My new floor disaster: how I made every mistake in the book

I made every mistake possible when I bought a new floor. Don't do the same!

Personal finance journalists like me spend half our lives writing about scams and consumer rights, so you’d think we’d know how to avoid being ripped off. Well, I can’t speak for other journalists, but I have just made every mistake it is possible to make in one transaction, and I wanted to look at why I have been so naive.

A few months ago, we decided we wanted a new floor, plus someone to fit it. Not too difficult, you’d think; there are three flooring shops next door to each other in our small town alone. And this is where I became complacent.

The company

I was going to pay more than £1,000 for the job, so you'd think I would have carried out some checks on the company I hired. Normally I would read reviews online and check the company history, but this time I did not. This is because, of the three flooring shops, it looked the most professional and modern. I had more confidence in it because it presented well, and I was so busy looking up reviews for the type of tile we had purchased that I didn’t bother checking out the actual retailer.

It was, frankly, a stupid mistake. It turned out that this was the latest incarnation of a chain that has had repeated financial difficulties, only to relaunch under a new name.

The fitter

Mistake number two; I did not ask any questions about the fitter. I assumed he worked for the chain (he did not) and so when he showed up and said we needed additional materials, I handed over cash. He didn’t offer a receipt and, distracted by two small children with chicken pox, I didn’t ask for one. Mistake number three.

The fitter then said he couldn’t finish the job because his wife was in hospital. After that, he said he couldn’t finish the job because it was his father-in-law's funeral. Then he said he would be going on holiday for a week to comfort his wife, but would fit our floor on his return.

I am a compassionate soul and thought that seemed fair. But when he finally came back, only to go off for another three days because his wife had ‘broken down’ (his words), I started to wonder if it was even true. At this point we had been without a floor for three weeks, when the job was originally meant to take one day.

The materials

I obviously should have been more suspicious, but I still believed the fitter was working directly for the company we had bought the floor from. Actually, he had been hired by them and was buying the new materials elsewhere at a much higher price than it would have cost us from the original shop.

Blithely unaware of this, I was pleased when the fitter apologised profusely for the delay and said he would fit new bathroom floors as well for just the cost of the materials, as a goodwill gesture. This seemed pretty good, and I paid several hundred pounds over the phone to a supplies shop. I did not demand an itemised receipt.

Mistake number four.

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The job

Finally, after four weeks without a floor and considerably out of pocket, the fitter began to do the job.

Badly.

Really, really badly.

The tiles were chipped as he slammed them together; they were poorly glued down so they clicked as you walked; he had scratched a number of them with his knife but fitted them anyway. In some places he had daubed sealant to finish the job, leaving blobs and trails across the tiles. It was a mess and it jolted us out of our complacency.

After spending a small fortune and being messed around, we started to do things right.

Sorting it out

We banned the fitter from coming back to finish the job and complained to the retailer. They tried to wiggle out of it by not returning our calls and sending three different tradespeople to ‘inspect’ the fitted floor. They all agreed it was shockingly poor and needed to be refitted with new tiles.

Then, conscious this looked like it was heading for the small claims court, we began putting everything in writing. A letter to the shop outlining exactly what had happened and when, which they acknowledged had happened and was inadequate. A letter to the original fitter demanding he return the additional materials he had purchased on our behalf, which he thankfully agreed to do.

Finally, the retailer agreed to send out a different fitter to install a new floor at their expense. This time, we have demanded references before he sets foot in our home.

So what should I have done?

Reassured by a professional retail presence, saddened by a sob story, distracted by my sick children – I have made every mistake in the book. Short of giving them my bank card and PIN, it’s hard to see how I could have behaved more naively.

There are some very obvious mistakes I have made – not doing sufficient homework on the company, not checking who I was paying when I paid the fitter, not demanding receipts and itemised bills, and allowing the whole thing to drag on for weeks. However, while they may be painfully obvious mistakes it does highlight how easy it is to become complacent if a company appears professional.

So, what have I learned from this omnishambles?

Since our failed floor, it seems like everyone we know has said: “You should have asked me! I can recommend someone.”

Recommendations from people you trust are probably the safest way to choose tradespeople, especially if you can go and see the finished job.

Next time, if I can’t find a recommendation then I will take a look at Which? Local. For a small monthly subscription, you can view a list of 140,000 businesses that have been recommended by Which? members and then checked.

Another good place to check companies are meeting high standards is using the Government-endorsed TrustMark scheme. It’s a not-for-profit database of trusted tradespeople from across the UK. If a company displays the TrustMark logo then you know that the quality of work, technical understanding and financial status of the company have all been checked out.

Equally important, next time I will ask for a written quotation that includes the details of the job, the start and finish times, and the agreed terms and conditions. Not only that, but I will make it clear that I need itemised receipts for any further work or materials.

How do you find reliable tradespeople? Perhaps you are a tradesperson and want to share your views? Have your say using the comments below.

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