Episode 16

Slate is a popular material for household products from coasters to house signs – but one Welsh slate company seems to have unhappy customers from across the UK.

One such customer is Gavin Rush from West Sussex who makes bespoke dog kennels and regularly uses slate in his designs.

He had an order for a luxury kennel and the finishing touch was a slate sign.

In April last year, Gavin contacted a South Wales firm called Quality Slate. The business, run by Gareth Jones, promises “beautiful and robust” slate signs, delivered “between 7 and 10 working days”.

But after several weeks of waiting, Gavin says he struggled to get any answer from Quality Slate either by phone or email. When he finally did get through, he said the company blamed the courier for losing the sign. Gavin says he was then promised it would be replaced and delivered in 10 days – but it didn’t arrive for another two months.

Another disgruntled customer is Mark Talbot-Phillips. He ordered a house sign from Quality Slate in November as a Christmas present for his parents, with delivery again promised within 7-10 days.

But with Christmas looming, Mark began to worry and tried phoning and emailing the company to find out where the sign was.

The sign finally arrived in February, but Mark was disappointed with the final product.

He said: “For £80 it wasn’t as good as what I think it could’ve been and customer service was definitely not as good as what it should be.”

X-Ray took a look at reviews left online and found the company has dissatisfied customers from all over the UK.

One customer from Stratford-Upon-Avon said her sign was mottled green, while Michael Spender from Poole was also unhappy when his sign took a month to arrive. By then he’d given up, and ordered and received a sign from another company.

Marjorie Goss and her local village Hall were let down when their sign failed to show up at all. 

She said: “As a charity we had to raise funds to refurbish our village hall. As it had been left to us by a lady in the village, we wanted to commemorate her gift with a plaque which we ordered from Quality Slate.

“We paid £180 and despite several telephone calls, emails, threats, we were always told it was on its way but it never ever arrived and we never got our money back.”

In total X-Ray spoke to 11 dissatisfied customers.

The programme contacted Gareth Jones from Quality Slate. He didn’t explain what had happened to Marjorie Goss’ sign, but said the other customers had received their signs in what he called a "timely manner." He did admit, though, that from time to time signs do get lost or broken in transit, but said his business prides itself on the quality of their slate and have thousands of happy customers. 

Putting a new roof over your head can be one of the most expensive repairs homeowners face. But get the wrong builder – and it can be even more costly.

In April 2017, mother-of-two Sharon Ahmadi, from Swansea, needed a new roof. After searching online she came across RG Roofing Contractors from Bridgend. The firm had rave reviews and was run by Robert Gooch.

He agreed to re-felt and re-tile her house, and replace her dormer flat roofs for just under ten thousand pounds.Robert Gooch asked for almost £7,000 upfront, but Sharon says she felt reassured by his eagerness to start work.

 She said: “He got all the materials here and everything and I was like oh. Oh that's quick. I thought, Ooh I'll have a new roof by the end of the week”.

But Sharon says after two weeks of work stripping back the old roof and fitting some of the plastics, Robert Gooch and his workmen stopped work, leaving the job unfinished for seven months.

After months of chasing him, his workmen finally returned to work in November, but only very briefly. Sharon says she’s been left with a leaking roof, and her home is now full of damp and mold. Her biggest concern is the impact the conditions are having on her children, particularly her autistic son.

Sharon said: “All the cold air has been coming in. Obviously because he's got autism and additional needs he doesn't like change and his behavior has been quite difficult because he hasn't had his routine”.

Cleona Jones is another dis-satisfied Robert Gooch customer. In 2015 he replaced her back dormer fibre glass roof. Barely a year later, water started coming in and the ceiling came down.

Robert Gooch came out five times to try to sort the problems out. But with the water still coming in, Cleona’s husband Kevin climbed onto the main part of the roof to investigate. Several years earlier they’d paid him to re-felt the roof and to his horror Kevin found holes in the felt.

Cleona said: “There were twelve holes. He did come out straight away and fix those holes.”

But the roof was still leaking, and Robert Gooch finally agreed to replace all the felt.

Cleona said: “They replaced it. They left all the rubbish and we haven’t heard from him since.”

There was still water coming in, though, so Cleona paid another builder seven hundred pounds to replace the fibre glass roof and that finally seemed to fix the leak.

X-Ray contacted Robert Gooch, of RG Roofing Contractors. He denied causing the collapse of Cleona's ceiling or the leaks, and says he offered to replace her fibre glass roof free of charge. As for Sharon's unfinished roof, he said that wasn’t his fault, either, and nor was the damp. He blamed the problems on others who had previously worked on the roof. He said his work was delayed as he was waiting for payment from Sharon - something she disputes. He has now promised to start work on the roof as soon as the weather permits.