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Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 6:23 am
by lemoncurd1702
Did some remedial work recently for a couple who had been had by the followingLink
£1,500 to tarmac their drive but after removing old tarmac and finding concrete underneath told them they would have to have block paving at an additional £1,500. And guess what the new paving was laid on top of the old concrete.
More prosecutions like this are needed, not only to protect the consumer but also to protect those of us who earn an honest living in this industry.
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 9:20 am
by Tony McC
The problem with bringing prosecutions, and I know this because I do quite a bit of work with Trading Standards offices throughout Britain, is that the offenders are often what they term "transient". And then, of those who are not quite as mobile, many are 'men of straw', traders with no (traceable) assets worth pursuing.
We have had a couple of notable successes against what would be considered to be well-respected and well-established businesses, including a 3rd generation family firm in Hertfordshire who decided to charge a mentally challenged woman a whopping 28 grand for 100m² of pretty shoddy blacktop, but for every case that gets to court, I reckon there are at least 100 that get marked down as so-called 'experience'.
But those who do get caught should be hung out to dry. Publish their trading name(s) and business adresses, along with the names of the owners. Put it on the web so that, hopefully, when a customer is doing the essential research (which almost never happens) before awarding a job to a contractor, there's a chance they'll be alerted to previous misdemeanours and so avoid becoming a victim themselves.
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 6:05 pm
by lutonlagerlout
we retro price work for luton trading standards on occasion
1 poor lady was charged £7k for 12 lineal metres of gutter,and they used the old brackets
2 another lady was told she had a hole in her roof and it would cost £80 to fix
next thing scaffold went up and they charged her £2k for that
on further inspection they decided to rip the whole roof off rafter and all
£35k
I have zero time for these people and long prison sentences are not long enough IMHO
LLL 
