Just over two years ago we contacted a carpenter cabinet maker who advertises in the English paper and on various English Forum sites as having 25 years experience to fit our kitchen we had made in the UK we also asked him to do various other work, one job to make an oven housing which he did at a cost of 800 euros, on delivery it looked very well made and we were pleased with it but within 12 months doors wouldn't shut, gaps appeared with very large splits running everywhere i eventually got him to come and have a look and he admitted it was literally falling apart and agreed to rectify the damage or make a complete new unit that's the last we have seen of him or our unit, never answering telephone calls or emails eventually after contacting the English paper in which he had a half page advert and write up in the October 2011 edition purporting to be from a very satisfied customer, a customer i might add i cannot trace and the paper admitting he wrote the article himself he did contact me, excuses ranging from his landlord had sold his workshop from under him to his wife having a baby various dates to return the unit have come and gone over the last 12 months our kitchen now is a shambles we are unable to finish the work we started left without a oven for 12 months what can i do, what course of action is open to me now
We are still having problems that need attention on our large renovations and we employed an architect, who is becoming just as difficult as the builder who did not finish the work in the first place.
I found it very interesting that the Connexion newspaper prints ads with a recommendation purporting to be from a satisfied customer without doing any checks. Caveat emptor!!!
I hope you are successful, you sound as though you are going about things as I would do myself.
Unfortunately, our architect is the son of our friends, although we are ging to dinner with them this evening and will mention it, yet again!!
Is there any chance we can see a picture of this oven housing??
Thanks Tracy never thought of the insurance mine that is he came and took the unit away some months ago bad mistake i think on my part as now no evidence we have exchanged email and phone call umteen promises all broken he has obviously done this before as he seems to know what he's doing as he pretends to be a carpenter perhaps an introduction to a piece of 4x2 may be benificial
It might be more helpful if you sent him a lettre recommende, listing the problems and and asking for his response in writing before you try anything else. It would be useful to have details of his insurance company as well.
Secondly, contact your legal assistance company if you have one - frequently attached to your house assurance and ask their advice. We have used ours and they were very good and didn't cost us anything.
That should keep you going for a while.
We have drawings plans and devis, eventually everyone will know his name i shall be knocking on his door posters around his village everyone in France will know who he is if the Connection will print my story as they printed his last October a half page about how wonderfull he is, there are more ways to kill a pig than batting it to death with a balloon
Do you have any paperwork from him? Devis, invoice and so on? If not, getting further forward looks unlikely.
That is the problem with advertising, there is a company in our area that advertises themselves 'as the most experienced property management company in our region. How they can legally claim that when they have only been going 5 years is anybody's guess. Plus, look them up on InfoGreffe and they are registered as 7430Z - Traduction et interprétation. Well, I suppose it is useful in translating to the artisans!
Think i'd be knocking on his door asking for my money back, it would probably cost you more and too much time to go through the right channels, i'd hound him into submission.