Shoddy workmanship, ghosting, no-shows — there's a long list of problems associated with one South Island builder.
One customer, Bridgette McQuillan, was so fed up after her $10,000 deck had to be redone by another builder she started tracking down other disgruntled customers, encouraging them all to go to Fair Go.
In all, Fair Go spoke to six of the many people who felt let down by the builder. Jobs due to take a couple of weeks were taking nearly a year, products weren't ordered despite promises they were on their way, and communication was dismal, with calls and messages going unanswered even though jobs had barely been started.
Some customers, like Megan Walker – who'd paid about $3000 upfront for a new boundary fence – simply gave up.
"We said we're just going to have to cut our losses and move on," she said.
McQuillan managed to get back $2000 of the $10,000 she'd paid after threatening legal action. While it didn't cover all the repairs needed, it was a good start.
Tash Murray was left hanging after asking for her money back, so she took matters into her own hands. She set up an insulting Facebook page which seemed to do the trick as he finally gave her a refund.
Then there was his customer "Mary" in Cromwell, who didn't wish to be identified after feeling uncomfortable during her interactions with the builder. Mary wanted a garage conversion, but she said she was left with a job half-done and a legal dispute. She was owed $8500 two years ago, and despite getting confirmation in writing that the money was hers, she is still waiting.
It sounds like a clear-cut case: the builder has to be exposed so others can avoid him. But as he said himself, "there are two sides to every story".
Sadly, the builder's story is one involving mental health issues for the last few years. Confirmation from his doctor explains that he was on medication for some time.
While it doesn't excuse his workmanship and unprofessional behaviour, his doctor asked Fair Go to take his condition into account given concerns he is "on the border of a further major depressive episode". For this reason, Fair Go is not using his name or identifying his companies.
But this builder acts as a perfect reminder of the steps that should be taken when choosing a tradesperson. Once you have one — or a few — on your radar, it's vital to check out their reviews. This hadn't been done by the people in our story.
Yet if they'd looked on the No Cowboys website, for example, they'd have seen numerous ratings of 0% for the builder's last two companies.
Murray said she wished she had "done more research".
McQuillan added: "I've definitely learnt my lesson."
No Cowboys co-founder Bruce Lindsay said the company goes to great lengths to ensure the reviews can be trusted. It follows up on any duplicates, checks out any that buck the trend of other reviews and asks for evidence so it can give customers confidence in what they see. The site also allows businesses a visible right of reply, which the company often looks into by asking for supporting evidence. If it doesn't receive it, the tradesperson's rebuttal doesn't go up.
While the builder asked for his negative reviews to be taken off the site, they have remained visible as he didn't provide any evidence to prove they were incorrect.
Fair Go knows not naming the builder will disappoint the customers who feel let down but it believes addressing his failures will help him learn his lesson. We can confirm it's made a difference already. After raising the issue of the $8500 owed to Mary for two years, he's finally paid her back.
He's also agreed not to run his own direct-to-customers business again.
"I'm not doing it — honestly just can't do it. I'll just work for somebody else."
We got this commitment in writing. Hopefully that means customers won't need to be checking reviews for this particular person.
But review sites still stand as sound advice for any tradesperson.
"It's ultimate. You have to do it and not just on No Cowboys but across all reviews," Lindsay said.
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