[Closed] Ripped off by a tradesman - finding his address

Companies House? https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house

should the company have a registered address somewhere?

If he's a sole trader then he doesn't need to register an address.

I think I have found his address but not 100% certain.

Wait in the bushes outside this address and see if he's there.

I will go visit the address and see if his van is outside.

Google earth shows his van outside the address I have - got him!

TJ - How much money is it? I guess if it included a significant number of windows then quite a bit?

Several hundred. materials would have been around £4 - 500

He claims he has bought the DG units - so I said fine - I'll pay for them when delivered or rather take the cost of them off the deposit. Of course he has not ordered them is my bet.

Not a deliberate rippoff - just got jobs backed up due to breaking his leg. However its the lies that got to me. I offered to reschedule to another date when he had the workers available. He replied I will have 2 guys there wed - friday to get the bulk of the job done. No one turned up, no message from him

Sending a lad round to do a frankly shit job of painting before the repairs were done will not cut it.

he then tried to bullshit me when the lad got paint all over the glass and claimed painting before repair was the best way to do things.

He claims he has bought the DG units – so I said fine – I’ll pay for them when delivered or rather take the cost of them off the deposit. Of course he has not ordered them is my bet.

Sounds like complete BS. Even if he has, it will be on 30 days net and I'm sure he could return them.

Hope you sort it out.

Custom slimeline DG - I doubt they could be returned.

Do you have a spare pair of Marzocchi Bombers laying around?

Funny you should mention that...................

oh dear God, I've this vision of BatmanTJ hunting the man down on the rainy streets of Gothamburgh, pounding the "tradesman" into the cobbles screaming "where are my windows".*

*I may have had a few beers/been out in the sun to long and my imaginations gone into it's dark place.

Does he have a front lawn ?

Do you have a mallet ?

@Cheekyboy...

Are you suggesting he plays croquet on his lawn until he gets his money back? You monster.

🙂

Google earth shows his van outside the address I have – got him!

You know that's not a live image, don't you?

Does he have a front lawn ?

Do you have a mallet ?

Sadly, I think TJ may be vegetarian

🙂 I have an address I was 90% certain is him - and then seeing his van parked outside makes me 100% certain

I think the Mallett is a fine idea. Having this idiot on my lawn would make me pay up

Maybe just send a link to this forum and get him to ask what happens when you get into an argument with TJ!

Indeed. I thank you guys for honing my skills!

Teej, you may not have been told that you need the glass rebates enlarged before you can fit Slimline plus it needs to be butyl putty. Are they 6 pane Georgian sashes? If so, it's really not worth trying to get the old putty out of them and trying to route the rebates out; paper thin astragals just don't like that sort of treatment! Send me mail if you need more advice.

I will do chicken man - they are already DG - the units have failed. Replacement windows that I neglected so need repair. I'll send you an email - want the work?

YOu have a pm

due to breaking his leg

Clearly somebody else has owned him with a pair of bombers already..............

I have now issued the "letter before action" to recover my money. His behavior has gone from absurd to surreal. Apparently he cannot pay me back the deposit because he spent more than that on materials and it will take him time to raise the cash. so I offered to accept the materials he has bought for me as the deposit return. Silence.

I know damn well he has not bought the materials. I also know the cost of them. His claim he has bought all the timber needed for my job and its been treated and seasoned specially for me? ridiculous. The DG units he claims cost more than the deposit - blatantly untrue - they would be around half the deposit and if he has bought them then surely its simple to given them to me instead of cash!

Does he not know who he is dealing with? 😉

He also emailed me after the letter confirming to me that I had the correct address and that he received it. Helps my legal position greatly! He is not even a clever ripoff artist!

Just one thing to remember here... He's another human being. It's more than likely he's found himself in a hole and trying and failing to dig his way out. Whilst that doesn't help you, think of it from the other side..

If he were posting about his issues on STW as a cyclist, someone who'd got himself into a mess and was struggling to find a way out... Would you help, or berate him...

I think you'd help.

Go tj...

