Thoroughly dodgy plumber- who to complain to?

[unimpressed]

Right so to cut a long story short, am renovating a house and employed a plumber to totally replumb and to fit a boiler.

Got several quotes, chose one in the middle from what seemed like a genuine chap, who had someone else working for him to do boilers. Chap sent to do boiler, then the plan changed and he was apparently to do the rest of the plumbing too. Fine, ok. Until we saw the standard of his work and the mess he left behind. I won't go into the boring details but the problems included;

• messing up the painted wall (fine, maybe to be expected) then repainting without asking, but using a light blue paint on a lilac wall and not noticing! Stripy walls!
• spraying oily crap up the newly plastered walls
• failing to put pipes where asked (for no good reason) and consequently leaving the job looking a mess, pipes through new skirting needing to be moved and cracking a tile he shouldn't even have been drilling through in the first place
• attaching upstairs rads at heights varying by over 20cm- just looked daft, some far too high!
• leaving a general mess behind him including piles of brick rubble and pipe offcuts
• leaving us without a warranty on the installed boiler, despite the fact we opted for the more expensive boiler to get a longer warranty
• fitting push fit where his insurance insisted on compression fittings
• not finishing the bloody job!

So, who do I raise hell with? Most disappointed as he is related to the person we know who recommened him, so we hoped to get someone reliable. Fuming!

 

[unimpressed]

Title should be 'thoroughly'- I'm apparently so cross I've lost the ability to spell check!

 

[dancinplumba]

you paid ?

 

[villa_tom]

Pictures?

 

[sam51]

and your point is,

you should have got a real tradesman in,no good crying now,the trouble is everyone wants it cheap..

 

[dancinplumba]

Pictures?

lol tom you look like a pink teapot

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

need pics mate we can help you from there

 

[unimpressed]

Dancin- Part paid, in my opinion more paid than work done is worth. Fortunately not all paid.
Villa yes I have photos.
Sam- who said he was cheap? I didn't take the cheapest quote. As far as I was aware, he was a decent tradesman. I had hoped that personal recommendation would be enough. Lesson learnt! (Mainly how to plumb- and I'm damn sure we've done a better job ourselves since that muppet left than he could have done!)

 

[ecowarm]

and your point is,

you should have got a real tradesman in,no good crying now,the trouble is everyone wants it cheap..

Re-read the op, this is a friendly forum.

 

[unimpressed]

Will sort pics gasman, thanks.

 

[unimpressed]

Thanks eco.

 

[R1CKY]

and your point is,

you should have got a real tradesman in,no good crying now,the trouble is everyone wants it cheap..

What relevance does that have to this thread? OP picked the middle quote and what seemed like a genuine guy.

 

[villa_tom]

lol tom you look like a pink teapot

I know mate. Someone changed it eh other night, can't be bothered to change it back. I think it's quite fetching

 

[Gray0689]

Throughly dodgy plumber- who to complain to?

and your point is,

you should have got a real tradesman in,no good crying now,the trouble is everyone wants it cheap..

His point was he went with the middle quote and got a recommendation
And has came on here to vent a little I don't see what your point is to be honest
Can't comment on quality or lack of till we see pictures I'm afraid

 

[unimpressed]

I've had a look at the pictures I have but they are not much good for illustrating the problems we've had-I'll take some more tomorrow and post them for your opinion.

Oh and another thing that irked me- he scuffed the brand new column radiators by dragging them about!

 

[lame plumber]

you have had a rotton time, if the basics are bad what about the boiler install, was he gas safe ticketed?

 

[villa_tom]

I've had a look at the pictures I have but they are not much good for illustrating the problems we've had-I'll take some more tomorrow and post them for your opinion.

Oh and another thing that irked me- he scuffed the brand new column radiators by dragging them about!

Did all this naughtiness happen on one day or over a few days? If it happened over a few days then you should have said something after the first incident if it all happened in one day while you where out then there's nothing you could have done to stop it really.

