy kitchen in the family's house. The extension was stripped back to its shell and redone. In all, 20K to 30K must have been spent. BUT, the cowboy got away...

I have been dragged through the Technology and Construction Court (successfully! - it works, although it is stressful, slower than most would like and expensive) and am sure that 20K would have paid for a couple of expert reports and a good construction lawyer in this case and got the victims to the court's door at the very least. If it went to court (pretty unlikely) and a barrister was necessary, court fees etc, a bit more than 30K might have been needed but not that much more.

So much as I enjoy watching Melinda's derriere, I dislike this programme - it allows the cowboys to get away with building crap. Meanwhile, a sum that could have been spent bringing justice is spent giving the family a dream home.

I would prefer it if they showed and helped the victims recover their loss through the courts. But I guess that would make for dull TV.

If contractors do poor work they should be pulled through the legal channels that are set up. Not given a talking to by this hardman and left to continue...

I do understand that most of the victims in this programme, will have entered directly into a "loose" contract with a general builder (who would likely go bankrupt rather than face court), but surely the programme should offer a cautionary tale at the end about what that victim failed to do to minimise the chance of a dispute arising; this would aid others in the future who are looking to get building work done...

As all that post on here are hopefully decent contractors, removing the cowboys legally is better than letting them get away like this.

[lutonlagerlout]

did you win that case ted?
thing is mate you have answered your own question
there is no qualification need to set up as a builder in the uk
so lads do it all the while
if it goes wrong they go bust
problem solved

we priced and lost a job for 23k last year
the builder that did it priced at 16k with no cheques /paperwork/and on condition he got all the money upfront

guess what?

job is far from finished and he has done one

its going to cost 12k to finish (with alterations due to bodges)

so the job they could have had right in the first place for 23k will now cost them 28k and it has taken a year to complete when it would have been 10 weeks

sadly the world is full of people that think cheaper = better

cheers
LLL

[Ted]

The case is settled but I can't tell you anything on a public BB so I will try and send you a PM shortly with a brief synopsis of what happened.

I had to sign a confirmation that the outcome would remain confidential. I was happy with the outcome though!

[lutonlagerlout]

as long as you are happy thats good!
LLL

[lutonlagerlout]

just watched the latest episode of cowboy builders
all these programmes drive me mad
as soon as i saw the loft conversion i said to mrs lout "thats a 40k job"
the poor woman had handed over 13.5k so it was no wonder things didnt work out
I dont like the way they use kids/old people etc to up their ratings and make no mistake Dom littlewood and Melinda Messenger probably couldnt give a rats a*&e about the people involved,its ratings that count,

we have picked up some substantial work this week which should see us ok till october,
In part this is due to my unflinching desire never to take a knock on a genuine price
if you go for the cheapest price you undoubtedly will get a cheap job,whether it will last is another matter.
/rant over
LLL

[digerjones]

oh tony i can see it now, you see cowboy builders advertised, you know its on, you know its going to wind you up and yet, yes you still watch it. i am the same but tonight i did manage not to watch it. and i can also see mrs lout watching your reactions and know whats coming. ha ha same in our house. glad you enjoyed your evenings viewing.

[GB_Groundworks]

i like the blatant shots of melinda on step ladders looking at something she has no clue about but still feels the need to climb the step ladder and lean forward haha

[lutonlagerlout]

mrs lout likes me out of the way on the pc at night,but as her new humax foxsat hdr turned up I had to set that up for her and miss lout
CB was on at the time
I PMSL when the pro builders cut the USB 200mm short then welded it back together, also I am sorry but if MM rings you up and says will you work for free? the response would be "spit or swallow?"
the way CB and rogue traders is set up sickens me,as it has to be as negative as possible

they never mention when the customer has made 20 amendments to the original drawing yet still wants the work completed on time
or when the client picks a flag ,marks it in the catalogue ,yet after you have laid 25M of it says she doesn't like it and wants it ripped up
(this happened to me with 1 lady,could have gone to court but we made it up elsewhere on the job)

rogue traders,cowboy builders,diy sos ,changing rooms
they are the devil's own handwork :laugh: :laugh:
thats it i wont watch them anymore
LLL

[GB_Groundworks]

They always go way over board on how dangerous something is as well, yeah thermolite as a pad stone is bad but it's not a broken open Nuclear weapon. Yeah it's shoddy but the way they go on, stick them with Ross kemp in Afghanistan then they'd have something to Fret about.

All the programs going that way now over hyping the danger and risk it's silly always absolute worst case scenario.

Think it was one episode of cow boy builders they got a local landscaper to help re di the front garden and he dumped a load of bricks in and started smashing them up with a hammer made me laugh so much.

[London Stone Paving]

It does seem pointless most of the time. Whenever the bald guy catches up with the cowboy 9/10 times they just run off.

I must admit to having a bit of admiration for the ones that front it out in front of the cameras and try and put there case across. ITs definately not as black and white as they make it out.

I remember one time where Irish guy was on there and the presenter had rumbled him before a couple of years previous. This guy was a real wrong un and as soon as he saw the cameras he charged like a startled cow and got caught up in all the camera wires. Funny.

[henpecked]

It does sensationalise the rogues in the trade without dealing with the underlying problem....cheap work.
If they said at the start of the program 'You buy cheap, you buy twice' it would got some way to making the public realise that the building trade isnt full of cowboys, its full of tight homeowners who refuse to cough for a good job.
That Dom bloke really gets on my tits too, even if he turned up to say 'A job weeelly well dahn' I'd still twat him :laugh:

[London Stone Paving]

[henpecked]

The guy whos the resident 'builder' on there seems a bit sus to me too. Looks like a change career late life chippy , wouldn't say time served at all, not bona fide IMHO.

just like that baldy fat knacker on BBC, couldn't see him trenching all day without a coronary.

[Tony McC]

I don't watch these programmes, and I won't until the telly-folk provide balance with "The Arsehole Customers" show, featuring some numpty who's forgotten to tuck in his shirt and a dolly bird to make himself look clever.

I've got a few candidates for the featured spot, including the twonk that diddled me over the weekend. Why oh why oh why do I keep falling for the "I need it desperately and if you send it me by email I'll get me missus to pay with her PayPal tomorrow" routine?

The week before, it was the guy who paid for me to work out whether it was possible to create a repeating pattern using a specific number of fixed size pavers. After I'd spent 3 hrs with CAD and then proved via mathematics that it wasn't possible, he demanded his money back on the grounds that I hadn't been able to produce a pattern!

So come on, telly-folk, make a programme about all these furry front bottoms that rip off honest, hard-working contractors!

[henpecked]

I've got a few candidates for the featured spot, including the twonk that diddled me over the weekend. Why oh why oh why do I keep falling for the "I need it desperately and if you send it me by email I'll get me missus to pay with her PayPal tomorrow" routine?

The week before, it was the guy who paid for me to work out whether it was possible to create a repeating pattern using a specific number of fixed size pavers. After I'd spent 3 hrs with CAD and then proved via mathematics that it wasn't possible, he demanded his money back on the grounds that I hadn't been able to produce a pattern!

So come on, telly-folk, make a programme about all these furry front bottoms that rip off honest, hard-working contractors!

Should go to the local pikey camp with their address and say 'I'd like my drive tarmacking ...Pronto!'