Ripping off old people

[buryboy]

Well I found out tonight that my mum has been let’s say ‘ overcharged ‘ for some work on the garden.

The garden of the house she has bought hasn’t been touched for years apart from the lawn. Parts were totally overgrown .
There is a section that runs down the side that is her land but actually outside of her ( dilapidated) fence - so will just about never be seen anyway.

A fortnight ago we had a hack at the 6 foot of wilderness and got it down to this state . Obviously still work to do on the roots etc but getting there

Anyway as I found out today a gardener came round last week and agreed to clear the roots and turf it . Miraculously he could start next day despite all decent tradesmen being stacked out. He said he would get some topsoil , hire a digger and use top quality turf . None of that happened . What was supposed to be two days work was half a day ( 3 men ) . Seemingly they were due to come back yesterday to complete the ‘ rolling down of the turf ‘ . I presume they just got rid of whatever biggish roots they could , and plonked some turf down. Its clearly not level so presumably not been flattened or remaining roots sorted and I doubt they will be coming back to ‘ roller it’ . As if that’s the way to do turf

And for the privilege of this top class job , my mum parted with £800.

She knows she was done .
All the red flags were there.

Unsolicited visit
Mobile phone only on callling card. ( no address , name or landline )
Paid for job before completing it.
Claimed to have done work for the previous owner to gain trust ( as said work hasn’t been done on it for years bar mowing and she knows who did that ) .
Available at short notice.
No written quote or note of work to be done.
Justified the price by over-claiming on the length of time and the amount of machinery / materials required to do the job.


I wish I could have some magic wand that would stop it happening again , but I can’t be there 24/7 .

I have calmly pointed out the obvious things , and told the neighbours I have basically barred her from getting any work done on the outside or inside of the house without my permission / agreed written price and for me to settle the bills for her .
Hopefully the neighbours will keep an eye out and call me if they see any suspicious callers

[buryboy]

Claire that’s basically what I have told her . My concern is that I could see this coming a mile off. And had warned her , and ‘ told her off’ for having work done by this cowboy before - though he had charged a sensible-ish price it was work we could probably have done ourselves . And now he has gone in for the kill.

Problem is her husband had a generous pension and they always just used to pay top whack for anything - eg insurance , and tradesmen etc because they were ‘ nice people’ and couldn’t be doing with any hassle. First come first opportunity to exploit.
I am more than happy to be nice if someone is happy giving me £800 to do a small amount of root clearing and turfing .

( edit - seen you have deleted your post Claire lol)

[ClaireNJ]

Originally Posted by buryboy

Claire that’s basically what I have told her . My concern is that I could see this coming a mile off. And had warned her , and ‘ told her off’ for having work done by this cowboy before - though he had charged a sensible-ish price it was work we could probably have done ourselves . And now he has gone in for the kill.

Problem is her husband had a generous pension and they always just used to pay top whack for anything - eg insurance , and tradesmen etc because they were ‘ nice people’ and couldn’t be doing with any hassle. First come first opportunity to exploit.
I am more than happy to be nice if someone is happy giving me £800 to do a small amount of root clearing and turfing .

( edit - seen you have deleted your post Claire lol)

See more...

Get her a ring doorbell
Then you can see what’s happening or CCTV
Yes I deleted it as I suggested that she ok’s everything with you first

[snowbelle]

My parents were mugged in our town, the culprits were known to the police and fled back to their country before they were arrested.
My Dad was never the same, people who do this should rot , despicable excuses for human beings.

[aqualiv]

My parents are a tradesman dream - only get one quote and don’t complain

They recently had their front drive completely re done - guys turn up and hack everything up then leave them for over a month a complete mess they can’t park their cars on whilst waiting for bricks, as far as I’m aware they didn’t even chase them for a date just patiently waited

Eventually done and they are happy with the result

[captain-codeye]

should be locked up for jobs like that, scumbags

[Bessie]

so sorry this has happened to your mum, it's awful

my in-laws were 'money for old rope' £5k to replace 2 UPVC windows

[Mel49]

Sadly it is not just "old people"who fall for these scumbags as my sister at 52 lost around the same amount from a Facebook scam. With hindsight she realises the warning signs were there but she was happy to pay for trees to be cut down and a fence put up at her new house to save my DH doing the work.

[TheHughesCrew]

How utterly frustrating for you. That's shocking 😳

My mum was conned a few years back now. It's heartbreaking. She doesn't like to bother us because we're busy, but we'd really rather sort her out than her fall for a trick.

Hope your mum has the strength to say no thank you next time 💞

[Taffy1959]

I’m so sorry this has happened to your mum and I hope she listens to everything you’ve said to her.

My dad was conned by some so called workmen saying he needed work doing on the extension flat roof.
I can’t remember exactly how much it was but it was a good few hundred.
I told him if anyone came knocking the door to tell them I dealt with all repairs which he agreed to do but I went there a couple of days later and there was a man in the living room who was selling tickets for some prize draw and my dad was handing over £20.
The worst though was a woman who was my mums carer (employed by the local council)and after my mum passed away she carried on visiting my dad and he handed over at least £8,000 to her.
It was only when neighbours told me she was still visiting that I found out she was still going there.
It took me some time to find out what was going on and I could only do something when my dad let it slip he was paying for a holiday for her that I was able to do something about it.