Originally contacted to replace some broken guttering on the roof of my worryingly tall house, I had to call Jackson Roofing on the Bank Holiday Sunday just gone - très gauche, I know – after a neighbour across the road pointed out that a slate on my new shiny roof had become dislodged and was inches away from ruining someone’s day.  As the slates are the modern, thick, heavy concrete type it would have really made an impact had it fallen.

Heh.  Impact.

Jackson Roofing – in contrast with the pitiful Roofing Group UK, who should have repaired it under the terms of the twenty-year guarantee I was promised – quickly came round, ventured up a stupidly long ladder, and repaired the damage for a sum of money I wouldn’t even consider worth unpacking the ladder from the van.

Okay, so the money is in addition to that promised for the guttering work, but still – I certainly wouldn’t be clambering up a ladder to my crazy-high roof for such sums.

In short, if you’re looking for a roofing firm in or around Bradford, I can wholeheartedly and without reservation recommend Jackson Roofing.

Image provided by Wikimedia Commons user Nieuw.

In her e-mails, she states that it is “unfair“  that I haven’t posted to say that my roof has been repaired, and that it would be nice if I were to “rectify the situation by telling everyone that [my] problem has been sorted.”

Well, I’m not a vindictive man.  It’s true, that – eventually – someone from Roofing Group UK did come to patch the leak in my roof.  Well, I assume so, anyway: while the leak has gone, whoever repaired it visited during the day while no-one was here and left no sign of his attendance beyond not having closed the gates when he left.  No note through the door, no apology for the wait, no explanation of exactly why a brand-new roof had started leaking – nothing.  Nor was there any mention of recompense for the damage done to the room and its contents.

So, yes: Roofing Group UK did carry out the bare minimum required by law to put things right, and for that I give thanks.

Incidentally, Jayne would like it known that Roofing Group UK now trades under the name Roofing UK – despite having the same domain name as before, which still shows the same “monthly special offer” of a free Velux window with every re-roof that it showed back when I first found the site – and that the person who owned the company when my faulty roof was fitted, Barry Clay, is no longer in charge and has been replaced by the “original owner” Shaun Walsh.

The two e-mails sent by Jayne are provided here in full:

Hi Gareth Jayne here from Roofing Group UK WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE TO LET PEOPLE KNOW THAT I SORTED YOUR PROBLEM OUT AND THAT YOUR ROOF IS OK NOW AS THIS IS NOT HELPING THE SITUATION AS THIS IS UNFAIR I SORTED YOUR ROOF OUT AND SAID TO YOU PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS. sINCE IT HAS BEEN SORTED AND I HAVE NOT HEARD FROM YOU SINCE IT WOULD BE NICE FOR YOU TO RECTIFY THE SITUATION BY TELLING EVERYONE THAT YOUR PROBLEM HAD BEEN DEALT WITH AND YOU HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS SINCE AS YOU HAVE NOT BEEN INTOUCH. rOOFING GROUP UK IS NOW ROOFING UK AND A TOTALLY DIFFRENT COMPANY TO ROOFING GROUP AND IS NOW RUN BY THE ORIGIONAL OWNER. gARETH PLEASE DO THE RIGHT THING AND TELL THE WORLD WE DID SORT YOUR ROOF OUT. THANKYOU JAYNE ROOFING UK.

HI GARETH JAYNE HERE JUST ONE MORE POINT YOUR JOB WAS DONE UNDER A MR BARRY CLAY WHO WAS RUNNING ROOFING GROUP THE OWNER IS NOW SHAUN WALSH AND HE IS THE ONE THAT SORTED YOUR ROOF OUT SO PLEASE RECTIFY AND IF YOU EVER COME ACROSS MR BARRY CLAY HE IS THE ONE THAT DID YOUR ROOF NOT SHAUN OK

THANKYOU JAYNE

My nice shiny new door!

