by When a man walked up Isabel Webster’s drive and proposed to her, she was as polite as could be.
The 73-year-old was getting groceries at the time. She is housebound due to chronic ME, which makes going to the supermarket almost impossible.
As the delivery driver helped unload her goods, a stranger made his way up the drive home to Wigan. He was a door-to-door salesman by the looks of it.
The drive in front of her Winstanley property needed attention. Isabel wasn’t interested, but the seller wouldn’t risk it.
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Despite politely declining her offer, Isabel says the tradesmen were persistent and asked if her boss could call her for a quote.
“He looked at the driveway and said it needed to be done,” Isabel told the Manchester Evening News. “I probably did, but it was the last thing on my agenda. He asked if his manager could come and give me a quote and again I said no. He asked me to turn on my phone so the boss could call me.
“I said I wasn’t well, my phone was off and I wasn’t feeling up to it today. He asked me to put my phone on for five minutes. Just get him going, I did.”
Isabel says the worker’s boss called and she agreed he could visit the premises to give her a quote. Arriving at the house the next day, the “very pleasant” and “very helpful” man convinced the grandmothers to do a “split job” on the new driveway and drew up a plan.
In the end Isabel agreed to a quote and the man returned to start the project two weeks later. But alarm bells started ringing when the retired teacher noticed that work was being carried out very slowly – despite initially being told it would take four days to complete the drive.
“For the first few days, he hardly did anything,” Isabel told the FIRs. “He always had to go and get materials. It was the fact that they were doing so little every day. The mess accumulated over several weeks. I had to apologize to the neighbors that it was so bad.
Heavy concrete slabs and other debris left on the drive prevented Isabel from getting out on her mobility scooter for two weeks.
She also noticed that many of the workmen’s tools were broken – she even had to borrow axle grinders from a neighbor – leading her to worry that she had become a victim.
“I told them I was worried about the way things were going and they just brushed me off,” she said. When the work was finally done, Isabel says she looked out the window and the drive looked good.
The workers insisted on being paid £7,000 in cash despite telling the grandmother she could pay by bank transfer. But when Isabel went outside and looked more closely, she was horrified by what she saw.
“[When they finished]I went out and looked and I was horrified at what they had done,” she said. “The drive itself was terrible, but they also went over a manhole cover. I told them not to do that because it’s the only one on the road.”
Isabel, who had a double mastectomy for breast cancer last year, called the worker and asked if he could come back to fix the mess they had made.
“They left all the rubbish in the garden and out in the front,” she said. “He said he would come back in two days and see what needed to be done.
“[When he arrived]he crashed through the door and out the back. He was already in an aggressive mood. He said he had done a good job and that I was nit-picking.
“I didn’t think I was at all. All my neighbors had commented on how badly the job was done. He said he was sick of me going on.
“He said it was all in my head and all I wanted was perfection. As he was going down the drive, I said, ‘What about the manhole cover,’ and he missed it. It made me very angry.”
Isabel says she was so upset by the situation that she stood on the doorstep crying. “I couldn’t believe how vulnerable I felt in that moment,” she said. “I knew there was nothing I could do about it.”
Feeling completely hopeless, Isabel contacted the Citizens’ Council and was told that she had a case but that a solution could be long and drawn out. They advised her to go to three reputable tradesmen for quotes on repairing her drive.
“I was sick from all the effort,” Isabel said. “I didn’t have the energy. My son and I continued for a month. They told us we need to get quotes and fix them to an acceptable level.”
Isabel said two workmen visited her home and were “disgusted” by the state of the driving, adding that it was the worst job they had ever seen. Isabel was told the damage was too extensive to repair and she would need a whole new driveway.
Unable to get another £7,000, Isabel thought all hope was lost until she was visited by Calum Griffin, the third and final trader, owner of CG Paving.
“He was very upset,” said Isabel. “He kept walking around with his head in his hands.”
Malcolm offered Isabel a “reasonable” quote before leaving the property. But later that night, Grandma was surprised when he called her out of the blue. In an incredible turn of events, the kind trader offered to fix the bad job and make the campaign free again.
“Calum said he was thinking about it and it really bothered him,” said Isabel. “He said the tradesman did such a bad job that he was giving all traders a bad rep. He wanted to do it, but he wanted to do it for free.
Isabel said the two went back and forth before she finally agreed to the kind offer. “I told him he couldn’t because it was too much,” she said. “Finally I said yes, but I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t really talk. It wasn’t going in.”
Calum sought help from local businesses and four suppliers came together to offer materials for free. The worker and his “beautiful” team finished the job – restoring Isabel’s faith in humanity.
“He came when he said he would and his team was beautiful,” said Isabel. “He informed me the whole way. He did everything he said he was going to do.
“I couldn’t ask for anything better. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The situation bothered me for the first part of the year.”
Isabel claims that the company that did the shoddy work went into liquidation after the work was done, meaning she couldn’t get any of her money back. Hero trader Calum, 42, from Wigan, told the Manchester Evening News it was “heartbreaking” to see the way Isabel was treated.
“When I went to visit Isabel to give her a quote to correct the work, which was so bad, I could clearly see that no attempt had been made to follow the correct procedures,” said Calum .
“It looked terrible. Even a Tesco delivery man tripped over his delivery. It is heartbreaking to see that another company has seen this as an opportunity to take advantage of a vulnerable old lady. These artisans, as they are called, give the industry a bad name.
“We asked regular suppliers if they would donate their time and materials for a good cause, and without hesitation, they all agreed.
“By doing that, we hope it will restore faith in the industry. Working on your property is very stressful so we try to make it as easy as possible for the customer – it’s not a living nightmare because which the previous company and many companies had.” more rogue companies out there.
“Hopefully it will bring some awareness to what the cowboys are willing to do.”
