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Aka The DEO Fulham Plumbers
Monday morning: Company was contacted regarding a blocked toilet. An "engineer" came around and spent less than 5 minutes working on the blockage. He said it had been fixed and gave me his phone to speak to the company's operator. Given the short time he spent working on the problem, and reluctance to answer any of my questions, I asked whether they offered any guarantee that the job was performed properly and that the problem was fixed, whereby the operator told me that the "engineer" claimed the problem was fixed, however should the problem persist in a few days I could of course call them up and they could send someone back.
Thursday Morning: Called company up and told them that after Monday's visit the toilet was still blocked. They told me they could send someone again but at no point did they advice or suggest that this would be a chargeable service or provide any quote for a second visit. The same "engineer" came and spent another few minutes unblocking the toilet. After this visit, they made another charge of the same amount to my card, which they must have had on file, without my authorisation. The "engineer" claimed that the blockage he had now looked at was completely unrelated to the problem on Monday and therefore this was not a matter or rectifying an incomplete service, to which we of course disagreed, especially based on the conversations I had had with the operator, both on Monday after the first visit and on the phone to book the second visit.
After numerous calls and emails, the company, whilst claiming to have a record of all conversations, refuses to provide me with a confirmation of what exactly was said on the phone which could explain the source of any misunderstanding by either party. I as a customer was clearly mislead by their representative and the company made an unauthorsied charge to my account. This is unacceptable. On top of this, they have been extremely rude and unprofessional to deal with and I would advice anyone to stay away from using their services.
Company operates as "the DEO Fulham Plumbers" however they are not based in Fulham but in Kent, operating with what appears to be a fake Fulham address on Google, which is another way of misleading customers.
We have had a similar experience with our boiler repair. Same company but trading under a different name (not Fulham though!) Office manager has a brain the size of a peanut and I just keep going around in circles with her. She ignores all the points I have raised, unauthorised use of card, warranty repair, additional works unauthorised, no invoices, no warranties etc. I suggest you contact Citizens Advice. They have been really helpful. We are now making a claim to recover all of our money (£1, 000 ). They also refer to Trading Standards as a matter of course; if there are enough complaints, trading standards will investigate!
Annoyingly I've just had a similar experience with the same company advertising as willesden plumber. 'This is my email to their customer service department'
I recently booked a boiler service through your company. The service was booked on Thursday the 21st September with Danny. Very helpful and efficient and booked the service in for the following day between 10am and 11am. He quoted £89 +VAT for the service.
On the day no one had turned up by 11am so i called and was told by Tara that she would find out where he was and call back. An hour later with no call I called again and was told he would be there shortly. When he arrived he said it would take about an hour to service the boiler. After about 15 minutes he said he couldn't do it and had to leave. Unfortunately due the language barrier I was unable to establish why he couldn't do it. I then spoke to Tara who said it was because he couldn't pressurise the boiler as the valve was broken. I explained that I was able to pressurise it which I did and the engineer returned later in the afternoon to complete the service. Approximately 20 minutes later he left and provided a gas safety certificate. I have worked in the property industry for 17 years and am very familiar with the different services provided. I didn't request a gas safety certificate and it takes a lot longer than 20 minutes to properly service a boiler.
I was then told by the office that i would have to pay £99+vat as Danny was new and had made a mistake. This is not my fault therefore I should have been charged what I was quoted. I then said despite Danny's mistake I should have been given a 10% discount as a new customer as advertised on your website. I was told I would be entitled to this I I didn't ask for it when I made the booking!
Similar story I'm afraid. They spent 10mins unblocking my toilet unsuccessfully and charged around £120 for the service. Disgusting they get away with it!
Reported to trading standards.
Another one here.
I initially contacted them as I believed they were based very close to me, therefore, I booked an appointment for between 7 and 8 PM to improve flow in taps. Only later did I find that their "local" website name was totally misleading. The plumber eventually turned up at 9.45, with no apology for his lateness. Numerous times I had to call their office, though I only got through twice. Not once did anyone take the proactive option and call me to keep me updated.
Once the plumber arrived, he didn’t know why he had been booked and didn’t seem very interested. By the time he had left, he had slightly improved one bathroom tap slightly, but made the kitchen tap much worse. His advice was that I needed my entire boiler replaced, with a lot of disruption and mess (it would have involved removing kitchen tops), not to mention cost running into the thousands, which I don’t have.
