Forged quals, dangerous work!!! Long story but worth the read!

[D Skelton]

So about two months ago now, I got a call from a customer asking if I could do a few bits, "of course" I said. She asked for a rough price to change one pendant for two and install a new socket. I said roughly £100 depending on RCD, Bonding, blah blah blah... and we arranged a date (about a week later) for me to go and price for the work. A day before I'm due to go round the customer phones to say someone has been round and quoted and she doesn't need me any more. Fair enuff.

About a month after her first call, I get another call from the same customer asking if I could pop round and give her a quote to do a few bits. Bit strange I thought but I arranged a date and this time wasn't binned off the job the day before so I got to go round and meet her this time. I arrive to find two pendants in place of one and a new socket added. She explains that the plasterer that had been round to make good the terribly shoddy work of the previous spark had refused to plaster over the gaping hole in the ceiling with only a bare connector block where the old pendant lived feeding the two new pendants. The guy hadn't even bothered to wrap it in tape! Wow I thought, hats off to the plasterer for actually knowing and refusing to go over it.

Anyway, I said for £45 I'd stick in a maintenance free JB and bob's your uncle. We arranged a suitable time for me to go back round to do it and only then did she present me with what I could only call shocking work! She showed me the extra socket run in trunking and spurred from another, only the trunking came from the existing, stopped at a cupboard and came back out the other side to the new socket. Upon looking in the cupboard, The 2.5mm cable had been stretched across it like a banjo string!! Tight as anything, unsupported and just in the middle of the cupboard!

I said to her that there was no way on earth that the guy who has done this work is a qualified electrician! To which she replied "But he showed me his qualifications?!" as she showed me two pictures that he'd emailed to her of his quals, 2382 and 2391. Upon closer inspection however it was blatantly clear that they were forged! Just scanned in certs that he'd then used MS Paint to put on his details!!! The guy also claimed he was registered with Elecsa which upon further investigation turns out he's not registered with any of the scam schemes. I said to the customer that this guy should be reported not only for fraud by misrepresentation but also for carrying out notifiable works in a kitchen and not being registered and not a cert in sight! The customer was quite happy to do this and pretty much gave me free reign to do what I liked with regards to reporting this bloke.

The next day, I'm on the phone to LABC who have passed me on to trading standards. Apparently it has to go through TS before LABC deal with it? I phone TS and they appear to be very helpful and arranging a time for an officer to meet me at the premesis to assess the work and forged documents.

So a week or so later, I'm back at the house and am met by the customer and the TS bloke who has looked at the work and the dodgy quals, taken some photos and seems very eager to catch this guy! He made it very clear though that he would only be going after him for the fraud, and not the dodgy work as that was down to LABC. I fixed the dodgy work for the £45 as agreed, and as a good will gesture sorted out the banjo string cable in the cupboard as well. It turns out that the original bloke had charged her £45 to do the original work and was there for about 5 hours!!! I did make a point of saying to the customer that when you're only prepared to pay peanuts, you'll only get monkeys, to which she agreed.

The next day I'm back on the phone to LABC, tell them what's happening and am basicly met by the reply, "Although we are responsible for enforcement where dangerous work has taken place and/or work doesn't comply with the building regs, we don't actually carry out enforcement"!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I asked why and they just said "Because we just don't"!?!?!?!

Anyway, to bring this story to a close, the customer had contacted the original guy for a refund and been quite rudely refused. This I then sorted out for her by contacting the scamster directly telling him exactly what's what, reg for reg, law for law, word for word. The customer told me the next day by text that she woke up to £45 on her hallway floor! Problem 1 solved! However, what really riles and frustrates me about this whole episode isn't the scamster electrician, isn't the dangerous work, nor the forged quals. The thing that really makes me proper mad is the fact that LABC were about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike!!! No enforcement my a**!!!!

Why on earth are we paying such extortionate amounts of money to these scam schemes! These so called official and government approved bodies, when LABC won't bother with enforcement when people aren't even registered as required by the building act!!!!!! I gotta hand it to Trading Standards though as he was keen as mustard to catch this bloke and has promised to update me when he does

My main point though is that I'm so livid about this whole thing. Makes me seriously, and I mean 'seriously' consider giving up paying my scam scheme coz what's the point???? Nothings gonna happen to me if I'm not registered!!! Why bother?!?!?

 

[Silly Sausage]

I vaguely remember those days, think that's why I hate BT, the massive profiteering that was made from it, was it the 1st sell off, was Gas next? Something like, but you already own it anyway!

When's the Chinese bubble going to burst? If they haven't destroyed the planet with their pollution in the meantime.

 

[alarm man]

I can't say much about Thatchers government.

i'll remind you then..that bitch destroyed the manufacturing in this country,sold off all the national industries,destroyed the working man and his communities,the mines/yards/steelworks replaced with call centres,created towns full of kids with no hope and no future to satisfy the greed of her capatilist cronies which exsists as much in todays tory party as it ever did.and she did it out of spite...

 

[Guest55]

We won't on this topic either then!! lol!!

Seems that there is some short memories around when it comes to Maggie T!! Who under her management sold off almost all of the UK's public wealth, one area and industry after the other.

Er , no , completely incorrect.
Gordon Brown & Labour sold the UK's gold reserve and stripped all the private pensions , undermining our countrys' finacial independance.
Maggies privatising of various sectors created wealth that would have become stagnant under state ownership.

I can see the mods shutting down this thread in the very near future lol.

