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  • What sort of person…..
  • loddrik
    Free Member

    .. would answer a knock at the door to an Irishman with a clapped out van and think ‘it really didn’t occur to me that I should have my driveway repaved, and rather than ring up a reputable local company I’d rather get these fine genetlemen to do it for me…..’.

    Evidently by the cars these people drive (when not driving clapped out vans) they are not short of work, but I just can’t work out from whom…

    stevepitch
    Free Member

    Vulnerable is most probably the answer….

    hmanchester
    Free Member

    I think that there is some form of high pressure sales going on here.

    jekkyl
    Full Member

    Oh I need my drive doing, do you have their number?

    29erKeith
    Free Member

    Probably in the face of it seems cheap too. Obviously in the long run that often seems to not be the case. Some people find it hard to pass on a “bargain” oh and a lot of people are idiots!

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    Perhaps they are cheap and do a really good job for the money ?

    6/10 for new angle on the slag of gypsies though

    Starts thread asking about liverpool and thieves using recent example of violent bike theft as evidence that they are all like that

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    Vulnerable is most probably the answer….

    Not necessarily- the angle is the idea that tarmac has somehow fallen off the back of a lorry. To some people the idea that it is ‘literally’ hot property and that you are somehow in the lucky position to benefit from it is very appealing, perhaps even thrilling. Add to that the notion that the tarmac is only available right now so it you don’t grab this opportunity some other lucky guy is going to get it then people make snap decisions. It panders to people’s greed and that greed overwhelms any more sensible notions like – ‘do I want this?’ or ‘is this worth the asking price?’

    samuri
    Free Member

    I’ll put my hands up. A long, long time ago when we were really struggling for money, our drive was a real mess. Big pot holes in it, grass coming through, bumps and stuff. These two lads turn up saying they were in the area and can resurface it for a very low price, I forget what now but it was very cheap compared to what someone local had quoted us, about a hundred pounds.

    So they turn up exactly when they said they would, good to their word they pulled out all the old tarmac, laid down the plastic or something and then laid the tarmac. Not a fantastic job but a hundred times better than what it was before. That’s when the problems started.
    They immediately demanded money with menaces, doubling their price. My wife phoned me up so I rushed home to find them sat on the doorstep. I give them the agreed money and tell them thanks but that’s what we agreed. One of them starts kicking off while the other one makes vague threats. I stand my ground and don’t give them a penny more. They eventually leave.

    Two days later they’re back with the same story but I tell them to eff off or the police will come looking for them and that’s the last I saw of them.

    Sorry, I’ve not got their number.

    BobaFatt
    Free Member

    a woman at work was telling me that her next door neighbour had a knock on the door about replacing his driveway and quoted him 5grand. He told them he didn’t have the money so didn’t want it done.

    He got a call at work the next day from another neighbour asking who the people replacing his driveway were. He rushed home to find them nearly finished.

    When he told them he wasn’t paying for the work he was threatened with “If you don’t pay us then don’t expect to find your car in the drive tomorrow” – he ended up paying them

    DezB
    Free Member

    Easily done I reckon – like Samuri, we had a driveway that went into a lower level garden, so it was raised to be level. Thing was crumbling.
    Bloke knocked on the door – huge Tyson Fury type, strong Irish accent – lovely friendly fella he was, I chatted to him for a while about it. Was tempted, but we couldn’t afford to have it done at the time, so told him that. He left. Never saw him again.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Not really slagging off gypsies in general, this is just slagging off dodgy tradesmen. And they deserve it.

    loddrik
    Free Member

    Junkyard maybe you’re betraying your own prejudices there…

    The question was asked as I’ve noticed a couple of vans driving around the area looking at people’s driveways and knocking on, the gentleman whose voice I heard was Irish. I’ve never seen a ‘reputable’ company employing the same tactics.

    piemonster
    Full Member

    Perhaps they are cheap and do a really good job for the money ?

