Have you ever had contractors into your home to handle a major repair or installation?

But what steps would you take if you considered their work to be below par?

Well this is exactly what happened to 63-year old, Paul Gibbons of Kingsclere, Hampshire.

He was so fed up with the quality of the renovation work to his kitchen carried out last February by Wickes, in Basingstoke, that he decided direct action was required.

It wasn’t cheap either, setting him back £25,000.

But what made things worse in his eyes was that Wickes wouldn’t even acknowledge or accept that anything was wrong.

So he took matters into his own hands and descended on their premises with a presumably, de-commissioned, tank adorned with a specially printed placard reading  – 

‘Warning Incompetent Complacent Kitchen Equipment Supplier,’ with each word set out top to bottom so as to spell out ‘WICKES’!

Mr Gibbons asserts that the finish throughout was terrible, and that half of the kitchen doesn’t fit properly and also says there is mould under the sink and that many of the drawers and doors can’t be closed.

As the tank occupied a number of spaces in the car park, Wickes at least apologised to other potential patrons trying to visit the store for any inconvenience the presence of the tank might be causing.

And it now seems that Mr Gibbons’ decision might be about to bear fruit as Wickes’ customer relations team are on the case and have arranged for an independent inspection of the kitchen to be carried out by The Furniture & Home Improvement Ombudsman to try to finally resolve the issue once and for all!

Later on today’s show I was joined by Margaret Mills who took us to look at what’s left of Great Myles House in Kelvedon Hatch.

The answer is “not a lot” since one of the owners demanded that the house be demolished, although no one seems to know why.

Anyway you can listen here to what Margaret managed to unearth about this one time, no doubt, imposing house: –

See you once again next week,
Scott