 

[thekingiam]

all i can say is i used to enjoy the free milk until thatcher stole it from me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! like taking sweets off a child!!

 

[Guest55]

Now you ARE talking TOSH!! lol!!

Well at least provide some sound economic reasoning to go with your wild opinion.

 

[alarm man]

Maggies privatising of various sectors created wealth that would have become stagnant under state ownership.

for who? the small few,nationalized industries were not there to make a profit,they were there to provide services for the people at a cost we could afford,they also created jobs,lots of them too,ever moan about the cost of untility bills,blame thatcher who gave these private co's a licence to print money

 

[Swicade]

I heard a rumour there's a secret society that do course's on being a politician.....once you get accepted 5 weeks later you get your Qualifications and once a year you get invited to a 'Renewal Teaparty' where you only have to hand over a substantial sum of money to stay part of the gang.

You can be a member of said gang for life.....as long as your not a day late paying your subs.

 

[telectrix]

Really dont want to read stuff like this!!

Iv done things the right way, well in my eyes anyway. Gone to college for XXXXXXX years, worked unsociable hours to get experience, gone without holidays or going out enjoying myself for three years to pay for my courses and save for setup costs. Studied and studied and studied to the point where my misses was close to dumping me. Got distinctions or very high pass marks in every exam iv taken from ECS,PAT,2330,2382,2392,2391.

Now iv paid £576 to join Napit, £187 for insurance, having to setup a mini office and everything tht goes with tht to look professional.

Plus im going to have to take on a few notifiable jobs at almost a loss once iv paid LABC £166 just so i can use them for my napit assessment.

Then i read this thread and others simular like this and im wondering tbh why should i bother!!

you should be able to do the assessment jobs, then notify through napit once accepted.

 

[trev]

There's a book called The Enemy Within. I'd recommend any politically minded member to read it, it details MTs rise to power and her agenda from cabinet meeting minutes where her ideas and intentions were discussed in detail.
I shall say no more but read the book then comment on whether you think she was so great for this country

 

[Silly Sausage]

Put the darling Mrs T aside!

One of the reasons manufacturing has gone from this country is because the so called 3rd world countries are catching up with 'The West'
They now have technology and knowledge what we used to do at a much cheaper cost (p ss poor wages etc, separate discussion)
We now have to keep that one step ahead with our genius British innovation.
Unfortunately our hi tech export doesn't match the garbage we import.

Quality British engineers working abroad doesn't really help matters...

 

[Dave 85]

Its all very well you lefties banging on about thatchers government but that was over 20 years ago. Do you guys really think the UK would be better off if labour had stayed in power, with their astronomical defecit, growing year on year leaving the taxpayer with interest payments that would eventually probably be greater than public spending?

Like I said, I can't speak for thatchers government but what Cameron is doing is mostly good, and for the good of the british economy and was the only obvious way forward. What Blair and Brown did, especially Brown towards the end, was purely done to win votes from the people who are, for a large part, deadweight, excess baggage in this country at the expense of the taxpayer.

Now one of you please tell me we would be better off still under Brown without mentioning MT....anyone....no...though not.

 

[trev]

You think it's better under Cameron?
What's needed is a sensible plan to reduce the defecit not just slash and burn plans like we have now. Do you think it's a good idea to slash everything incuding police, fire brigade and education budgets, or are the they all a bunch of deadweights too?

 

[alarm man]

Its all very well you lefties banging on about thatchers government but that was over 20 years ago. Do you guys really think the UK would be better off if labour had stayed in power, with their astronomical defecit, growing year on year leaving the taxpayer with interest payments that would eventually probably be greater than public spending?

Like I said, I can't speak for thatchers government but what Cameron is doing is mostly good, and for the good of the british economy and was the only obvious way forward. What Blair and Brown did, especially Brown towards the end, was purely done to win votes from the people who are, for a large part, deadweight, excess baggage in this country at the expense of the taxpayer.

Now one of you please tell me we would be better off still under Brown without mentioning MT....anyone....no...though not.

your a typical right wing rag beliver,its those scum taking all the benefits thats ruined the country,its me and you paying them to watch tele while we graft and pay our taxes..in short,as i coluld be typing for 20yr to get the point across,we have 2 types of people,those who cant,those who wont,the first could be those who cant because of a disability,or the fact there isnt any jobs,the second,they fall into the tory bracket to me as they share the same values,maximum profit from doing as little as possible on the backs of those who do,the later would have no place in a communist society anyway,everyone must contribute to society,those who take take be it the greedy bosses and the greedy individual who wont work and take what they are not entitled too are one and the same,thats a capatilist mentality not a communist/socialist one..you could try reading the works of marx or lenin to get a broader veiw instead of reading the sun..

 

[Guitarist]

Anyone who thinks that the MT empire was a good one obviously doesn't understand the term "asset stripping". It's very easy to make a Country rich and prosperous when you sell everything it owns. Not so good for the next generation 20 years down the line who finds that everything belongs to another Country who can charge you whatever they like in the name of profit.
I was a teenager during the 80's and we were told that you should become successful, whatever the cost.... Obviously, I took no notice

 

[Dave 85]

You think it's better under Cameron? Yes
What's needed is a sensible plan to reduce the defecit not just slash and burn plans like we have now. Do you think it's a good idea to slash everything incuding police, fire brigade and education budgets, Yes
or are the they all a bunch of deadweights too? No

There is no money for excessive public spending! We have no choice!