I was then informed that I would be called by them and advised of the next step. But the next I knew was when I checked my emails to find that they had already gone and charged my credit card without contacting me. I found this totally discourteous and dangerous, especially when they made an error first time and had to void the transaction.
I still had no flow, so had to contact another local (and cheaper) plumber, who was courteous, helpful and happy to put himself out. He instantly diagnosed the issue as just needing to replace the kitchen taps, which the first plumber said would not really help, I now have excellent flow from both kitchen taps, At no stage was it suggested I need expensive work to remove the boiler.
I was charged £130 for 2 minutes work which did not solve the main problem and had to pay another plumber to actually do the job. He charged pretty much the same for 2 hours hard work.
All in all, I found the entire episode highly unprofessional and unacceptable.
Hi David. I’ve just had exactly the same issue with them. They are a nightmare! Completely terrible! I urge you to do as I did and fill in th eonline form to report them Trading Standards. Also, I called my bank and got the charges reversed as them taking payments without your authorisation is ILLEGAL. Hope these people get their comeuppance
Hi James. Thanks for taking the time to reply. The firm said that my instructing them in the first place amounted to my accepting their fees and giving them authorisation to deduct the charge without further contact.
Hi David, that’s what they told me too. It’s not legal at all for businesses to be allowed to do this and is COMPLETELY wrong! A company should do the work then invoice after and then you will be expected to pay within a certain period of time. I urge you to call your bank’s fraud team and report the unauthorised payments and report them to the trading standards. I am calling gas safe and Corgi today to report them also. Regards James
I am currently involved in trying to extract an erroneous charge from this company as well. Work was (not) done 6th June. Citizens Advice have told me that under Common Law they are in breach of contract if they do not provide an invoice detailing the work that was 'done' before they charge you. I was not advised nor contacted before they charged my credit card and have never been sent an invoice or a receipt. I am pursuing them on this basis. Regards, Violet
Good luck Violet. I am so annoyed with these people. I got in a proper MegaFlo engineer in last week and he said that the work that this plumber had done was diabolical! This terrible company needs to be stopped. Please report this company to trading standards. Thanks
Hi guys! My experience was that as the company trades under different 'umbrella' names, trading standards weren't interested as not enough complaints were accumulating against their trading names... lots of different companies in different areas. I spoke to someone at the information commissioners office re use of our card without authorisation and they agreed that it was in breach of the data protection act but the most they would do was slap them on the wrist and advise them on how they should proceed in future! All of my research into consumer law clearly showed that they were/are acting illegally but there was no organisation that you could go to to take action against them without incurring additional costs! My credit card provider was not interested in taking action for use of the card without permission either, but I eventually made a claim under Section 75 for the second visit that they made (approx £940!). Initially they refused it but I took it to the financial ombudsman and they finally paid out ... took about 6 months though! The other problem is making contact with the head office .. even my credit card provider made several attempts to contact them but got no response. I would be interested to learn if you have any joy with gas safe and corgi. Please keep us updated :)
Hi, sorry to hear you had a similar situation. These people are terrible! I now have a genuine Megaflo engineer coming out to fix the mess the incompetent engineer from this company did - he put very cheap, flimsy thermostats on?! What an idiot - not that it matters as I’m sure they will ignore it but I’ll send the company an email with a report outlining the damage he caused.
When it comes to reporting them - the company is only: “property improvement and maintenance services Ltd” - all the other names they mislead and go by are only website names and not trading or company names - they just create these websites to mislead you into thinking they are a local and friendly service.
The registered company offices are Hackney so all complaints could go to Hackney Trading Standards.
This company is an absolute rip off and should be avoided entirely, they lie and take your money prior to works.
Had an engineer from the look at a job I did personally, but there was a slight problem, but due to personal reasons I was unable to attend. They attended and tried to divert the client into spending nearly £900, to rectify a tiny leak that took me 15 minutes to rectify today. They charged £89+vat to attend but never even looked for the leak. THEY ARE AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE AND WHEN CALLED JUST LIED AND LIED. PLEASE BE AWARE.
STEVE (SOSRESPONSE)
I have had the same problem with this company. Came to fix a dishwasher, quoted £89 plus VAT but charged £155 without reference to me and the dishwasher doesn't work. They obviously have many umbrella companies they operate under so that it is impossible to give them a bad review on Trust Pilot. I tried several names they use (Hackney plumbers, A1 plumbers etc) but Trust Pilot has no record of them. They are deliberately flying under the radar because they know they employ bad practice. I don't know what us gullible members of the public can do about this but any victim with more savvy than me should find out the names of the directors and take action. They have so many websites that they make it much more difficult to find a reputable plumber. Really shocked and annoyed. They still haven't sent me an invoice which I believe from the previous threads is illegal.
