Getting one over on C.J. Hughes (Builders)

Member Name: Pingu

Product:	Builders
Date:	12/10/01 (757 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Incredibly slow response

I'm not a huge fan of those programmes designed to catch out various workmen, and show you just how useless they are; but I have seen enough trailers for them to be a little bit wary about builders, plumbers, garages, etc. etc.

Anyway, on Sunday a slate blew from our roof in the storms, sometime in the afternoon. I arrived home about 5pm to find it shattered on my doorstep. I'd known it was going to go one day, because it's been gradually slipping out for months now.

So out came the Yellow Pages. Lots of builders claimed to have an emergency 7 day, 24 hour call out service for roofs, but it turned out that was just something added to their adverts to make you think they were worth calling. In fact, of the 15 or so that I tried, I only got one person at all on the end of a phone at 5pm on Sunday. Most just had answering machines. Even the company I did get, by the name of C.J. Hughes, weren't prepared to actually come out on a Sunday. So I duly made an appointment for them to come out on Monday morning.

Well, my wife waited in the whole of Monday morning, without a sign of them. In the afternoon she had a bit of a scare with our baby (due January) and had to dash to a doctor - so she was out for about an hour. When she got back she instantly phoned C.J. Hughes and said she'd been out - had they been round? It's unfortunate that she told them first that she'd been out. Because once they heard that, well 'of course they'd been round' They said they'd seen all the damage and would send a quote in the post.

I guess I'll never really know if they did come or not. But I was intrigued by the phrase, "All the damage," since only one slate had come down, without dislodging anything else. So I took a look out of our bedroom window, and, sure enough, someone had tried to pull out two more slates; probably in the hope that they would fall out later, while we were in, and convince us tha
t our whole roof was slipping.

Well I pushed the other slates back in, and got the problem sorted by someone else. I couldn't be waiting for quotes. It cost £30.

Then I got a quote from C.J. Hughes today. I mean, is that really their idea of emergency repair. Five days since the whole in my roof started letting in water, and they're just beginning to think about maybe possibly giving me a quote. And, funnily enough, their quote was for removing ALL damaged slates, and repairing the WHOLE roof, as though they fully expected rather more slates to have slipped since Monday.

I'm not going to have a huge grumble about dishonest workmen; but I thought someone may enjoy this story of a customer NOT being taken in for once.

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