…get my goat.
Not the wild wild west type cowboy mind you. I mean the dodgy, no good, thievin’, shaft-your-ass-quicker-than-they’d-look-atchu type cowboys. The ones that ‘build’ your extensions, ‘pave’ your drives and basically try and rob you blind.
My parents have had a fair few encounters with these shifty characters but are gradually learning to be a lot less trusting and much less willing to part with their hard earned cash (dare I mention the ‘r’ word).
That said, living in an estate full of houses constantly been extended this way and that has not been easy on my house proud mother. She’s watched sombrely as our cosy semi-d has shrunk in between the ever growing masses. In an effort to spruce up the house a wee bit, and keep up with the Jones, she decided to get the drive done in that nice road stone that adorns 90% of the estate’s drives. The neighbours in the castle next door had just had theirs done and when the company in question approached our door for business, a deal was struck.
They started digging the drive two days ago, and all seemed well and good. Then yesterday afternoon, the mammy returned home from work to behold an array of discoloured, chipped and battered looking stones most definitely not in the pattern she had requested. In fact, no pattern at all really. Lovely.
This morning, she questioned one of the men who told her “that’s the way they come missus, there’s nothing we can do about it”. Ree-donkulous. She might as well have been talking to one of the stones themselves. After a call to the makers of said stones, she was informed that if any of the tiles were broken, the company could bring them back and replace them at no cost. This means that basically, our pavers were being lazy f*ckers and hoping that we wouldn’t notice that half the drive was in bits because they couldn’t be arsed getting new stones. And they had ignored the design request because that would require putting a bit of actual thought and effort in to the job.
I understand that it’s only a driveway – more people have had far worse things done to their houses, our own included, for a lot more money. But for someone to try to pull the wool over your eyes, when the shoddy results are blatant for all to see, annoys the bejaysus out of me. It’s insulting.
The BBC used to broadcast a programme where they used hidden cameras to nab numerous shady companies. Its name has completely sailed out of my head but I remember watching it with glee as the culprits finally got their comeuppance. It’s definitely something I’d like to see on Irish TV.
However, in times of the ‘r’ word, can they now afford to lose potential customers through bad word of mouth? When people are getting tighter on the purse strings, maybe hidden cameras won’t be needed in a business that relies hugely on customer recommendations. Optimistic much?
2 Comments so far
Leave a comment
AnneElicious 
‘shaft-your-ass-quicker-than-they’d-look-atchu’ – that’s exactly how I like my cowboys 😉
Comment by David July 31, 2008 @ 3:04 pmHa ha David!
Himself’s dad started doing cobblelocking a few years back but has so much work now with fixing up after cowboys that he hasn’t been able to take on a “brand new” project in ages, there’s zillions of shysters out and about.
Comment by Lynnie August 7, 2008 @ 1:13 pm