If he were posting about his issues on STW as a cyclist, someone who’d got himself into a mess and was struggling to find a way out… Would you help, or berate him…

🤔

Weeksy - I do have some sympathy for him which is why I offered to him to reschedule. His reply was " there will be 3 men there tomorrow and they will work until its finished" the next day no one turned up and I could get no answer to texts or emails. this went on for two weeks. Promises of workmen the following day and then no one turns up and no communication

Its the way he lied to me on repeated occasions promising things that did not happen. Two weeks was booked in for the job - I had one half days painting done in that time - badly. Anyway who paints window frames that need repair before they are repaired?

If he had kept me informed and not lied to me I would have let him finish the job. As it is I no longer trust him, I would have to give him keys to my flat to work when I was no there ( the original time slot I would have been at home) and I am not prepared to do this.

He had a large deposit from me for materials. He has clearly spent this elsewhere not on materials for my job

I have not trashed him on trusted trader or elsewhere on the net which I easily could do and I won't unless he continues to refuse to return my deposit.

edit - I would even accept a staged repayment. He just continues to state he has not got the money because he spent it all on materials. But completely ignores the repeated offers from me to give me the materials in lieu of the deposit and that the materials would be much less than the deposit.

Fair enough 🙂

He probably has spent it on materials, but from an earlier job

exactly.

I am sure he has just got in over his head. All he needed to do was keep me informed and he could have finished the job for what would have been a good payday.

Does he not know who he is dealing with? 😉

Even with the smiley, I cringed.

Supposed to be a joke on my reputation on here!

Ah man, having to deal with sort of stuff sucks balls, all the letters and court and solicitors is all crap no-one should have to deal with just because of bloody windows! You have my sympathies TJ, hope you get it sorted pronto.

Does he not know who he is dealing with? 😉

You certainly have a very particular set of skills, skills you have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make you a nightmare for people like him.

I think Teej is being very patient!
I'd have resorted to violins by now.

If anyone one is interested I finally got all my money back today. It was rather like pulling teeth and I had to wade thru large amounts of bullshit but I got my money

Now the moral question is do I put out online the issues I had with him to help others know what he can be like? As I said I failed to do my research before paying him but when I did look around the net after he had my deposit and didn't turn up a few others have had similar issues

I do not think it malicious in any way just he got in over his head and rather than admitting he was overstretched chose to bullshit me.

so you would put out reports on trusted trader, the local facebook page I got his details from etc or do I give him the benefit of the doubt and just let it lie?

From reports online he has also done good work for folk.

thoughts?

If you would normally give good feedback online, then you should give honest feedback.

Destroy him, completely

honest feedback, no moral issue that i can see.

I do feel rather vindictive and want to see him not do this to others but a little bit of me thinks maybe as a young guy with a new business who had real issues at least in part due to things outside his control then he should get a bit more sympathy.

I am a bit conflicted 🙂

Give feedback - briefly explain the situation and allow others to make their own mind up.

Just give a fair balanced review, state what happened, if you feel the need balance that with your assessment of what the issue was and that it wasn't malicious, just incompetence...

I'm on the let it slide / give him sympathy side.

You say you think he's not dishonest and just got in a pickle and tried to blag, badly - I'd base any moral decision on that.

Add to the fact he's young and just starting out, he'll either learn from this (i.e,don't rob Peter etc), or he won't - if the former, his livelihood will hopefully take-off and if the latter, there will be plenty of negative reviews to follow anyhow 🙂

Edit: I wouldn't go for the factual / balanced thing either personally - I'd just say nothing.

Now the moral question is do I put out online the issues I had with him to help others know what he can be like?

I wouldn't, when I get my money back it stops there. We're all on a learning curve, and what he's learned from dealing with you is enough IMO.

Ta for your thoughts chaps

I'd give honest feedback, if people were only supposed to give good feedback then how do you weed out the scammers, idiots and incompetent?

I've given business to places that you can see have had bad feedback but have subsequently got themselves together. Similarly where I stay there are a multitude of tradesmen with endless glowing reviews (including the effing herpes delivery) that previous form tells me I wouldn't trust them to run a bath never mind a professional business.

"he's obviously busy and after some delays we agreed to cancel the job. I did get my money back"

I might well still book him if he was doing good work but I'd consider myself forewarned

I've fallen foul of similar with someone doing work on my car. Turned out a year or so later that a large number of people also had, but had also given him the benefit of the doubt, and the colossal prick had the gift of the gab, and had ****ed a lot of people over. I was kicking myself for not publicly giving him shit.