Actually, you search for "[protected]" (mind the inverted comas), and there are tens of websites with this exact phone numbers that show up...
Hi all,
We are in a similar boat. Really thought we were supporting a local company (Feltham and Hanworth Plumbers Ltd), the ad even had a picture of a shop local to us- but we ended up getting a plumber from Hertfordshire.
The plumber was sent with the wrong information about the job, so spent the first hour outsourcing materials.
Overall, they have charged £350 for a job in their words they said would take less than an hour. I’ve received no invoice and no report as I requested.
The first sales guy you get put through to was great- but don’t be fooled- this is a poor company. They pay the Plumbers they get £25 an hour to do the work and then charge you £118 an hour!
Stay away, stay well away!
Guys,
i recommend we add as many business names as they have on yelp and give them all 1* review there as well.
See mine on https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/northwood-plumbers-northwood
and here
https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/north-harrow-plumbers-no-title
https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/pinner-plumbers-no-title
yup ripped us off too.
to be honest, the plumber and service from them was fair but the overall cost for the job and the materials, which in this case was about £70 but really only should have been about £20.
The phone operator at bill time said that is what the plumber said it was but I have a feeling they charge what they like because at that time they got you by the balls.
ultimately the job was done and well but probably should have paid 1/2 that. to be fair, i called at 10 and job was done by 2pm.
This company also attended our property to repair a broken boiler- £310! under "clapham plumbers". It is still is not working, and at the end they said, they would power flush. I declined. Their invoice said nothing but - engineer attended 2.5 hours ar £130.00 per hour. They sounded professional on phone.but please, please do not employ them.
I am very angry.
This company go through many names. Property Improvement and Maintenance Services was on our invoice but we booked through Knights Heating and Plumbing Services. We called on the morning of 23/12 and an engineer was to arrive after 1:00 pm. that same day... all seemed professional and good at this stage.
However we were extremely disappointed with the shocking level of service we received during the visit. The engineer, Peter, quickly assessed the boiler and determined that the only issue desipte all warning lightson the boiler, it not firing up, not reseting and not working at all was due to a lack of gas supply to our property. He showed me the supply to the meter which read 19 for a short time before the reading changed and stayed at 22. He informed me that the boiler was fine but the gas supply was the only issue. He therefore called National Grid, turned off the boiler and the gas meter and left. Explaining that national grid would be with me within 2 hours to resolve the issue. As he was leaving I realised I had no reference number or phone number to call the National Grid, I asked him for these, the engineer directed me to call you to call the office to get these as he could not give them to me. I called the office to seek a reference number or phone number to contact national grid. When I called I was told that they did not have these and I should call national grid but they could not give me the number for them either!
National grid arrived, checked the feed to the meter. The supply to the meter was 25 (the correct pressure) when the boiler was turned off and 22 when the boiler was switched on. They therefore turned the boiler back on. However, within minutes of the boiler being turned on the same error lights appeared as before, the boiler turned off and we were left with no hot water or heating. Therefore the work undertaken by the engineer was wrong, misleading and clearly inaccurate!
The following day an engineer from another company arrived and assessed the boiler, they immediately stitched it off as it was unsafe and gases were leaking from within the boiler. In addition to multiple other issues that they immediately found wrong with the boiler. There was wiring that had burnt out and a unit had also overheated to such an extend that it had melted all of these were stopping the boiler from working and causing dangerous gases to leak out from different parts of the boiler. These mass of issues could not have occurred after the other engineer visited, I am appalled that none of these diagnosed? The second engineer immediately turned off our boiler as it was unsafe to use. We were therefore left with no hot water or heating over the Christmas period!
Below are the photos of some of the parts that were replaced within the boiler. I also have the reports from the second engineer that detail what was required to resolve a multiple of issues that were wrong with the boiler. I am angry and dismayed that the engineer left us
* firstly with no heating or hot water,
* secondly failed to diagnose any issues with the boiler,
* thirdly left us with an unsafe boiler that had gas leaking,
I would have serious concerns about the engineer working on any other persons boilers following our shocking experience.
To date the company have not come back to me to discuss the matter, it has supposedly been referred to the managing director. They cannot however give me the name, phone number or address of the Managing Director!