Its an unfortunate one really, I'd withhold the rest of his money until your satisfied with the work or get a discount of some sort.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Am i reading the op right that one guy quoted who got the job and he sent out someone else to do it???

 

[villa_tom]

Am i reading the op right that one guy quoted who got the job and he sent out someone else to do it???

Yes I think so.

 

[unimpressed]

Lame- Well the chap that initially quoted told us he would be sending someone appropriately qualified to do the boiler, and would be doing the rest himself. In the end, the chap who did the boiler also did the work that we are unhappy with (part of the job quoted on, he completed around a third of the job).

We mentioned what we were unhappy with work done so far to the first chap, who came round, viewed the problems, agreed they were unacceptable and assured us he would sort it all. He also pointed out that the second chap had used push fit where he should have used compresssion fittings and said he had told him not to do this several times before, as it was not allowed under the terms of his insurance. (Not being a plumber, I hadn't noticed this as an issue).

The following day the second chap walked off the job. The first chap assured us he would be back to sort the problems and finish the job the following week. Then he put it off to the week after. Now he hasn't come back.

 

[unimpressed]

Villa- over a couple of days. We initially discussed the problem with chap 2 and re-confirmed that he understood what we wanted. He didn't do as asked the following day, which is when we contacted chap 1 to say we were unhappy.

 

[lame plumber]

soundslike he subbed it and fell out with subbie, nightmare as hes got to finish off a poor job. if you want you can ask gas safe to inspect boiler and gas side which they can do but not guarenteed unless there is an issue of safety.

 

[unimpressed]

Hammers- yes that is correct. He told us that he was due to have an operation, hence why the other chap would be completing the work (we were only told this once we accepted his quote and work began).

 

[unimpressed]

Thanks lame. How would we go about getting the warranty on the new boiler?

 

[hammers4spanner]

i have had something similar where i was busy and asked someone to do me a favour and cover an install for me, unknown to me the plumbs i asked couldnt be bothered and started installing a pile of rubbish .
On this instance i was contacted halfway through install and told of the what the cust wasnt happy about and went put it right and smoothed things over .
Maybe you should have done the same??

 

[Dotty]

Title should be 'thoroughly'- I'm apparently so cross I've lost the ability to spell check!

Changed for you to stop you thinking we're all bad eggs!

 

[SafeGasInstall]

pls post the pictures you have NOW

 

[ecowarm]

Have a word with the person who recomended him, explain the problems you've had and hopefully he won't recomend him again. Sounds like you have got some cowboys through no fault of your own, except maybe asking for ID badges i.e Gas safe

 

[unimpressed]

Lame- yes the first chap came out to view the second chaps work and agreed it needed sorting out, he smoothed it over with us and we were quite happy with what he said he would do.

We agreed he would put the plumbing right and get the wall repainted, we would deal with patching up the tiles, patching up the new skirting and repositioning pipes through the bathroom floor tiles. We were happy with this. Then he never showed up to finish the work.

 

[unimpressed]

Thanks croppie!

Yes ecowarm I agree. I'll have a word with the recommender- but to complicate things he is related to the plumber!

 

[SafeGasInstall]

i am really really sorry for what you have been , but related or not he should not been given more work

 

[lame plumber]

to get warranty, the benchmark ticket nneeds completing and you should also get a building regs ticket fm the installer thro gas safe.

 

[Rickster123]

Blimey everyone's related! You're not from the isle of wight are you?!

There's no excuse for poor workmanship. Unfortunately a few poor tradesmen give us all a bad name. The trouble you have is there isn't much you will be able to do. Maybe trading standards? Did you have a written detailed quote? Receipts for payment etc?

 

[plumber0808]

This is why trades get a bad name, sounds like you have been unlucky enough to have been on the wrong end of such poor service.
maybe post the remaining work up in the looking for a plumber section as by the sound of it you are not going to see them or get any money back.

we are not all like that. I fully understand why people are so wary.

 

[dancinplumba]

I know mate. Someone changed it eh other night, can't be bothered to change it back. I think it's quite fetching

love it xx suits you dear