Still no progress on the roof, but I’m pleased to say that this Monday saw the friendly chaps from Leading Edge Joinery fitting my shiny new door.  A wonderful job they did too – they even transferred the old cat flap, and did such a good job cleaning it that I honestly thought they had replaced it with a new one!  Who knew the centre part was supposed to be transparent?

The chaps even tidied up after themselves – to the extent that I don’t think our front step has ever looked so clean.  It was almost a pleasure to hand the cheque over on completion of the job.  Almost.

It’s heartening to see that some workmen still take pride in customer service, unlike certain other companies – naming no names.

What a joke.

Last night there was some pretty heavy rain, and the affected side of the room is once again soaked.  Slightly more worrying were several grating noises – not dissimilar to the sound of slates shifting.

I’ve penned the following e-mail to admin@roofinggroupuk.com, but to be honest I’m not expecting an easy resolution on this one.

I reported a problem with my roof, fitted recently by yourselves, on the 18th of August.  It is now the 6th of September and still nobody has been to look at it.  The affected room is being ruined by large quantities of water dripping down from the ceiling.

I can’t help but contrast the experience of being a new customer – in which Barry visited to discuss my needs within a day of my enquiry being made – with that of being an existing customer claiming under guarantee.  I call multiple times a week, only to be told by that “Craig is on holiday until the end of September and nothing can be done until he gets back.”

I find waiting a whole month to get a fault which is causing damage to property, contents, and décor unacceptable – especially from a company which claims “customer service” as one of the chief reasons it should be selected.

I would like someone to contact me about this problem as soon as possible, or I will have no choice but to begin legal proceedings to recover the costs of a third-party repair to both the roof and the damaged room and its contents.

I’ll update if I get any reply – but I’m not exactly holding my breath here.

I explained, for the third time, that this is unacceptable, and have been assured that what seems to be the only other employee of the company will be calling me tomorrow morning on my mobile.  Well, we shall see.

I’ve pointed out that this is completely unacceptable, and have been promised resolution soonest. We’ll see what happens, but for now if anyone’s looking for a roofing company I can only say avoid Roofing Group UK.

I got up this morning bright and early, eager to trundle off to work. Shower, dress, breakfast – all is going according to plan. I don my coat and shoes and set off out the door.

Wait – rewind. I try to set off out the door, but the door has other ideas. The multi-point lock has failed in the ‘lock’ position, and I’m trapped. Being, as it is, a back-to-back terrace, I’m really trapped – the front door is also my only door.

First things first – a quick e-mail to work to let them know I shan’t be in. I’m sure it went down well, being off for unscheduled absence in my first month of work, but these things can’t be helped. Next step was to contact someone who might be able to do something. They attended a scant half-hour later, and spent the majority of the morning trying to effect entry.

Eventually we get the door open, albeit in pieces – as the image above attests. The next step is to declare the door right royally buggered, and ‘fix’ it in such a way that it will sort of work for the time being. The door frame, y’see, is a strange and non-standard size – which means it’s rather more complicated than a trip to Wickes to solve the problem. It’s a custom-build job – and it’ll take around a week to get.

Wonderful.

The good news is that I can leave my house once again – so I’ll be at work bright and early tomorrow morning. The not so good news is that I’ll have to be at work – to pay the expected bill of around £700 for supply and fitting of a new PVCu door.

Ouch.

The problem, as far as I can ascertain in the dark, is caused by a fault in the construction of the new roof – a U-shaped channel in the flashing where the dormer wall meets the roof, which isn’t covered by the ‘lip’ of the dormer. The water will collect here and enter the roof space.

Now I’ll need to get in touch with the company who fitted said roof – Roofing Group UK – and attempt to ‘encourage’ them to fix it ASAP under the terms of their guarantee. The difficult part will be convincing them it’s a problem in their workmanship – made harder by the fact that the very nice salesman who attended when we requested the new roof no longer works for the company.

All in all, not what I need when I’ve had a rather tiring second week at work.