    Firstly, this is just what I’ve seen and is in no way intended to generalise across the whole group in any way.

    The only work I’ve seen done by the aforementioned group has been unnecessary and shoddy in the extreme. Only three incidences to be fair. But all three quite similar.

    All elderly ladies living by themselves. All told that they had problems with their property that urgently needed work. None of it actually needing work.

    All three involving roofs. The worst of which was £800 charged for spraying foam filler along a corner ridge line of a roof.

    They was there for 25 minutes. Afterwards my friend drove his mum past the suspected group to confirm who did the work.

    It may well have been the same people in all three cases, a few bad eggs giving a bad name to a larger group? Personally I have no way if knowing.

    annebr
    Free Member

    We had our drive done in this way (paving not tarmac) about 3 years ago.

    They were doing a couple of other drives around the area and the boss man walked about seeing if anyone else wanted their drive doing.

    We agreed a price, chose our pavers, they did a reasonable job. Massively improved our drive and we paid what was agreed. Never saw them again after they finished. They even re-did a bit of edging when I said I preferred it done differently. No trouble.

    edit: And I wouldn’t describe us as vulnerable or liable to titlation by buying hookey gear.

    RustySpanner
    Full Member

    We had a bit of our back garden done when I was a kid, about 35 years ago?

    Wasn’t a large space (suppose you’d call it a patio these days), they did the job, didn’t argue, caused no fuss then buggered off.

    Only problem was that the tarmac never, ever hardened properly. 😀
    Anything placed on it would sink into it after a while.

    You live & learn……

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-22870122

    if you or me camped in a school there is a high chance we would be jailed.

    dont get me started but based on living next to various groups for the last month im firmly in the give them no work camp.

    I honestly wouldnt piss on them if they were on fire – unfortunantly my neighbours front window wasnt on fire when they decided they were going to piss on that !

    oh and if your giving them work – dont be moaning if they move onto that lovely bit of grass out side your house in the estate – they are only there because people give them work. Ive noticed alot of NIMBYs (none of my neighbours at least) round here – happy enough to get there drive done but uproar when they moved in near by …..

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    People over the road from my mum and dad’s house had their driveway tarmacced years ago.
    They did a bloody awful job and a couple of years later when they had a water leak, realised that the stop cock cover in the garden had been tarmacced over. Cue my Dad and quite a few others having to lift a massive area of tarmac to find the cover while their house slowly flooded!

    atlaz
    Free Member

    My grandfather almost got taken in. Strangely the gents who were trying to pull a fast one got a bit nervy when he said he had to call my dad to get permission to withdraw so much cash from the bank (power of attorney thing with the bank). They asked what my old man did, they were told he was a policeman and they buggered off.

    yunki
    Free Member

    I think that there is some form of high pressure sales going on here.

    I’m not so sure.. maybe in some cases but certainly not all.. Me and a couple of mates got offered some work with Irish travellers when we were in our late teens.. as we were living in a caravan in a carpark it seemed the next logical step, so we let ’em hitch us up to the back of their transit and tagged along..

    One of our jobs was hawking.. the only sales tactic was to put on a hi-viz jacket and knock on the doors in wealthy neighbourhoods, trotting out a well rehearsed speech about working the roads in the area with spare tarmac to use up..

    We always managed to pick up a job or two per day, I wouldn’t say any of our sales were to vulnerable folk, and there was certainly no pressure selling, we were too young and nervous and polite to know how..
    People just love a bargain, and I think there were even a few who were simply waiting for the pikeys to come knocking before they got their drive fixed

    The lot I was with weren’t exactly consistent in the quality of their workmanship though.. some jobs were very good, but I remember us having to leave town after a large carpark at a private nursing home was starting to sink and crack under our feet even as the guy was handing over the cash at the end of the job..

    hmanchester
    Free Member

    I stand corrected.

    Not high pressure, just a wee bit dodgy and people after a bargain it seems!

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