Hoping this thread is still being looked at. I have also been scammed by PROPERTY IMPROVEMENT & MAINTENANCE SERVICES LTD.
I contacted walthamstowplummers.com but as others have found out, this company use multiple sites under the guise of local tradesmen as a front.
My story is similar. I wanted my dishwasher fixed. They charged me well over the amount of a new machine (no reputable company would do this). They took money without my authorisation (i'm disputing this). They said the job would 30 mins (the person was there for 3 hours) and the machine broke again less than 2 weeks later. The 'guarantee', which is conditional on the assessment of persons incapable of making the repairs in the first place is not acceptable. Indeed, the telephone operative i spoke to, when challenged on the flawed logic of a guarantee that is conditional on the original plumber would admitting his work is substandard, told me that they were 'very honest'.
PROPERTY IMPROVEMENT & MAINTENANCE SERVICES LTD is a scam organisation, avoid at all costs.
Their registered office is 86-90 Paul Street, 3rd Floor, London, England, EC2A 4NE and the director is listed as MAZUREK, Marcin Lukasz
I have contacted them on the website contact and polbuilduk@yahoo.co.uk which was on the receipt. They have obviously not responded so if anyone has had any joy with an email please share it here.
Given that the registered offices is in Hackney i advise anyone who has had issues raise a complaint with Hackney Trading Standards as all the local websites are a front.
And yes another mug, me, scammed.
This time they are masquerading as Vin Hol plumbers in Hackney. I report my fault accurately, they take my credit card details send round competent repairman but fail to tell him what the fault is. In twenty minutes he diagnoses the exact one I reported. Washing machine opened ready for repair. He has no spares for it. They were on the phone for payment before he got the van started and he sensibly left.
I refused payment until the job was booked and done, they took it anyway.
Their website is false advertising, “No fix no fee” “No call out charge” “Free quotation” if they are going to charge an hours labour to send a man who cannot make the fix because he has no parts that’s just a call out. If the result of 20 minutes work is repeating back to me the very fault I asked to be fixed it’s not even a quotation, no idea what the parts would cost.
The huge scam is it guarantees that sending out an empty van first call means the minimum charge for any job from 1 minute upwards is 2 hours at the initial labour cost of £94:80, undoubtedly the highest rate I saw in Hackney and certain to be justified in covering the travelling time to compensate for the lack of call out charge.
Already reported them to Trading Standards and will pursue them.
I too have used this company for shower installation which was installed so poorly it has caused a leak and damage to flat below. I had a first visit to see the issue at had. That cost me £106 to just say yes the old shower could be changed. I then had to arrange another date for them to install a new shower mixer. The plumber turned up and installed new shower mix but it would not work with the existing shower pipe to the shower head. he then attached the shower hose to the existing shower head. However he left this shower head at an odd angle to which I said that looks precarious. He said he would repair this and promptly left. I waited for his to return, he didn't. However I then received a call from their head office saying he had finished the job job and they had taken, without my authority £177. I explained this was not satisfactory at all as the shower was not working properly. I explained I was waiting for him to return and repair the damage he had caused to the shower head. Thye said they would call back once they had ascertained the issue. I then went to clean the bathroom and the shower head completely fell off the wall and left a shower not working and now a damaged wall. They then sent another plumber around two days later who agreed it was the wrong shower mixer for the pipe and they would come back next week and fix the issue. Three days later I realised we had a leak behind the wall which was leaking down the pipe onto the bathroom floor under the bath and had caused damage to the ceiling. I called them immediately to notify them I needed an emergent plumber to attend, it was 6.30pm. The could not send anyone till Monday which was not helpful. I had to call another plumber to fix the issue at a cost of £270. The plumbers satted the shower mixer had been installed incorrectly using the wrong fittings, apparently school boy error. I emailed ROPERTY IMPROVEMENT & MAINTENANCE SERVICES LTD to notify them of the extra cost and explain I was seeking reimbursement for the cost of thir shoddy workmanship. They simply stated they would not pay for the emergency plumber and would not repay the costs involved to date. A total sham company
DO NOT USE THEM
Stay away! I had hot water coming from the shower, which was not mixing with the cold. I was told it was the taps which I replaced. I still have the problem. The engineer was suppose to attend Sunday and cancelled an hour before the job. He was suppose to come today and cancelled because he was stuck on a job. These people are cowboys and unreliable. I will be taking it to trading standards
it gets better I was told the issue is my boiler, which is incorrect because it's not happening anywhere else and Ideal boiler confirmed it's not the boiler. Then he said it was the water tank. I called three plumbers and over the phone they said it sounds like the thermostatic valve because the taps of the unit is fine, it's just the shower. I think I'm now qualified to be a plumber, I actually know more than the people who work at this company.
