celluglobe guttering

Sam Vimes

just wanted to warn people about a bunch of scam artists doing guttering around dublin and probably further afield. they knocked on the door of my girlfriend's parents house about a month ago and asked her mother if she wanted the guttering done.

she said she wasn't interested but they insisted it'd only take a few minutes for a quote. they took a look and said it'd cost 1500 but then it increased to 2000 when they saw that they had an "extension" out the back. they'd done the guttering on four other houses on the road in the past few weeks and they all had that "extension" because that's how the houses are built so they knew well it was there when they quoted 1500. they said that they were only in the area for another day and they'd cut her a "deal" of 1900. the promises they made included:

1. they'd clean everything up and leave everything looking perfect

2. they were using special guttering that was lasered in some way

3. there was a ten year guarantee and for the first three years they'd come out and make sure they were happy with everything

4. they'd put a special cover on the sky cable to make it match the new guttering

they'd been meaning to get it done and the fact that the company had done other houses on the road made them seem reliable so she told them to go ahead.

firstly, the guy had his polish workers up on the roof in 100Km winds with no safety equipment. the cable for the sky dish used to be tucked neatly under the old guttering and now its flung across the roof. they knocked the dish out of alignment too and my gf's family had to pay €65 to have it fixed by an independent contractor because sky would have taken over a week.

when the work was nearly done, the manager came in and said there was a problem with some felt on the roof and it'd cost an extra €450. she refused to pay it. they said this to all the other people on the road. she then stupidly paid the agreed on €1900.


after a while, the family realised they were gone, leaving a van and a pile of guttering in the front garden and a huge mess of screws and nuts and bolts etc along with a ladder in the back garden. my gf's mother had to call the manager three times to get him to send the lads out to get rid of it. he kept saying he couldn't get hold of the workers because all their phones were off and they'd be out in the morning at 6:30. she eventually had to say that their van might not be there in the morning if they didn't come out that night.

two polish lads showed up, most likely with the intention of just taking the van until my gf's dad went out and supervised them taking the pile of guttering.

the family has a dog and could have choked on the screws they left in the back garden. she's bringing in screws she finds on the ground to this day.

the most valuable thing they got out of it is the ladder that they never took. a month later, the guttering is leaking in all five houses.

the company also goes under the name pat's roofing. you should probably avoid them

parsi

Consumer advocates often advise that folk don't hire tradespeople who come to the door on spec or who have turned up because "they noticed" something wrong.

Your GF's family experience shows how true this is.

What's worse is that these scammers are fairly untouchable - no company reg, probably no revenue reg etc.

Alun

There was a bunch of PVC guttering / soffit guys around our area (Bray) a few months back, and it seemed like every other day someone new in our estate succumbed to their sales technique. I guess they probably did 7 or 8 houses in the end. They too were using Polish guys to do all the real work as well, and it was lashing with rain and blowing a storm too while they were doing it.

I'm not sure of the name, but Celluglobe sounds vaguely familiar. There was only one marked van, and two or three unmarked ones that the Poles seemed to arrive in.

I didn't see the work done on the houses concerned myself, but our neighbours got them in for a quick nixer to do a small job on their guttering .. putting in an extra downpipe on one corner of their bungalow where water was building up. Well, I've never seen such an out and out botch job in my life .. a PVC downpipe glued onto an aluminium gutter with half a tube of silicone sealant and a couple of screws, and just a few holes drilled in the bottom of the guttering to let the water out. Hopeless.

mauricecroft

I just wish I'd have read your note before they called

They are currently in Limerick, lookout for a guy called Patrick (who has a withered arm) and his gang of idiots. All of whom will look into your eye and swear blind that they are doing a great job.

Poor old Pavel was doing all of the work but it was the guvnor that was giving him all of the bad advice. I should have recognised the metal cutters that he was using; I discovered later that all of the drainage holes had been made with the same tool like some polygonal tear into madness.
I was able to repair the damage that they did to our facia and new gutter (by dropping the whole length - at one end - by 4 inches, so that the water flowed toward the downpipe rather than gather up into a green pond), the damaged drive from the dripping gutter and I can probably bare being stiffed out of a grand. But the feeling of utter foolishness that I could fall there patter.

Boy do I feel gullible. I'm carrying my tin-snips around incase I meet them again.

Arghh.

Sam Vimes

this thread is now the first result on google for celluglobe so hopefully anyone who does some basic research on the company won't get scammed

Gareth37

on tv tonight, rte 1 just there now

mollydolly271

just saw these guys on rte now another name they go by is pats roofing so watch out!:mad: