Damn these rip off mechants

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

My Neighbour had her guttering repaired(alledgedly)on friday for a bad leak where it joins another section this being sandstone guttering, but was lined inside the guttering with a lead blanket roll which her father done when he was alive.

The bloke told her he'd repaired the leak and cleaned out the gutter,at the same time told her that my side of the guttering was completely caked in moss.

So when my neighbour(pensioner) told me this I decide to have a look this afternoon to clean it out.

Sure enough it was heavily mossed and the water was not draining off,cleaned it all out and hosed the silt down the drainpipe,when all was clear I did not notice any newish repairwork done on the neighbours side just a cleaned out guttering,the bastard charged her 75GBP just for this.

[Phil L]

Do you expect people to work for free? Here's a tip for you if you want to earn some good money, get yourself a ladder and offer to clean out gutters for £50 a time, you'll not get many jobs, but you'll be on £50 an hour when you do work.....roofers etc don't want jobs like this, neither do most other builders, especially in the middle of summer when they've got loads of work on and earning probably 3 times as much as this per day, they don't want to leave that job to fart about with someone's blocked gutter, especially when people expect them to do it for free.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

You're missing the point Phillip ie

She called him out to repair a leak...its still there with the indication of yesterdays downpour. And your post is irrelevant if roofers don't want the job then they should say so on the phone.

[Phil L]

You made no mention of this in your OP, only that you couldn't *see* any repairs.

I wouldn't get up a ladder for less than £75, unless it was during part of a larger job, IE rendering a gable or replacing soffits etc....if your neighbour isn't happy with the 'repair' then she should phone him back, but £75 isn't a ripoff, even if he has just cleaned the gutters.

[Lobster]

There's a big difference between the following scenarios, which is I think what His Lordship is getting at:

Tradesman A: Offers to come round and inspect pensioner's gutters, but makes it clear in advance that he'll have to charge a minimum of 75 quid whatever the problem; she accepts quote; he comes round and finds the only problem is debris, which he unclogs, thereby resolving the problem (and telling the householder that unblocking is all he's done). Tradesman departs, leaving householder *with* working gutters.

Tradesman B: Turns up and climbs his ladder, simply removes the debris from the gutter and comes down. Tells the householder he's repaired the leak and cleaned everything out, and that'll be 75 quid thank you very much. Tradesman departs, leaving householder *without* working gutters.

"A" is fine by me; but "B"? You reckon that's acceptable?

David

[Stuart]

Apart from telling a lie by saying he has repaired the leak then both have done the same job ..assuming you are saying that both houses had exactly the same problem ...i.e. No leak

If you mean that "B" found a leak but did not repair it then ,no,that's not acceptable.

Stuart

[Phil L]

Neither of us know what was said between contractor and client, and I've already stated that she should ring him back if she's not happy. TBH if someone asked me to 'have a look' at their gutters and I cleaned them out charged them £75 with the understanding that they were 'just blocked', I'd be reluctant to go back at no extra cost to me for what may prove to be an expensive repair or even replacement of the entire gutter....at which point does the tradesman become reponsible for *everything* that might be wrong with the gutters / roof / whatever? The same scenario could happen with an electrician, plumber, joiner, plasterer etc - they turn up to do a few hours work and something unrelated is wrong and what then?

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Tradesman comes round on Thursday gets up ladder looks at the job and says to punter...I don't have the materials in the van(Estate Car lots of stuff in the back) will come back tomorrow morning to do the job(Friday morning). The leaking area was pointed out where it leaks,no work has been carried out on this area.

Genuine rip off as he did say... "I've repaired the leak and cleaned out the guttering"

[ARWadsworth]

It it is still leaking then it maybe it is a rip off. If the job is bigger than he first thought then this should be explained to your neighbour and allow her to get alternative quotes for the repair. Some refund should be made as the leak was not fixed.

Adam

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "ARWadsworth" saying something like:

Crap old gutters leak in more than one spot. Perhaps he did repair a leak but another one sprung up/out/down from the corroded metal.