Feel really stupid now!!!!

Will appologise for the length of post, and me having a moan

Have decided to revamp my back garden, as i have a dog i wanted artificial turf put down to stop muddy paw prints !! Just wanted border of paving around the 3 sides of fence and artificial turf in the middle, the front garden, the turf taken up and something low maintenance put down, paving circle and or stones etc, hardly rocket science, just simple job, nothing fancy at all. The garden was already tidy and turfed, we had this done bout 4yrs ago and got the front paved and turfed under the window.

Spoke to someone who told me he was a landscaper not a gardener and that he charges £40 to come and give me a site survey and quote. He explained that he take the £40 off the quote if i decided to go ahead and use him to do the garden. He also said that it was costing him money, giving quotes and providing detailed plan of what he could do with the garden, ie, using petrol and his time when he could be working on another job, he sounded plausible so paid the £40 on my card the day before he arrived.

He turned up for the quote, he didn't listen to what i wanted at all, he hand drew a very crude diagram of my garden which is not very big, then stated i didn't need a border around the garden as he would put the artificial grass up to the fence. The front garden he stated that i could order a bit extra artificial grass and put it in the front and that i didn't need stones or anything then. He then costed this and stated that it would cost £4,700 to do the work.

I nearly fell over with shock, he then stated that he only used £25 square mtr artificial turf as that was the best for the drainage in my garden (garden has no drainage problems at all) obviously i looked shocked lol, he then said that if i paid some of the quote in cash he could do me a deal regarding the vat and knock some off the bill for me, he then said well do the back first for £2,800, and he will remove the waste for free and do the vat deal and then he would cost the front garden later.

I told him no thanks, so he said give me a call if you change your mind, and off he popped most probably to the pub to have a pint using the £40 which i paid for with my hard earned cash.

I feel really stupid and gullible now, not being a gardener i took his sales pitch on the phone and thought he was a professional, but now realise i was taken for a ride. Wonder how many people had fallen for the same trick, no wonder he turned up in a merc to give the me quote!!!!

Candy1567

 

Ahh sorry @candy1567, sounds like a right cowboy :( Never pay money before someone comes out. And if his attitude stank from word go about giving you a quote, I'm sorry you should of told him to p off. My other half is a brickie, different but same principal, if he does a hobble he tells the customer to get the materials and they pay him for labour. As for paying cash, its all to benefit him and dodge the tax man. Could you not ring trading standards to warn of the rogue?

 

I'd ring trading standards and HMRC if I were you, they'd be very interested in him. Don't blame yourself, he's obviously good at putting folk on the spot.

 

I wouldn't feel stupid and gullible @candy1567 he has honed his technique and knows just how to extract money from unsuspecting, trusting people. Despicable man.
As others have said, report him.

 

At least you were not gullible to fall for his sales pat and pay him some cash up front.

A lady who worked in the Oxfam charity shop also wanted her garden done. She was divorced and had the 3 children living at home so not a lot of money spare.She wanted a private place in garden so her teenage daughter can sit with her friends.
No idea exactly what she wanted done but was quoted £1500 for the work so she took the plunge. One of the jobs to be done was to put down a membrane to stop weeds growing through stones. When she came home job was done and she said it was a complete mess almost worse that it was at the beginning. She looked under the stones expecting to see a membrane and all he had put down was thin black bin bags which probably cost £2-3 at Wilko. Supposed to also done the border with bushes to attract butterflies. Border was not dug over and therefore no new soil. No bushes just a few annuals & perennials. Not sure of the outcome but he did not reply to her emails and I think she was going to take it further. I never found out as Oxfam closed the shop down.

 

this sounds like a case for WATCHDOG

 

@candy1567, he sounds like a right jerk (I'd like to call him something else ) people like that don't deserve work! Firstly taking the pi$$ out of you is terrible, then offering to do a cash deal to save the VAT/TAx is disgraceful. When he charged you the £40 was that including vat? Because if it was he should have told you...that's law & you should have a sales invoice which quotes his VAT number that's also law, we never do any work without clearly stating that we are VAT registered & when we price work it s quoted £X + VAT, our invoice is then sent out after the work is complete.
When I come across jerks like this I think to myself I hope the next person you quote in this very unprofessional way is a tax inspector!
I think you should put this to the back of your mind because understandably it's going to stir you up, he's not worth getting upset over, he will come unstuck & he will pay the price I'm sure.
I very much hope that you can find a nice honest company or person who will come to help you sort out your garden the way you want it & for a reasonable price. Good luck my friend

 

You shouldn't

He's the one who should feel stupid - he picked the wrong person to try and trick because it didn't work, did it!

I'm curious, how did you find him?

 

I had a company round to give me a price for a porch, it was one of those we need to see both you and your spouse.
He came showed me the goods and got into his speel about scrappage deals and so on.

Price came to £7772.00 which I said was steep.

Then went into % deals which could be done today, I'll call my manager ( yeh right ), so the final haggling price was £3700.00.
He could see I knew more about Windows and upvc than the normal customer, so he scarppered quick leaving no card or paperwork behind.

 

@"M" I found him on the internet not far from where i live, he has a very good website and i did look it over and checked his gallery etc,

Am even more mad now, when he gave me the receipt for the £40, i just took it but didn't look at it at the time, but it was £40+vat so the cheeky git charged me £48 in total for a bit of A4 paper scribbled with a biro pen.

Oh well not to worry got someone to come round tomorrow to give me a quote, i asked if he charged for this and he was gobsmacked i asked him and said no giving quotes is part of his daily work. I also told him that i was ripped off and he said that wouldn't go down well with the gardening community in the area as they all knew each other

Candy

 

Does his "Website" have a "feedback" option? I'd be inclined to post feedback! Along the lines of: what you see, simply, is not what you get: plus VAT!!

Good luck with your guy tomorrow I hope you have found someone more "authentic"

 

Hi all

Just a quickie update, well had a new quote yesterday which was free!!!!

He was a very down to earth guy, listened to what i wanted, suggested things as well, let me look through his ipad at pics of previous work, then gave me a quote which was...........

£2000 to do both back and front gardens lol, wow he has restored my faith in the gardening profession lol

He even went through the various artificial grasses with me showing me samples and saying that if i paid £2 more a square metre than the cheapest one i would get a better quality grass, he also said that the paid quote i got was horrendous and he couldn't give me any reason why i had to use the dearest artificial grass for "drainage" also stating that my garden was small/medium size and he couldn't justify or come anywhere near to the paid quote at all.

I nearly kissed him lol, so i got him to book me in there and then and work starts on 23rd May and will take approx 2 days weather depending!!!!

It also made my day when i looked at his work van which was a ford transit with the name of his company on and stating he was an specialist artificial grass installer, his large wing mirrors on the van where covered in artificial grass lol

Hope the weather picks up as we've had hale, sleet and fine snow today, now cant wait for 4 weeks, very happy now and not even thinking of sticking pins into the voodoo doll i bought for the other gardener.....oops i mean landscape gardener lol

thanks to everyone

candy