A Pointless Rant about Gutter Cleaners!

PPN2893

Two weeks back some random young fella knocked on my door asking if I wanted the gutters cleaned on the house. I figured it was a decent enough price so I went ahead but I was fairly suspicious of them. The older guy he was with (I assume his father?) seemed a bit... well, a bit of a confidence man is the polite way I'll put it. The mother seemed to know him from description and didn't have great things to say either.

He kept trying to push me to get the roof cleaned and treated as it's full of moss. It's a job I needed done but I wasn't really on board with it. Didn't know how stable the very old roof was, how much he would charge (his figures kept fluctuating when he was "quoting" prices) and if he was reputable at the job so I said I'd think about and come back and ask me about in a couple weeks. Didn't hear back from him so I figured he was fobbed off in the likely chance that I wouldn't be interested later.

There was a couple knocks at the door while I was in the shower earlier today but I wasn't thinking about this roof stuff as I hadn't heard back from them. Figured it was just abortion referendum people again. Until I heard a fecking ladder on the roof! Oh, not only a ladder on the roof. The ladder was in my back yard. They'd happily allowed themselves to hop over my locked 7 foot high side gate to start work. Knocked on my back door as I ran down stairs after getting dressed like it was no big deal that they'd basically trespassed. I guess their plan was to do the work and guilt me into paying later. Bitched them out of it before they started anything, thankfully.

I know it's partly my own fault for dealing with random workers but I'm absolutely livid and I wanted to rant about it! Sorry for those that couldn't care less or think it's my own fault. Definitely learned my lesson.

fargojones123

Should have just called the police

Max Powers

Con artists....how many older people did they get money out of.be sure to warn older parents, neighbors etc not to even engage in conversation with ar$eholes like this who call to door and definitely don't leave anyone into your house even if they seem like they are from council, ESB, Irish water, etc

mloc123

NEVER agree to get work done by people going door to door. Reputable businesses do not go door to door offering to do jobs.

PPN2893

Yeah, I'm never getting stuck in this sort of situation again. The younger fella gave a good quote for doing the shoots and they needed to be done since I promised a lone of a ladder from the father to do it for years now. Figured if he even half arsed the job, it'd still be worth it to get some of the weight off them. As soon as the older fella turned up later, I knew I'd f-ed up. All smiles and camaraderie but you could get a vibe off of him like he was a shark. With the cheek of 'em to hop over the side gate, I'm not leaving the house unattended for the next while. Will ask one of the folks or a friend to keep an eye on the place when I'm out.

Harry Palmr

These people are scum bags, trouble is someone who is genuine (maybe a slightly naive teenager trying to make a few bob at the weekend) will be looked upon badly cos of the reputation of thee scrounger/burglars

Deisegodeo

Bad situation, I wouldnt be letting those knock on the front door types anywhere near the house to be doing work.

You'd want to be very careful about who does work on your roof, fair enough a lad can clean or fix/replace gutters on a ladder, but insurance companies wont cover some lad going up on a roof walking around and working away. Only options really are a cherry picker to fix a few tiles, or scaffolding if you're getting the roof replaced. Cherry picker costs a few hundred per day, scaffolding will cost a few thousand for the job.