In order to obtain a refund, I had to allow the company a second visit to rectify the problem (free of charge) for more than an hour, all the engineer done was open and closed the taps and feel the boiler. He then said it was the boiler and said if I remove the shower head the water will mix fine. I went upstairs to test his theory and he was wrong. I came downstairs to pull him up and he ran out the house and said he has to go. I complained to the company and the lady said it was the boiler and she has deducted £130 from my card. I contacted my bank to block the unauthorised payment under Section 75.
I've also sent an email and letter to the company request a report of their diagnose, troubleshooting steps, full refund for the work and my money back for the new taps which I didn't need and what they perceived the issue to be. I've not received a response to date. I've called out a local plumber who fixed the issue in under 2 hours, he sent me an invoice and detailed report of the issue. He also charged me half the price.
The name they went by in Tottenham, was Plumbing 4 U
I have reported them today to the Hackney Trading Standards dept. Please also contact them to notify them of your issue
Unfortunately these guys are still getting away with it. I'm in South Woodford (E18), they called themselves CB Plumbers. Shockingly bad service, took over £300 and didn't fix the problem.
report to trading standards and citizens advice bureau to raise visibility. If everyone does, they will soon get caught out. That's fraud in a sense
I have notified trading standards, really hope they do something about this company soon.
shame we can't all take them to court and let the judge decide
Hi- we had the same problem with this company yesterday! Needed an emergency plumber as had a leak in the airing cupboard, rang at 9.50am and they said they’d be there between 12-1. I turned the water off and told them I also had a baby in the house so needed the water back on as soon as possible. The guy turned up at 5pm. Every time I called back they told me he was an hour away! I asked how could be when I booked this local plumber from Wallington ! They said he was coming from SE2! Been charged over £100 for him to turn off a switch. He was in my house about 6 minutes. We’ve rang another (actual local) plumber who is fitting a new power shower pump tonight. When my partner spoke to them on the phone today they were really rude and defensive and hung the phone up on him!
I'm horrified to read this thread - this company are STILL operating fraudulently. They were advertising online that they could replace Velux Windows (under another company name 'Townforce', claiming to be a company local to us.) I received a quote for £1030 +VAT and sadly gave them my bank details to confirm the booking and pay the first 50%.
An 'engineer' came to measure up and returned weeks later with a colleague. To my horror, when they left they had completed the WRONG JOB; they had crudely replaced the glass on two windows instead of replacing the entire unit as requested and paid for. The cost for replacing glass should have only been circa £300; we were expecting two new windows!
They took the second 50% the same day, without my consent.
The Head Office staff who had been delightful when I was making the original booking, have been horrendous to deal with. They are clearly scam artists who work in a calculated manner to con people. I believe they even take delight in it.
They claim to have recorded calls between us but refuse to share the recording. They will provide a 'script' of the calls for an extra cost, but of course we don't trust their scripting of the calls would be accurate and truthful.
We have reported them to our bank's Retail Dispute Department, Trading Standards and the ICO for their breach of GDPR and Data Protection Act. We have sent them a Letter of Deadlock before we proceed with the Financial Obudsman.
How this company are still operating is beyond me?! But as someone has previously said, they work under so many different company names they're able to get away with it.
They simply can't continue to get away with it. We'll be doing everything we can to fight them and raise awareness of their fraudulent trading.
We have had many complaints from customers regarding their misuse of debit and credit cards taking money without authorisation. The majority of cases the work has been substandard carried out by totally incompetent Polish workers who often can’t speak English. We are a card fraud prevention company and following our investigations there have been many complaints about this company to trading standards and the Advertising Standards Agency.
We have been scammed by them. Thought they were local and 'no call out charge'. 5.5 hours and didn't fix our blocked sink. we have a one bed flat in a building.. their follow-up report also was not satisfactory or what they had told us in person. Following check-a-trade plumbers said this is not right and should be capped at 1/2 hours if you know you cant fix the problems. the u-bend change was shoddy and the snake the initial plumber used would have hardly done anything. they are ignoring our emails. currently in the process of citizens advice / trading standards - we are seeking £800. You must send them correspondence with a form of receipt, with consumer rights act terms included. forgot to add read receipt to email, will have to send again. Hopefully, collectively we can stop this happening to others now.