Name: Grey Army
Telephone: 063563377
Rating: 0

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"This company bills themselves as craftsmen, but my experience of them was far from that. I chose the Grey Army as the whole idea was that the job would be supervised by a foreman, meaning that once I had specified what I wanted it would be controlled and managed, and I would have little to worry about. This is certainly how the foreman sold it to me in our original meeting. In reality this has been more stressful than buying the house was originally. As a company they were difficult to deal… with, and it was more than difficult to get costings/budget/invoice from them, it was impossible, and as such meant that I could not control the spend. At no time during the build did the foreman sit down with me and discuss where we were up to with the budget, or time frame.

I received the quote, which included an addendum at the top stating that bathroom fixtures, French Doors and painting would be additional. The foreman stated that if I were to find the fixtures that I wanted and give him a list, he would cost it up to see if he could get them at trade prices, and he also said that the build would take about three weeks, with a few days disruption when we would be showerless, which we were prepared to get through.

Before the renovation started I found some French Doors from the building recycler and purchased them. I also e-mailed the foreman a list of the fixtures, including tapwear, that I wanted for the house. The next thing I knew I was being berated for not having the fixtures on site. I was asked where they were and that they needed them onsite in the next few days. Bearing in mind I was still waiting to hear whether they could be bought by Grey Army, at trade, I was a little surprised, but I used my day off to purchase the fixtures, and we borrowed a truck in order to get them home. And then they weren't used for two weeks.

This was the stage at which I was asked to pay a third of the invoice, which included the fixtures and the doors. Obviously the foreman hadn't told anyone that I had purchased these myself. I e-mailed back to say that I had paid the amount requested, but that it was wrong, as the costs for the doors and fixtures had been included when I had purchased those myself. The next morning I got a call from the foreman, asking me in a very slow voice, that I did understand didn't I, that prices change and I had just had a quote, not an invoice? I was incredibly insulted as he had modulated his voice as though he was speaking to a child. I asked whether he had actually seen the invoice that had been sent through, he said no, and I suggested that it might be a good idea for him to have had a look before he called, as it included the doors and fixtures I had already paid for. All I got was an "Oh OK".

We fixed a date of 1 August for the job to start, although I was told that it could be a day or two either side. As such, when the demolition guy called to confirm the 1 Aug start and I mentioned that I was actually on my day off on the 31st July, I wasn't surprised when he said that he could start on that day instead.

On the day he arrived, he introduced himself and he was a nice guy. He got right on and started demo. At some point he needed the electrics turning off in order to safely remove some walling, so called the office and asked for an electrician to be sent out. The next thing I knew the foreman had arrived on site and was loudly berating the demo guy for all to hear. I was extremely unimpressed with his professionalism, and his treatment of a co-worker. I am fairly certain that he was unaware that I was in the lounge and could hear everything, but to be honest that is beside the point. If my boss treated me that way I would be lodging a personal grievance! The issue seemed to be that the guy shouldn't have started until 1 August, but that would be an issue with the managerial style if he hadn't told the guy that the day was set in stone. It has since been confirmed, in our last solo meeting, that the reason for this was that they were 'playing for time' (his words) at the beginning as they weren't organised, and wanted to start later, not earlier. This had the knock on effect that caused everything to be delayed. They had had over a month to get everything in place from booking them to starting.

After two days demo the guy finished on the Thursday, cleaned up after himself and left. Nobody turned up on the Friday. This left us without a shower over the weekend, but going on previous statements, I thought that it would all be sorted by Wednesday at the latest, a week without a shower. On Monday we had a delivery of wood, other than that, no work was done whatsoever. On the Tuesday two guys turned up, but then Paul arrived and sent one away (quite rudely) to another job. On several days in the first two weeks workers turned up late and left early, or didn't turn up at all. During this time I had no communication with the foreman as to what was happening. I was never offered a time frame and from one day to the next I didn't know who would turn up to do what.

I repeatedly asked for a timeline of when things would be finished, predominantly the shower, as we were now approaching 2 weeks without one. Realistically it should have taken no more than a week, as no problems came up and no unexpected work had to be done, and it should have been a priority. It took me calling the office and getting the owner onsite to get a promise that it would be done by that Wednesday (which it wasn't, it was Thursday), in order to get it finished at all.

In the last weeks I was told that the plasterer would be in on the Saturday. No one arrived, and no one saw fit to tell me what was going on. I e-mailed the office on Monday asking what was happening and for a final finish date. I heard nothing. Then I learned that the foreman was on leave. I hadn't been told officially, I heard it from a builder when I asked where he was. The work that was done during this time later had to be replaced and redone as it was incorrect, at the cost of several extra days renovation. On Thursday, with still no plastering done, I asked again where the plasterer was and eventually the owner turned up, and sorted everything out, bringing in the plasterer and an additional builder. During this week when the workmen were unsupervised, those that did turn up were constantly asking me what they were supposed to do next, or what materials I wanted to use etc etc. When the foreman returned to work he expressed surprise that the job wasn't yet finished, saying "I thought that this would be finished last week". So that was pretty much another wasted week.

Then the toilet stopped flushing and when I opened the cistern I found that a piece of wood had been inserted on the flush mechanism as it hadn't been fitted properly, in order to make it work. Then the painter knocked the shower door off centre. Each time I called with these concerns I was brushed off and made to feel as though it wasn't an issue as "these things happen". I know that things happen, but the response each time was pretty bad.

At this point the relationship completely broke down, and whilst they offered to fix everything that was wrong (that I had already paid for) I was offered no apology and no compensation and, to be honest I no longer trusted that they could complete the job to any standard, so I asked them to leave

Upon them leaving my garden area was left a mess. Disused takeaway coffee cups, wood offcuts and nails, old cladding and building paper, rubbish everywhere. It took a day of work just to tidy up, and they didn't come and pick up the last of their wood until over 2 weeks later.

I would most certainly never use them again and never recommend them. As far as my build was concerned they definitely weren't craftsmen, and it will take me a significant amount of money to rectify the mistakes that they made."
Rating by: Becky | Rating posted: 5th May, 2014 | Contact: Paul- Foreman | Job date: Aug, 2013
Communication: 0% | Quality: 0% | Reliability: 0% | Value: 0%
Becky•5th May, 2014•More details…

Grey Army / Maintenance & Repair / Renovation

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